Mouseless – keyboard-driven control of macOS/Linux/Windows

Some existing similar tools for those who might be curious.

For vim, there's easymotion or hop.nvim.

For tmux, there's Morantron/tmux-fingers.

For Chrome, there's Vimium.

You can also flash your keyboard to have mouse controls (https://docs.qmk.fm/features/mouse_keys).

Keynav – retire your mouse (2016) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11945936

Wayland port: https://github.com/kovetskiy/waynav

I prefer ShortCat's model:

https://shortcat.app/

Similar to Vimium, but for the whole OS. Apparently Homerow is similar, judging from comments I'm seeing here.

I really wish I knew an equivalent for Linux. I might even leave Gnome behind if a different DE has a good model for this.

Wow, as cool as this is, it's kind of a shame that we need to say "use coords to show where the mouse should click" instead of designing interfaces that keep pointing-device-free users in mind.

I'm on Linux and totally going to give this a try. I switched from multiple monitors years ago to just a laptop and am in permanent portable mode.

I use the pointer stick exclusively so don't have to reposition my hands on the keyboard like with a track pad, but the pointer stick does keep my hardware choice limited, currently a X1 Yoga. If Mouseless would be faster, then I could get a Framework (no pointer stick available).

I'd gladly pay the $50 for lifetime.

I still have a keyboard with a track point

I don't understand why they are not popular at all and only a few manufacturers build them.

It doesn't replace a mouse for me, but the track point is between the G H B keys and can be reached without moving the fingers away from the typing position. So it's great for some simple mouse commands.

I think I prefer the approach that Homerow uses: https://www.homerow.com/

It's like vimium but for your entire mac. It hooks into the macOS accessibility APIs.

If you wanted to go in the other direction, you could achieve more productivity with faster mouse skills. The competitive FPS genre has spawned a bunch of aim training tools[0] to improve muscle memory.

[0] https://www.3daimtrainer.com/

Using closed source software to drive my OS doesn't sound that appealing to me.

Opensource alternatives:

- https://github.com/moverest/wl-kbptr

- https://github.com/petoncle/mousemaster

- https://github.com/y3owk1n/neru

- https://github.com/mjrusso/scoot

- https://github.com/jbensmann/mouseless

- https://github.com/rvaiya/warpd (not really maintained anymore)

I've had "mouseless" on every system since getting a keyboard that supports it (in my case the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard). It's changed my compute experience and I can never go back (so I hope they don't go out of business)

Amiga Workbench could be used mouseless by using key combinations to move the mouse around. It was cumbersome, but just good enough to let you use the system if your mouse was broken, or you had plugged a second joystick into the mouse port and couldn't be bothered swapping them to launch a game. Later there were add-ons like Reqtools and MCP which let you use keys more, e.g. Escape to close a window, or Return (Enter) to hit OK on a dialog box.

Anyone interested in this should really try out Homerow (https://www.homerow.app)

(not affiliated, just a happy user for years now)

When I first tried OpenAI’s Atlas browser, I found it incredibly slow at moving the mouse. This could be a perfect use case for agents that need computer use.

Does anyone use a trackpoint and has still compared to this? I get it’s faster then reaching to mouse, but faster then trackpoint?

There is something to be said for the split mechanical keyboard in the demonstration video and the sound the switches make when 'moving the mouse'.

Sometimes when I am too tired, I lean back in my chair and click through Hacker News or something similar. I use Vimium in my browser and HN is great to navigate with it, but that's the not the point - the whole point is I don't want to sit above my keyboard with my hands on the home row.

I consider myself a "keyboard power user" if this is a thing anyway, and I really dig the home row thing (Vimmer for 20+ years now), but frankly having my hands on the keyboard ALL the time throughout the day is really tiring. So, I actually like my mouse for a change of posture, the cursor that I can follow with my eyes, etc.

P.S. I have to admit, though, that I love even more the interfaces that don't require a mouse in the first place. It's a shame we stopped adding well-thought tab stops in the UI and keyboards shortcuts are just a free-for-all in the apps.

Looks kinda similar to https://github.com/rvaiya/warpd/ , which is open source and free software. Always worked very well for me on Wayland, but seems to be working on Xorg and macOS as well.

This just made me realize my desktop monitor needs to be a touchscreen

Has anyone real-life experience with these tools?

saying it is for Linux made me think it would be open source as there are already lot of things people can do without mouse...

There is an extensive list of window managers, like Sway or I3, file managers like Vifm and Ranger and browsers like Luakit.

Thanks, but I'm too old to switch - will wait for the Neuralink implant.

Vimium for the browser solves most of the mouse needs. I dont see it helping with drawings.

Did anyone notice the use of the mouse at the end?

i use this! it actually comes in handy when i'm too lazy to move my hands from my keyboard. on my ultrawide, the click zones are larger and easier to digest/hit.

you know what's efficient? controlling a computer with one hand rather than two.

I was literally just thinking about the desire to have a mouseless keyboard solution yesterday.

Pretty cool, would have been great before the trackpad.

This is a helpful method for visually grounding LLMs to take actions on the screen such as clicking. For humans though, hell no.

  :qa!

I was trying to scroll with mouse wheel but the website did not react at all. Then it started scrolling with 1 frame per second.

Waiting for the AutoHotKey or AHK with an LLM, GUI automation, and screenshots. Someone else develop it because it will be ignored if I do it.

good one

[dead]

Or you could use tab, arrow keys, page up/down, enter...

I've never seen anything more ridiculous than this in my life.