271–280 of 331 posts
In near all this special keybs the F1-row is absent (and many others). This is my pet reason I don't even consider them. That is why I try to build my own as close as possible to a MS Natural (with straight lines instead of curved. I think is near equal comfort): https://imgur.com/a/By9YN2q One big thing for comfort: The body is made of wood. It feel very good!
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Trackballs are the best. I splurged on a Kensington Expert and I really love it. the ball is the size of a billiards ball.
I also like trackballs although I prefer Logitech's trackman thumb trackball. I also gave the Kensinton Expert a try but I really disliked it. For one I think I just prefer thumb trackballs, but beyond that I found the build quality really shoddy for that price. In particular the scroll ring is wobbly and rattles quite a lot on my model, it feels very cheap and is unpleasant to use.
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>One of the reasons is overlap. Your hands do occasionally >hit keys on the other side. That has been my biggest re-learning curve - but with only the 6/7 numeric keys (which, apparently I use often) - the one thing that I would have loved with the Kinesis RGB Edge, would have been a dedicated number pad on the right-side. >Another is key action. You want proper mechanical keys. Kinesis RGB Edge allows you to choose…
Kinesis Freestyle Pro has Cherry mx brown or silent red and shaves a little money compared to the RGB version
I actually have both keyboards and they're pretty similar.
A trick here though, the RGB aka "gaming" version of the Freestyle includes wrist rests, which are $15 extra in the "Freestyle Pro," so the cost difference isn't as much as it seems. Neither includes the nifty tenting stands. You probably will want both of those accessories, so keep that in mind when pricing.
The Freestyle Pro also puts the ESC and FN keys in weird spots. You can remap them, but it's kind of annoying to move the caps around (there's also no "normal" size esc key cap to use...).
All in all, it's probably worth just getting the RGB, even if you don't care about the RGB feature.
I'm maintaining a gallery of split mechanical keyboards, including the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard. Hopefully it's helpful for a quick overview of the options that exist. Many of these keyboards are DIY (available as a kit, or sometimes just a PCB and case plan), but some are available assembled. https://aposymbiont.github.io/split-keyboards/ (There's also https://jhelvy.shinyapps.io/splitkbcompare/ for direct comparis…
In near all this special keybs the F1-row is absent (and many others). This is my pet reason I don't even consider them. That is why I try to build my own as close as possible to a MS Natural (with straight lines instead of curved. I think is near equal comfort): https://imgur.com/a/By9YN2q One big thing for comfort: The body is made of wood. It feel very good!
In most cases this is because 1) they're not ergonomic to use and 2) you can create layers to access the function keys.
This push to do heavy customizations but that create the issue of work only for X machine and X OS. In my case, a do work inside VMs and customers machines by remote software and also need to work in other laptop, so I prefer to not do keymaps customizations at all...
If you're looking for keyboards, you may also be interested in keyboard layouts. I've been using Colemak for 5 years now, and I recommend everyone to try it out. https://colemak.com/
I tried learning Colemak at least 3 times now. What is your recommended approach? Grinding online exercises didn't really seem to do much for me.
I'm maintaining a gallery of split mechanical keyboards, including the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard. Hopefully it's helpful for a quick overview of the options that exist. Many of these keyboards are DIY (available as a kit, or sometimes just a PCB and case plan), but some are available assembled. https://aposymbiont.github.io/split-keyboards/ (There's also https://jhelvy.shinyapps.io/splitkbcompare/ for direct comparis…
Only at pre-order stage but one I learned of recently is: https://trulyergonomic.com/ergonomic-keyboards/
Anandtech reviewed it seven years ago:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/6682/first-impressions-the-te...
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I almost always use a split keyboard when I'm able to set up a stationary environment. But I love to go mobile: coffee shops, beaches, couch, bar counters. I never forget how to use a normal keyboard, nor do I lose any speed. That might be the trick, maybe you need to switch between the two occasionally.
I have this crazy plan to create a harness where the two keyboard halves hang on the sides of your body (think sitting or standing with your arms naturally hanging down - the keyboards will be positioned under your palms). But I'm still not sure if it would be too cyborg-y enough to use in public...
I am puzzled why there aren't more split keyboards on the market, they are such a good idea.
Most are horrible. One of the reasons is overlap. Your hands do occasionally hit keys on the other side. You want a pair of 2/3 keyboards, rather than 1/2 keyboards. You /especially/ want a lot of the "special" keys on both sides. Another is key action. You want proper mechanical keys. A third is mounting. That's a problem which hasn't really been figured out. The middle hinge or fixed setup is definitely sub-ideal.…
Why stop at 2/3? Apple Magic Keyboards are compact enough that for many people with reasonably wide shoulders they could just use two of those at once.
A setup with an Apple Magic Trackpad in the middle, two Magic Keyboards on the sides, and a mouse farther to the side might be quite reasonable.
I come to keyboards from a slightly different background. I am missing a couple of fingers, on my left hand two fingers and one thumb can reach keys, on my right hand three fingers and a thumb can. I never learned "home-row" typing or any other fixed method, but I can comfortably touch type above 60 words per minute. This is a point of pride for me. I resisted the idea of split keyboards for quite a while because my…
Have you considered an alternate or fully custom layout?
Custom, maybe one day. My grandfather was an author, he wrote his novels with a typewriter. He had a fantasy of building a typewriter the size of a room where you wrote with boxing gloves, punching the keys. I'd like to have something like that one day.