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Note, by the way, that in both Windows and Linux you can configure the mouse to be "left handed", that is, you can switch the meaning of the buttons, so that you still select with the index finger. (You decide whether that's less confusing, or more...)
I am right handed but changed to mouse with my left.
I am not naturally ambidextrous in the slightest e.g. my left hand cannot be used for writing legibly with pen and paper, and can't really throw a ball very far left handed.
I swapped mouse hands from right to left because of a temporary carpal strain injury.
I was surprised how useful it was having my right hand available for note-taking, etc, that I kept mouse on the left ever since and 20 years later, still going.
Funnily enough I am still excellent mousing with my right hand but never do it by choice nowadays...
I taught myself to use a mouse lefthanded by only playing my favorite game lefthanded. (I won't date myself by telling you what game that was). Within a few weeks it was totally normal for me.
The only downsides are - almost all the new cool mouses / trackballs are right hand designs. And using somebody elses mouse/computer always takes a little effort. It can be very annoying.
I also try using chopsticks left-handed occasionally which wasn't as hard to do as I thought it might be. When playing videogames, I still mouse with my right hand although my left hand is doing all the actions other than point/click--my right hand still has more accuracy. I have no idea how long it would take to develop that and haven't been trying. [Instead I use a custom keyboard layout making myself incompatible with standards.]
Being able to use a computer differently is important, but now I think that most people could fall back to using the touch pad left-handed without much practice.
Edit: I do remember a couple years back I had shooting pains up the back of my right hand for a number of days. I pretty much totally stopped typing/mousing. At work I paired as 'navigator' rather than 'driving'. I eased back into it, first using my left-hand for mousing. When everything seemed normal again, I eventually switched back to my right without much thought.
I switch to left-handed occasionally, when something's wrong with my right hand. Broken finger on right hand? Badly bruised right wrist? Arthritis pain in fingers in right hand? Switch to left for a week or a month. Note, by the way, that in both Windows and Linux you can configure the mouse to be "left handed", that is, you can switch the meaning of the buttons, so that you still select with the index finger. (You d…
- if it's someone else's machine, it's rude to change the settings
- if it's a public machine, it may also be impossible to change the settings.
- regardless, it's easier to just move it than to mess with the settings as well.
I use two mice: one on each side of the keyboard. Then I can switch hands at will.
A theremin emulator would make sense, curious about 'standard' applications.