Comment 14 for bug 42678

Ok then, its a very simple request (made by probably thousands of users), that could well be very hard to implement fully (in X.Org).
It may well require a lot of developer time, but its a glaring shortcoming in Ubuntu (and other distros for that matter).

The Ubuntu desktop edition page at http://www.ubuntu.com/products/WhatIsUbuntu/desktopedition claims:
  Ubuntu 'Just Works'
  We've done all the hard work for you. Once Ubuntu is installed, all the basics are in place so that your system will be immediately usable.

Well, quite obviously, in this case, it doesn't "just work", and something needs to be done about it. It should be a priority because its something that gets noticed by a lot of new users, and there are certainly a lot of comments about it in the forums. I have just done a quick search (for mouse buttons) and have found 18 relevant threads, with a total of 1155 posts and over 300000 views!

These three threads are definitely worth a look:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=410342 - Gutsy idea pool specification (62 posts)
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=65471&highlight=mouse+buttons (389 posts, 148,823 views)
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=219894&highlight=mouse+buttons (613 posts, 163,309 views)

So there is certainly a need, and a solution would definitely benefit a lot of (mostly new) users.

In my simplistic view of the world, there are two things that could be done:
1) Ubuntu/Canonical give "encouragement" and support to the X.Org team. If possible, these bug reports should be elevated.
2) Somebody puts together a simple GUI tool that allows new users to change the mouse configuration (in the xorg.conf) without having to edit xorg.conf manually (and therefore risk completely screwing it up). The application might even poll the usb devices and attempt to guess the mouse model.

If I was able, I would have a crack at the GUI tool myself, but as I'm not I just hope that somebody who is in a position to do something about this can pick it up.