Others say...

"Could be a good alternative..."
I've been a huge fan of Razer's gaming mice for a while now (they are far more sensitive than any other mouse that I've tried and fit my hand perfectly.) but while Razer's laser technology is second to none, their hardware tends to not hold up as well to constant wear and tear. I've owned two Diamondbacks and a Copperhead, and all three developed hardware issues in a relatively short period of time (with a year of purchase)
When I read that Microsoft and Razer had a joint venture in the Habu, I figured it'd be worth a try. So far it appears to be a solid combination.

The mouse is slightly larger than either the Diamondback or Copperhead. The buttons so far feel sturdier than Razer's typical mice. The cable appears to be sturdier as well. The sensitivity is easily on par with the Diamondback. I'd say it's marginally less sensitive than the Copperhead, but unless you're a hardcore FPS gamer, I'd say the difference is minimal. Rather than having two buttons on either side of the mouse, the thumb-side has two buttons, with the two additional buttons being placed in an indent directly behind the scroll wheel. The thumbside buttons come on a removable plate and can be replaced with larger buttons (this second plate is included, as are extra rubber feet for the bottom of the mouse)

I downloaded the latest software and firmware directly from Razer's website, and had absolutely no problems with installation or use on Windows XP. Only time will tell if the mouse holds up to wear and tear, but I have high hopes.

"Can't live without it!"
After using this mouse, I don't know how I ever gamed with my old, 2-button Kensington. Having the swappable side buttons is a huge plus and makes the mouse very comfortable for me. The buttons are very clicky, which I like. My favorite mouse was always the Intellimouse, and this is basically an Intellimouse on steroids.

"Top of the line mouse! (detailed description and update guide)"
I rarely comment on any products, but given the poor rating that this product has had because of poor driver & firmware execution upon its initial release, I decided to add a review.

I'll start out by saying that I am a civil engineer, and I do a great deal of drafting and design at work. I am extremely picky about the mouse I use for drafting purposes, and recently (after a monitor upgrade) I went looking for a new mouse, due to the fact that at the high monitor resolution, I couldn't adjust my old optical mouse's pointer speed up fast enough to be useful for drafting.

I went to a local electronics store, and picked up a wireless mouse & keyboard package from Microsoft, thinking that it would be a great thing to be wireless - what a mistake I made! I saw now that nearly every mouse manufacturer out there (I assume to keep up with their competitors) has a new side-scrolling/panning mouse wheel (that I can only assume is useless to 99.9% of the users out there) - I didn't think much of it when I purchased the package, but upon using the mouse, I realized that they made the downward click pressure of the mouse wheel much greater, to prevent accidental clicks when you use the side-scrolling feature, and it made the pan feature in AutoCAD difficult to use, and very hit and miss, as often the wheel would click into the side-pan mode instead of a down-click (useless in AutoCAD). This is absolutely horrible for AutoCAD, due to the fact that the downward center mouse click enables panning. There was also a terrible lag between clicking the pan function, and it actually enabling pan in AutoCAD - I'm sure due to the fact that they try to maximize battery life in wireless mice, so the response isn't instant as with wired mice. After 2 days of use, I promptly returned the setup.

I started looking (and looking, and looking!) for a wired mouse to buy, but had a difficult time finding any good-quality wired mice without the side-scroll/pan feature. Finally, searching on an online retailer's website, I finally stumbled on Razer products, as well as the Microsoft Habu mouse (made by Razer). I passed it by previously in the store, because the packaging looked so ridiculous, and it was marketed as a gaming mouse. I figured it would be overloaded with buttons and side-scroll/pan features, being a gaming mouse. I was very wrong - I looked at the features, and noticed Razer products are absolutely no-nonsense mice - apparently they realized that 10 extra customizable buttons and side-scrolling/panning on mice are not only useless, but difficult to use and undesirable. I went to the store, clicked the display model a bit, and realized that I finally found exactly what I wanted.

I read extensively about the driver/firmware problems, and I tracked down a no-fail guide to updating the firmware and software on the Habu mouse before even attempting to connect it. I downloaded the latest software from the Razer website, and installed it without any problem using the no-fail guide (see below). I started using it, and all I can say is "Wow!" All of the functionality of my old mouse, excellent wheel click pressure, instant response, excellent tracking, fully customizable sensitivity in both x and y-directions, fully customizable buttons, and sensitivity settings so high that you can make the mouse useless! (For those of you who have no idea what they mean when they talk about mouse resolution (I previously didn't understand it either, before purchasing the product) is that basically you can set this mouse to 1 of 3 different resolution settings, which sets the overall sensitivity of the mouse. You can, however, still adjust the sensitivity of the mouse at any of these 3 resolution settings, to make the mouse less sensitive, if you find the speed too fast.) The "polling rate" also has three setting, which, as far as I can tell from mouse use and reading about polling rate on the internet, adjusts the number of readings the mouse submits to the computer about position, to make the mouse pointer more accurate and smooth. (To tell you the truth, I don't see much of a perceptible change when adjusting the polling rate from the smallest setting to the highest.)

The only negative on this mouse is that there are internal lights with this mouse, which I found not only tacky but distracting. You can turn them off with the Razer configurator, but the lights always turn back on after a cold start, a reboot, or return from standby. You have to reset the lights in the configurator (even though the configurator reports the lights as set to "off") every time. This was obviously a firmware or software problem, and no worries - I contacted Microsoft tech support, and they are aware of the issue. Their development team is going to fix this problem in the next driver/firmware release.

I find it horrible that the truly excellent hardware was plagued by initial software/firmware problems, doing a great deal of damage to user opinion's of the product. I wish Microsoft had more thoroughly tested the software before releasing the product, but I suppose there is always pressure to deliver products to store shelves before they have undergone thorough testing. Rest assured, after applying the latest driver and firmware update, you will have an excellent mouse in your hand!

Here is a summary of the online instructions for updating the software (note: this guide assumes you already have the Habu mouse installed on your system with an old version of the software - adjust the guide accordingly if you just purchased the mouse and are doing a fresh install of the latest software from the Razer website).

Installation Instructions:
- make sure the Habu mouse is plugged in
- uninstall all Habu software (which is just the driver pack), and reboot your computer
- install the latest drivers from update package downloaded from Razer's website, from a clean slate
- (if you get this message) say "YES" to the windows warning about non-WHQL drivers
- VERY IMPORTANT! - say "NO" to the "reboot now" option, and navigate to the firmware folder (which is part of the driver package), and install the new firmware
- after the installation program reports that the firmware was successfully installed, unplug and re-plug the Habu
- reboot your computer

NOTE: It's very important NOT to reboot before attempting the firmware update because the operating system and the drivers see the mouse ONLY after the driver installation. After a reboot with the old firmware, the mouse was never detectable by the drivers again. It seems that the Habu drivers will only detect a mouse after a reboot with (at least) version 2.01 firmware installed.


"Tough installation, great mouse"
I read the existing reviews and purchased this device anyway, hoping that the software/driver issues had been resolved. Be warned - they are not. I luckily found a well-written procedure to follow; I never would have figured it out myself. Subsequently, the mouse works fine. It has great response, good weight, and decent feel. The level of customization is superior. I recommend this mouse, just be prepared on the install, and take your time.

"Very cool"
I really like it so far, it came with an extra side button so that you could swap them out to fit your hand best.
Only complaint is that its front two buttons are a little loud to click.
As for comments about it's software being bad, The software I got with mine works fine. No complaints here.