The OpenOffice Mouse, The Trabant of Desktop Peripherals

Introducing the OpenOffice Mouse, a new (we kid you not, see the picture) 18 button mouse that is going on sale with the backing on the OpenOffice people.

According to the media release, with “a revolutionary and patented design featuring 18 buttons, an analog joystick, and support for as many as 52 key commands, the OpenOfficeMouse is intended to provide a faster and more efficient user interface for OpenOffice.org applications such as Writer and Calc than the conventional icons, pull-down menus, and hotkeys presently permit.”

John McCreesh, Marketing Project Lead at OpenOffice.org, says that “the OpenOffice Mouse is a really cool addition to the desk of any keen OpenOffice.org user. The Mouse team have worked closely with experts from the OpenOffice.org User Experience project to deliver the full benefits of the world’s leading open-source office software to the fingertips of users.”

If you’ve ever wanted to understand the difference between free market capitalism and the economics of committee, you need to look no further again that the OpenOffice mouse. It’s the Trabant of desktop peripherals, supposedly practical but 20 years out of date with some bling to tart it up a bit.

Oh, and I can’t stop laughing: they’re seriously asking $75 for it.