n3wblog tech commentary and observations from the future

Logitech Control Center

In Computing on 26 November 2007 tagged Apple, Computing, drivers, logitech, mouse, osx, Software with 3 comments

In the past, I have talked no small amount of shit about Logitech‘s driver situation on the Mac. I don’t think it was unreasonable though, and I didn’t feel the least bit bad about dumping my Logitech MX Revolution for an Apple Mighty Mouse. I did, however, miss all the buttons.

A word about writing software: it has to work. This is important. Also important, it has to do so without crashing. This is especially true of software that is written as an interface layer for hardware, or “driver software”. When this low-level, system software blows up, it can seriously ruin your day. Don’t think, “oh, it’s just a control panel, it doesn’t matter if it crashes”. It does. It’s where the user interacts with this shiny new piece of hardware and if it sucks, well, all the shiny packaging won’t cover that up. They will feel ripped off. And if you’re going to put a platform sticker on that packaging, like, “Mac OS X” or “Ubuntu!”, please make sure that the included software is not just something cobbled together with a collection of system hacks by a couple of interns. Software is hard, serious business. It is not to be undertaken lightly. End digression…

It is with the utmost humility and sheepishness that I say that the Control Center software no longer sucks as hard as it once did. In fact, it seems to do exactly what it’s supposed to do, and that is make my mouse work and not crash while doing it. Kudos to you Logitech! It works in Leopard and has support for the thumb-wheel (which I’ve mapped to Exposé and Spaces). It even has a slider for setting the mouse tracking multiplier. (hint: leave it at 1x)

I will even go as far as installing the driver software on my “new” media machine later today and trying it out with the S530 Wireless Keyboard and Mouse.

Download it here, I think:

Logitech Control Center for Macintosh OS X

PS, say what you will about their driver software, Logitech’s website is still a festering pit of anal leakage. The text in the dropdown says lcc231.zip even though the descriptive text on the page is version 2.4. Download it anyway, it’ll grab 2.4 for you…

PPS, Logitech, I still love you. Please make a nice mouse with lots of buttons (like the MX Revolution) and make it Bluetooth. Some of us really like that! Thanks.

PPPS, if you’re still looking for an OS X alternative to Logitech’s drivers, try USB Overdrive. Lots of people rave about it, though it’s not free.

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