Do you still use a mouse and keyboard?

By moeburn
in Poll Station

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Mouse and Keyboard - Fading away, or here forever?  

178 members have voted

  1. 1. For personal, non-office computing, do you use a mouse&keyboard, or touchscreen?

    • Almost always a mouse and keyboard
      157
    • I use both roughly equally
      20
    • Almost always a touchscreen
      1

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Grand Master

LUTZIFER

Posted
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I didn't vote, since touchpad wasn't mentioned. I haven't used a mouse in many many years.

If I'm not actally on a laptop, it's sitting by my TV and I use a wireless keyboard and wireless touchpad.

I wouldn't want a touchscreen laptop or monitor, but touchscreen is a must for a smartphone or small device.

The touchpad on my Ultrabook does all the gestures that can be done on a touchscreen.

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Grand Master

LittleNeutrino Veteran

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i use a bluetooth wireless mouse and the onboard keyboard of my laptop at home, and at work i have a wireless keyboard and mouse that i use daily. When i still had a desktop i used a wired keyboard and a wired mouse.

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Grand Master

Mobius Enigma

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What if people use the full compliment of Windows inputs technologies?

 

Voice, Stylus, Touch, device sensors, PixelSense/IR Camera), Camera, Joysticks, Mouse, Keyboard, Neural-implant, etc.

 

The future is not limited to any of these technologies, and never has been limited to any of these technologies for quite some time.

 

Back the early days of Windows 3.x/NT, I used voice commands on a MS Sound System and a Graphics Tablet with a wired stylus. I hardly ever used my mouse or keyboard.  This wasn't normal, and most people never even realized Windows could be controlled like this, especially back then.

 

The argument is NOT about MOVING to touch screens, it is getting the most out of them and other input devices until never technologies do replace them.

 

 

Since we are seeing big name companies like Windows fading away from the traditional mouse&keyboard environment, and shifting towards a more touchscreen-oriented user interface, I find myself wondering; are touchscreens really as dominant as people think they are?

 

So for this poll, think about how you use your computer/tablet/phone in your own free time.  I don't want office/work use skewing the results, since most offices still use mouse and keyboard systems.  Think about checking facebook, playing games, shopping online, checking the weather, your email, reading this very Neowin thread, everything that you can do on either a traditional mouse-and-keyboard OR a touchscreen, consider it in this poll.

 

For me personally, I spend almost all of my time on a mouse-and-keyboard, despite the fact that my house is full of Android devices.  Sure if I'm on the bus, or on the go, I'll use my smartphone to check my email, but I would really rather be using a mouse.

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Grand Master

Noir Angel

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Almost always keyboard and mouse, touchscreens have a place on tablets and phones will never use one on a desktop however.

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Grand Master

Mobius Enigma

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I have to disagree, even if I just go with the argument that the onscreen keyboard is NOT the only alternative. 

 

People keep forgetting that Windows has full speech recognition. 

 

And if we go back to the onscreen keyboard alternative argument, the predictive nature and how it learns what you type can take let you type at over 100wpm, for users that can't even type that fast on a keyboard. (I have seen WP8 users also push over 100wpm on the onscreen keyboard.)

 

As for games, the onscreen keyboard works just fine if properly configured, use settings like FullScreen Windowed or Windowed and turn off the click sounds.

 

 

On a traditional PC, you can't really get away without a physical keypad.  You'd be insane to always do typing on the on-screen keyboard.  You could, I guess, go without a mouse.  But if you're doing that, you're severely hurting your efficiency.  The only downside to a keyboard and mouse is it taking up space, but honestly who cares?

 

Using a PC without a keyboard and mouse would be a complete nightmare.

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Grand Master

Growled Member

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..... touchscreens have a place on tablets and phones will never use one on a desktop however.

 

I feel the same. I can't ever see myself using a touchscreen desktop. 

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Grand Master

Astra.Xtreme

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I have to disagree, even if I just go with the argument that the onscreen keyboard is NOT the only alternative. 

 

People keep forgetting that Windows has full speech recognition. 

 

And if we go back to the onscreen keyboard alternative argument, the predictive nature and how it learns what you type can take let you type at over 100wpm, for users that can't even type that fast on a keyboard. (I have seen WP8 users also push over 100wpm on the onscreen keyboard.)

 

As for games, the onscreen keyboard works just fine if properly configured, use settings like FullScreen Windowed or Windowed and turn off the click sounds.

Speech recognition is far from perfect, and is very limited in functionality.

 

Sure some people are great with the onscreen keyboard, but on a desktop PC or laptop, you'd be insane to exclusively use the touch screen.  Your arms would hate you, and your productivity would suffer.  The precision of a mouse and the shortcuts and hotkeys on a keyboard give it a massive advantage over a touchscreen.  Those are pure facts.

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Grand Master

+InsaneNutter MVC

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Yes and i have no desire to use a touch screen on my PC / Laptop, it takes more effort to lean over and touch a screen than it does to move a mouse / keyboard.

I cant ever see a touch screen been more useful than a mouse / keyboard on a PC.

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Grand Master

tsupersonic

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Desktop - Mouse/Keyboard

Surface Pro 2 - Touchscreen/Type Cover 2 (soon). Touchscreen in Windows 8 is only good for Metro apps. Otherwise it blows because other apps don't support it well.

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Grand Master

+Frank B. Subscriber²

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Keyboard and trackpad at home, keyboard and mouse at work.

 

My touch screen use is limited to smartphone and tablet.

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Rising Star

RichardK

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I disagree.  I haven't played a game on my PC with a mouse and keyboard in 2 years, the same time that I made my DIY receiver for my wireless xbox 360 controller.  Sure point-and-click games work better with a mouse, but they work EVEN better with a touchscreen.  A mouse gives you better precision and accuracy in first person shooters, but its nowhere near as fun as a gamepad.  And racing/flying sims are just downright silly on a keyboard; the only way to steer is to adjust the rate at which you frantically press the arrow keys.

 

And I don't know about iOS, but most Androids these days support a USB mouse and keyboard.  For my Galaxy S3, I just plugged in the OTG adapter and plugged in the wireless receiver, and then suddenly a mouse pointer showed up, and I could use my phone like a desktop OS, no root or config editing necessary.

 

You didn't ask if people were using gaming controllers, you asked if they were using a keyboard/mouse.  A gaming controller is basically just emulating the functions of a keyboard/mouse, so why even bring it up?

 

You asked if people were using a keyboard/mouse or touchscreen.  For most games on a desktop PC, a touchscreen would not be a good way to play.

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Grand Master

Buttus

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keyboard and mouse obviously for work and any desktop PC.   touchscreen for my phone, altho i did mess with the USB OTG hooking up a mouse and keyboard to it, was pretty cool when using teamviewer and a few things.

 

i don't sit close enough to my monitor for my desktop computer for touchscreen.

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Grand Master

tsupersonic

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Yeah because it's impossible to use a mouse and keyboard with Windows 8 :s

Windows 8 with a touchscreen = awesome. Windows 8 w/o touchscreen + new "Start" = totally sucks. This is why on my desktop I have Startisback installed, but on the Surface Pro I'm content with the metro start screen

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moeburn

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I didn't vote, since touchpad wasn't mentioned. I haven't used a mouse in many many years.

If I'm not actally on a laptop, it's sitting by my TV and I use a wireless keyboard and wireless touchpad.

I wouldn't want a touchscreen laptop or monitor, but touchscreen is a must for a smartphone or small device.

The touchpad on my Ultrabook does all the gestures that can be done on a touchscreen.

 

I assumed most people would count a laptop touchpad as a mouse, since it interacts with a mouse cursor on screen.

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Grand Master

Nashy

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Yeah because it's impossible to use a mouse and keyboard with Windows 8 :s

 

Don't be silly.  It's not impossible, I just don't like it.

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Darrian

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I disagree.  I haven't played a game on my PC with a mouse and keyboard in 2 years, the same time that I made my DIY receiver for my wireless xbox 360 controller.  Sure point-and-click games work better with a mouse, but they work EVEN better with a touchscreen.  A mouse gives you better precision and accuracy in first person shooters, but its nowhere near as fun as a gamepad.  And racing/flying sims are just downright silly on a keyboard; the only way to steer is to adjust the rate at which you frantically press the arrow keys.

 

And I don't know about iOS, but most Androids these days support a USB mouse and keyboard.  For my Galaxy S3, I just plugged in the OTG adapter and plugged in the wireless receiver, and then suddenly a mouse pointer showed up, and I could use my phone like a desktop OS, no root or config editing necessary.

I'm just curious: why would you make a receiver for the 360 controller when you can just buy one?  Also, how would you go about doing that?

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