invention/adoption of the (computer) mouse: good or bad?
 

Poll will be attached. Poll assumes that if mouse was not invented/adopted, we would still have things like computer joysticks and gaming controllers. Assumes that if we didn't have the mouse, we wouldn't be using track-pads either.

Although I am mainly a CLI person and do not rely much on the mouse, I think it's always good to have one available.

I have a mouse and a joystick and a gamepad.
Seriously, I think the invention of the mouse (and also the GUI) was a good and necessary thing to bring computers to the masses.
Nowadays I try to avoid using the mouse for most purposes (some applications simply won't work without mouse, like GIMP or Blender), since it is simply inefficient to always move the hand from keyboard to mouse and back, but in general I think it is a good thing.
Therefore I voted for mixed feelings.

Good. Don't you play first person shooters?

Perhaps to clarify the question: Do you think computing and computer users would be better now if the mouse had not be invented/adopted, and technology, interfaces, and education had continued to evolve without it?

Obviously, if you just threw your mouse in the trash today, and tried to use the same software and interfaces, you'd have a pretty rough time. (Unless you are one of those hardcore types who never uses a mouse anyway.)

Best tool for the job ...

When I'm doing sysadmin, I only have the CLI, but then servers don't have a GUI (usually for serious ones), so it's fine.

OTOH, for a Desktop with GUI, mouse seems like a good idea to me.

I think it was good thing -- but I much prefer touchpads (I use a keyboard wtih built-in touchpad with my PC) and quite like the little joysticks also. On my PC I also have a Space Navigator which is great for Google Earth and other 3D stuff though it lacks the drivers to be truly useful.
I think the mouse was invented because something other than a keyboard is necessary and touch screens have the problems that we'll start to see again in the next few years as Windows 8, Unity and the like start being used with them (gorilla arms, covering the thing you're trying to touch, big movements needed on large displays and others I can't think of at the moment). I mention touch screens because I think the light-pen was an early contender for the spot of second input device and as I understand it touch screens have been around in various states of existence for at least as long as the mouse.

and who ya callin' "mouse"? ;)
I haz a pointing device.

Since you include track-pads, I'm assuming you also wanted to include trackballs with mice. I'm not a huge fan of the actual mouse because they make it too easy to run out of space when doing something intricate in Neochrome/GIMP/whatever, but I voted yes because (a) I really like trackballs, and pads for that matter; and (b) even the upside-down trackball allows things that would be nigh-on impossible with a joystick.

Good point! It's the pointing device and pointer that makes it important to me, rather than touching on a spot on the screen somehow. I hated my first touch-screen phone at first because there was no pointer and I still prefer to have one on a phone if at all possible.

Very useful little gadget, some of the time.

I voted using...................a mouse! Therefore, I think that it is a good invention. However, I also like the CLI allot.

It's obviously great in something like GIMP, but I find it irritating that it's so difficult to use a word processor with just the keyboard: 5+ key-strokes to change the font of a highlighted word!

In my opinion, mouse was a genius invention. Oh well, I played a lot of first person shooting games in my teenage and I can't seem to think of them without holding a mouse or a pointing device, whatever.

Regards.

yes, mouse is great, especially for [shooter] games. Probably someone will invent such a simple tool for programmers and system admins also.

An odd question. I voted yes. However the optical mouse was a better invention than the ball mouse.