LinearMouse

LinearMouse is a free, open-source macOS utility that gives you granular control over how your mouse and trackpad behave — letting you strip out pointer acceleration, tune scroll speed per-device, and reverse scroll direction independently for mice and trackpads.

What is LinearMouse?

LinearMouse is a lightweight macOS menu-bar app that overrides the system's default input handling for pointing devices. Where macOS treats every mouse identically — applying the same built-in acceleration curve and a single global scroll multiplier — LinearMouse lets you break free of those defaults on a per-device basis. Install it once, configure it in an afternoon, and forget it exists; it runs silently in the background and survives reboots without complaint.

What does LinearMouse do best?

LinearMouse excels at decoupling pointer acceleration from raw device input, which is the single most-requested tweak among power users migrating from Windows or using a gaming mouse on a Mac. When acceleration is off, a two-inch flick of the wrist always moves the cursor the same distance regardless of speed — muscle memory transfers, pixel-perfect control in Figma or Final Cut becomes reproducible, and competitive gaming feels less like fighting the OS.

Beyond acceleration, the tool shines in three other areas:

• Per-device scroll speed — dial in separate multipliers for your Magic Mouse, a Logitech MX Master, and a mechanical scroll wheel, all simultaneously.
• Reverse scroll direction independently — enable "natural" scrolling on a trackpad while keeping the traditional direction on an attached mouse, something macOS refuses to let you do natively.
• Linear scrolling mode — neutralise the momentum-flinging that makes macOS scroll feel smooth to some users and maddeningly imprecise to others.

The settings UI is clean: a compact preferences panel with per-scheme profiles, so a USB mouse and a Bluetooth mouse can carry completely different configs without you toggling anything manually.

Is LinearMouse free?

Yes — LinearMouse is completely free to download and use, with no premium tier, no in-app purchases, and no nag screens. It is an open-source community project hosted on GitHub under the MIT licence, so the code is auditable and the app costs nothing regardless of how many Macs you install it on.

Who should use LinearMouse?

LinearMouse is squarely aimed at power users who find macOS's default pointer behaviour frustrating. Three groups benefit most:

1. Windows switchers who rely on a flat, acceleration-free cursor feel and find Apple's defaults disorienting.
2. Designers and video editors who need pixel-accurate cursor placement in tools like Sketch, Figma, DaVinci Resolve, or Adobe Premiere.
3. Dual-input users — anyone who works daily with both a trackpad and an external mouse and wants each device to scroll in its natural direction without digging into System Settings every time they switch.

If you happily use a Magic Mouse and have never wished the cursor behaved differently, LinearMouse probably won't change your life. For everyone else, it fills a gap that Apple has deliberately left open for years.

What are the best LinearMouse alternatives?

LinearMouse's closest competitor is SteerMouse, a long-established paid utility (around USD 20) that covers much of the same ground with a slightly more detailed configuration panel and support for extra mouse buttons. Mos is another free option that focuses specifically on smooth, per-device scroll control but does not touch pointer acceleration at all. If your primary gripe is scroll direction rather than acceleration, Mos is simpler and more focused. For users who want acceleration control plus button remapping in a single paid app, BetterMouse is worth a look. LinearMouse's differentiator is that it handles acceleration, scroll speed, and direction reversal simultaneously — free — without requiring a subscription or a one-time purchase.

How does LinearMouse compare to SteerMouse?

SteerMouse has broader hardware compatibility — it supports older Bluetooth mice that LinearMouse occasionally misidentifies — and its button-remapping layer is more mature. LinearMouse, however, is free and open-source, ships with per-device profiles out of the box, and is actively maintained on GitHub with releases tracking new macOS versions quickly. For most users, LinearMouse does everything SteerMouse does for the use-cases that actually come up day to day. SteerMouse earns its price if you need deep button assignment or have a legacy device that LinearMouse chokes on.