Upon plugging a Wacom Pen tablet into a Windows XP/7 computer with no Wacom driver installed, the Wacom runs like a hybrid of a mouse and a tablet.

I actually prefer this "hybrid mode" to the "pure table mode" that becomes standard once Wacom drivers are installed. One advantage is that it leads to a more even abrasion pattern as it allows you to switch the places you use on your Wacom as you like (If I remember correctly, there's the possibility to switch modes once you've installed drivers; but there's no way to get back to the authentic 'no-Wacom driver' experience).

Using public computers forced me into the no-driver configuration, now I am ready to promote its application.

Anyone else with the same experience/preference?

In the Wacom settings, it's usually called "pen mode" (absolute positioning) vs. "mouse mode" (relative positioning). I personally can't stand mouse mode, and have seen improvements when overseeing classrooms of kids using the pen mode, but I can understand how some would prefer the mouse mode.

I'm not sure what you're talking about with the hybrid mode--as far as I know, driverlessness is the same as mouse mode, where the cursor never jumps, just moves when you move the pen over the surface and you have to reposition the cursor by repeatedly moving your pen and lifting it away from the surface, like you do with a mouse when rescuing an errant cursor. Is there some other behavior at work?

嗯，就這樣兒

I didn't know it was possible to use Wacoms on public computers without a driver. That's very good to know!

@junglegirl: They act like USB mice if you do so. Quite frankly, I don't think it's any better than using a mouse.

The advantage of using pen mode is that you don't have to reposition the cursor for every stroke, you just have to move the pen to the appropriate spot on the tablet which should also be the appropriate spot in relation to the other strokes (i.e. if you somehow rigged your Wacom pen with an ink cartridge and put a piece of paper on top of the tablet, you'd write the character on the paper and on the screen at the same time). Using a tablet in mouse mode would be a little better than a mouse, since the strokes themselves would come out better than with a mouse, but you'd have a slowdown from repositioning the cursor every stroke, and your actual pen movement wouldn't match the actual character if you did the ink cartridge thing.

Actually, it might work pretty much the same as using tablet mode if you kept the pen tip close enough to the tablet through the whole process, but I don't see the benefit... If you really want to even out the abrasion pattern, you could change the portion of the screen your tablet applies to and/or swap between left and right handed use.

I've never had good results without using the waccom drivers except for my fujitsu st5011 slate which has a microsoft default driver which works reasonably.