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My favorite keyboards

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Re: My favorite keyboards

#101

Post by qwerpy »

dotancohen wrote: post #89
ashton314 wrote: post #80

Typing this on a Moonlander right now. Love it to pieces. The tenting kit is pricey but incredibly stable and, to me, is worth every penny. I've gotten used to the ortholinear so much so that I hate other layouts now. I've looked at some other more minimal boards and, while they look nice, I actually make good use of pretty much all my keys and I would not like going down to a smaller layout. In my mind, the most imp…

The Moonlander and the Ergodox both lack Function keys. How do you cope? I spend much time in IDEs, mostly Jetbrains but also VS Code. I'm also constantly in Emacs and VIM, and even my desktop shortcuts have many Function keys used. The IDEs are particularly troublesome as there are quite a few triple buckies that involve the Function keys. Another layer (e.g. using a modifier key) just doesn't seen like a good solut…

I use a Moonlander and regret it entirely for this reason. It would be perfect if it just had that extra row of F keys. I know there are a million ways to compensate for it but they all involve tradeoffs that I don't want to make.

I stopped working a day job that requires typing, so I can deal with the inconvenience, but my god I wish I didn't listen to the people who pooh-poohed away the lack of F keys. Not having the keys present and labeled adds all this cognitive overload when having to remember which magic combo changes layers and which keys are the F keys, while switching between windows/macOS/linux. Have to hit F2 to boot into BIOS? Good luck hitting the magic incantation in time before you miss your window of opportunity, when the keyboard doesn't show which layer you're in because it just powered up.

I like the tactile feel of it, the build quality, the ortholinear layout, and the customizability, but at this point I'd trade off the customizability for that extra row and labeled modifier keys.

Re: My favorite keyboards

#102

Post by qwerpy »

Analemma_ wrote: post #68
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #7

I have a Moonlander but I could never get used to it, even when remapping some keys so that tab is where my muscle memory expects it to be. But maybe trying to use it for both windows (play) and macos (work) was a problem. I should give it another go. Of course another issue may be that I'm very much a mouse-and-keyboard person instead of a keyboard wizard. I should get an alternative to my old compact / flat apple k…

It might also be that you just don’t want or need an ortholinear layout, plenty of people don’t. If you like the split design and programmability of the Moonlander but not the layout and associated relearning curve, I can recommend the UHK as a good choice.

I like everything about the Moonlander (ortholinear, split) except for the lack of F keys. From what I can tell, Kinesis is the other side of the "ortholinear or F keys" tradeoff, holding most everything else constant.

Re: My favorite keyboards

#103

Post by MoonWalk »

dfox wrote: post #30

Basically the only thing interesting about the ConcertMaster is that Carmack used it (and that it looks somewhat cool). As for the keyboard itself, it is just a basic OEM membrane keyboard and not that good one even. The speakers are lets say adequate for the time and size. Interestingly, the speaker part and the keyboard part are completely separate. The "cable" consists of four separate cables (keyboard, power, lin…

Mmmm, not a membrane keyboard. This is a membrane keyboard: https://www.the-liberator.net/site-files/retro-games/hardwar...

Re: My favorite keyboards

#104

Post by incanus77 »

dfox wrote: post #30

Basically the only thing interesting about the ConcertMaster is that Carmack used it (and that it looks somewhat cool). As for the keyboard itself, it is just a basic OEM membrane keyboard and not that good one even. The speakers are lets say adequate for the time and size. Interestingly, the speaker part and the keyboard part are completely separate. The "cable" consists of four separate cables (keyboard, power, lin…

I have one! It's fun for retro PCs that don't have speakers or a mic, as it provides everything you need right there without having to setup the Altec Lansings.

Also LOL:

> it has the advantage of packing the best sound system I have ever come across on a keyboard

Re: My favorite keyboards

#105

Post by raudette »

The author writes: "I discovered the IBM Model M in 1993 ... It took me many years to find one. I vividly remember the Craigslist ad for a dilapidated computer shop in a Toronto suburb. Inside I found piles of them, stacked six feet high. All of them had some kind of damage so I picked a few for $20 apiece and rebuilt one that looked pristine."

My Model M story:

I'd heard of the famous Model M for years.

I found a Model M in storage at a place I worked in 2004-2005 and started using it, loved it.

In 2006, I found one for my home PC at the Salvation Army Thrift Store on St Clair W at Christie in Toronto. I paid $20, and it worked!

I still have it, but stopped using it around 2010 - I was asked to use a quieter keyboard :(

Re: My favorite keyboards

#107

Post by jachee »

dotancohen wrote: post #89
ashton314 wrote: post #80

Typing this on a Moonlander right now. Love it to pieces. The tenting kit is pricey but incredibly stable and, to me, is worth every penny. I've gotten used to the ortholinear so much so that I hate other layouts now. I've looked at some other more minimal boards and, while they look nice, I actually make good use of pretty much all my keys and I would not like going down to a smaller layout. In my mind, the most imp…

The Moonlander and the Ergodox both lack Function keys. How do you cope? I spend much time in IDEs, mostly Jetbrains but also VS Code. I'm also constantly in Emacs and VIM, and even my desktop shortcuts have many Function keys used. The IDEs are particularly troublesome as there are quite a few triple buckies that involve the Function keys. Another layer (e.g. using a modifier key) just doesn't seen like a good solut…

My default layout has function keys as basically an "fn" key plus the appropriate number. I thought I was going to miss the dedicated keys way more than I do in practice.

If I were starting from scratch, and really had a function-key-centric workflow, I'd probably make the number keys (and - and + for F11 and F12 respectively) be tap-and-hold for that function key input.

Re: My favorite keyboards

#108

Post by closeparen »

From what I've read, very few people who buy ortho split keyboards, even people who love and swear by them, ever recover their WPM. I could never get comfortable on my Ergodox. The Glove80 seems more promising, but I can't afford the productivity hit at work, particularly when communicating on Slack. But the Kinesis Freestyle2 with the tenting kit quickly became my daily driver & basically solved my wrist and thumb pain.

Re: My favorite keyboards

#110

Post by indoordin0saur »

closeparen wrote: post #108

From what I've read, very few people who buy ortho split keyboards, even people who love and swear by them, ever recover their WPM. I could never get comfortable on my Ergodox. The Glove80 seems more promising, but I can't afford the productivity hit at work, particularly when communicating on Slack. But the Kinesis Freestyle2 with the tenting kit quickly became my daily driver & basically solved my wrist and thumb p…

Not me. I have a Mistel Barocco and am still at 100WPM
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