If you like the 7-row ThinkPad keyboard, the Tex Shinobi is awesome.
It even comes with an OEM red trackpoint nipple but I swapped mine out for a blue one.
Thoughts on Mechanical Keyboards and the ZSA Moonlander
241–250 of 283 posts
Re: Thoughts on Mechanical Keyboards and the ZSA Moonlander
#242ZSA Moonlander is an easy avoid. They have a defect on their thumb cluster, the plastic that holds them to the main board is thin and breaks after a few years of use. Good thing they sell spares so they can be easily repaired but bad thing is trying to order them. They don't want just any one buying parts and even sending a photo proof you own a broken Moonlander is not acceptable, they want a receipt of the original purchase or they refuse to sell them.
Re: Thoughts on Mechanical Keyboards and the ZSA Moonlander
#243My daily driver is an Allium58 not too different from the Moonlander. I love having modifier keys to set up macro functions and layers. My favorites from an ergonomics standpoint are Mod1+WASD for arrow keys (Q=home, E=end), Mod1+Capslock for double-click, and Mod1+Tab for middle click (my trackball doesn't have one). It didn't take too long to get to a faster WPM than I had on my previous 101-key mechanical, and I can go back to normal keyboards when I have to.
Re: Thoughts on Mechanical Keyboards and the ZSA Moonlander
#244I've had a Moonlander for a couple years, and an ErgoDox Ez for 3-4 years before that, and, honestly, I'm looking to move to something else. My biggest issue seems to be that I'm switching between a Macbook and the Moonlander all the time, and the Moonlander I just find myself making too many dumb typos on. In particular, I think the ortholinear layout isn't doing me any favors, and the missing extra keys on the righ…
You may be interested in the Glove80[0]. I moved from the Moonlander to it for the very same reason. I have since moved on to a very small form-factor (Pteron36, which has just 36 keys) as I my hands started to tire from reaching for the keys on the perimeter so chopped right down.
Or get the soldering iron out and build one of the many kits available[1]
[0]: https://moergo.com
Re: Thoughts on Mechanical Keyboards and the ZSA Moonlander
#245The only ergo keyboard I've ever enjoyed is the ZSA Voyager.
I tried the Kinesis, the Ergodox, and the Moonlander, but something about them didn't quite suit me. I think they all had similarly oversized thumb clusters, which I found very uncomfortable.
My current setup is the Voyager with homerow mods, which is super comfortable and I manage to mostly avoid typos.
edit: I should also say I'm an avid Emacs user.
Re: Thoughts on Mechanical Keyboards and the ZSA Moonlander
#246I've had a Moonlander for a couple years, and an ErgoDox Ez for 3-4 years before that, and, honestly, I'm looking to move to something else. My biggest issue seems to be that I'm switching between a Macbook and the Moonlander all the time, and the Moonlander I just find myself making too many dumb typos on. In particular, I think the ortholinear layout isn't doing me any favors, and the missing extra keys on the righ…
It may not exist now, but you can make it! It's not that hard to create a mechanical keyboard of your own. You can create the profile in ergogen or if you are comfortable with CAD, you can just model your own case then handwire the switches! There are many examples online and the space is very willing to help out people with their own projects.
Re: Thoughts on Mechanical Keyboards and the ZSA Moonlander
#247I've had a Moonlander for a couple years, and an ErgoDox Ez for 3-4 years before that, and, honestly, I'm looking to move to something else. My biggest issue seems to be that I'm switching between a Macbook and the Moonlander all the time, and the Moonlander I just find myself making too many dumb typos on. In particular, I think the ortholinear layout isn't doing me any favors, and the missing extra keys on the righ…
Not a split but I found that an Alice layout fixed a lot of the hangups I had with typos on my ErgoDox EZ.
I got the Keycron Q8 which is actually still on sale: https://www.keychron.com/products/keychron-q8-alice-layout-q...
I also found I could type way faster on it than I even could on a split.
I do miss the thumb cluster though... but this is close with the split thumb setup
Re: Thoughts on Mechanical Keyboards and the ZSA Moonlander
#248I have a Kinesis Freestyle Pro that I sort of like. Although, I think tenting and split is honestly 99% of the value here, I don’t really get the whole mechanical keyboard click clacky thing. I actually prefer the key pressing experience of something like an Apple Magic Keyboard, nice and crisp and immediate. But, tenting is not optional as far as I’m concerned, it is mandatory. Eventually the little rubbery feet fel…
This is exactly how I feel; I'd love a switch that performs like the modern apple keyboards. Anytime I've dipped my toe into mechanical keyboard waters I've lost speed and accuracy, even after weeks of practice. The extra key travel felt like it gave me more fatigue, even with low profile switches. Whenever I've researched alternatives I get the sense I'm in the minority, though, and most mechanical keyboard users ar…
Cherry apparently has scissor switches. I wonder if it’s possible to buy them individually and make a keyboard like the mechanical keyboard fans do.
Re: Thoughts on Mechanical Keyboards and the ZSA Moonlander
#249The only ergo keyboard I've ever enjoyed is the ZSA Voyager. I tried the Kinesis, the Ergodox, and the Moonlander, but something about them didn't quite suit me. I think they all had similarly oversized thumb clusters, which I found very uncomfortable. My current setup is the Voyager with homerow mods, which is super comfortable and I manage to mostly avoid typos. edit: I should also say I'm an avid Emacs user.
+1 to the Voyager. I switched to it a few years ago from the Moonlander and have been really happy with it. I like the smaller footprint, and the fact that it has fewer keys. Having fewer keys has forced me to create layers that keep everything within a closer reach so I'm stretching my fingers out to the edge keys less than I did with the Moonlander.
I split my time about 50/50 between the Voyager and my macbook's keyboard and mostly have no problem with the difference in layouts, but I wish I could set up layers on the macbook keyboard the same way I can with the Voyager.
Re: Thoughts on Mechanical Keyboards and the ZSA Moonlander
#250I've had a Moonlander for a couple years, and an ErgoDox Ez for 3-4 years before that, and, honestly, I'm looking to move to something else. My biggest issue seems to be that I'm switching between a Macbook and the Moonlander all the time, and the Moonlander I just find myself making too many dumb typos on. In particular, I think the ortholinear layout isn't doing me any favors, and the missing extra keys on the righ…
I love my ErgoDox EZ but I have the same problem as you. Even after a few years, I'm still not used to the location of some of the punctuation keys that you need when you're writing code (braces, pipe, etc.) which in turn really hampers my flow state. I end up undocking and using my MBP keyboard when I'm writing code because I just can't get into that same flow state on my ErgoDox.