this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2026
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I can't remember ever having an issue with the middle button also being the wheel.
Some mouses have scroll wheels that click too easily. So when you scroll, you paste. In my collection of mouses the Logitech ones are fine, gaming mouses are the worst, and the one Microsoft mouse has no way to do a middle click
I can’t remember the last time I’ve ever wanted to click the middle mouse button. The experience of having done so once or twice was bad enough to get me to rebind the action to something else.
Middle mouse button opens links in a new tab is most browsers. I use it constantly.
It's used in lots of games.
In autocad middle mouse is used to pan around the screen, I use it constantly there as well.
Ahhh. I use command-click to open in new tabs.
I haven’t played a game that uses the mouse in several years. I mostly play Roguelikes such as NetHack, DCSS, or Caves of Qud using keyboard controls only, or console games with a controller.
I have never used a CAD program though sometimes I’ve thought about it.
It's so interesting how different people's approaches are to doing just about everything. Keeps things interesting, I guess. I still don't get the wheel/middle-button issue. Unless it's my using cheap as hell mouses that aren't super sensitive. I'm not even talking about using the middle wheel the correct way (😇) but even remapped to something else, I've never had that issue.
Nowadays I use a trackpad for almost everything. I do use a mouse at work but then I mostly use keyboard shortcuts for everything I can (Excel really flies when you know some keyboard shortcuts).