Mouse on a Mac

Being a Gamer, and since I use a desktop, I've never really looked at Macbooks when out "shopping" (get in, buy it, get out). But, I was literally shocked to see that they actually had only one button on the touchpad!
Anyway, without getting into why they do that on a computer that they've designed to be able to run Windows - I talked to my son, who just bought a MacBook Pro and he did say that there were many ways to 'simulate' a right click.

This got me to thinking though - and the question for you Mac users is - if you plug a multi-button external mouse, such as an MX518, into an iMac or MacBook:

Do you get direct access to the right click? That is, can you directly do a right click in Windows? Can you use "Mouse2" in games?

Do you get direct access to Mouse3, 4, & 5? That is, do they function, for example, as page back/page forward in Windows, and/or can you directly use them in games?

Or, can you do all that, but you need to run a driver?

(And please don't tell me the mouse on that shiny new iMac only has one button......)

By default all Mac Mice used to have 1 button. The newer mouse, called the "Mighty Mouse" (snicker at will) detects right mouse clicks and has a scroll wheel.

Right Clicks could always be simulated by Control Clicking, though with a Trackpad on a Macbook Pro, you can just put two fingers on the trackpad when clicking to do a Right Click.

I play Guild Wars on Mac OS X (Not booted into Windows) and I use my Trackpad for both clicks and right clicks.

If you were to install a "fancy" mouse, many of them have drivers to Support the Mac OS. It's a means of telling the OS how to react to the Mouse3, 4, 5, etc. Though you always have support for Left/Right and Scroll wheel/click.

I run a 5 button Microsoft Optical, and I needed to install the MS drivers so I could tell the System to let the OS run Mouse 4 and 5. This allowed me to assign them as desired.

While booted into Windows, You literally boot the system INTO Windows, so it acts no different than with a regular PC, in terms of needing Drivers and such.

I hope that covers everything.

Yep, what TheJokersWild said.

You can customize any button to function how you want. I use a Mighty Mouse at home (although I don't really like the feel of it), and an old Logitech MX300 on my mac at work.

Do a quick google on the Mighty Mouse. Once you've filtered out the old cartoons, you'll find that this mouse is universally reviled - it's a piece of shiznit.

100% agreed. It's seriously not reliable for gaming. It just doesn't feel right.

Mac users are now sufficiently evolved, that they can use two fingers at once?! ;-D

Actually we skipped a step. To Right Click I now need to use three fingers.

(Two fingers on touch pad, thumb on clicker)

thats a lot of things to do for right clicking no?

There are tons of USB and bluetooth mouses out there that are compatible with Mac and function just like a Windows mouse would. In fact this is the first time I've heard of someone complaining about the Mac trackpad when it comes to gaming. Using a trackpad over a mouse is gimping anyways.

I wasn't "complaining" about using a touchpad for gaming. I only mentioned Gaming in reference to one reason why I hadn't looked at (newer) MacBooks. In fact, my original question was prompted by the fact that you wouldn't want to use a touchpad for gaming, but would want to use a mouse instead.
Every now and then I toy with the idea of getting a Mac of some kind. With the ability to use Bootcamp and/or other apps, gaming support is no longer an issue. I'd have to look into Macs a bit more, if I was actually thinking of buying one, but from what I've seen so far they are way too expensive for what you get and/or are not as upgradable (such as the one piece iMacs) as I would want. There may be some Macs that have an actual "case" etc., but I imagine they are very, very expensive. The only advantage I can see to Macs is possibly the OS - the hardware is not impressive from a specs viewpoint. (Esthetically yes, specs-wise no)
For example, for $2300 you can get a 3gig I mac with a 24inch screen and a lousy 8800 GS for graphics - I can imagine what Crysis would be like on that!
Even the Mac Pro with 8 cores ($2900) only has a lousy HD2600 for graphics - though, granted, it's not meant for gaming.

I play GW on my year-old MacBook Pro. It's a laptop, so it'll always be outperformed by desktops, but it meets all my gaming needs (~50 fps in GW, runs Bioshock decently too). I always have an external mouse plugged in, just a normal Logitech laptop mouse, and yes, it right-clicks, even in OS X. I suspect the single button on the trackpad is more a matter of tradition and aesthetics than anything else - when booted into OS X a right-click is just as indispensable as when booted into Windows (it does the exact same things). To right click with the trackpad, just put two fingers on it and click (the Windows drivers emulate this).

It must be just tradition, as you say. Most touchpads/trackpads are made by only a few 3rd party companies. I don't know if the buttons are actually part of the touchpad assembly, or they're separate, but I suspect that they are part of the assembly. That would mean that Apple would have to purposely get touchpads made with only 1 button (which would make them more expensive due to volume) or the assembly has two buttons but Apple only uses one. Either way, it's not impressive.

most beautiful mouse ever design and thats it for looks.

and yes you can use any other mouse with how ever many buttons you want as long as it has a USB port on your mac.