Ergodox EZ has my whole hearted recommendation. Their keyboards are amazing and the only thing better for ergonomics would be a more custom curved piece.
They're a good company, I would recommend anyone checking them out.
this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2024
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It doesn't get better than this though https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/charachorder/the-master-forge-a-keyboard-built-for-you
...hey, that's just like my library's old PET 2001, my first computer!..
Ortholinear is a great gateway into better keyboards and a better layout. I started with a planck and used it to learn colemak-dh. I have since moved to a more DIY split keyboard with a columnar layout which is ortholinear except the volume are staggered to fit the length of fingers better.
This journey has been a godsend in helping my RSI issues from my Dev job.
This is what I use every day
That's a columnar stagger, not ortholinear.
I was kinda disappointed that this article didn't explain columnar stagger.
I daily drive an iris by keebio.
sweet
Is that your own layout, or is it a scheme like QWERTY or DVORAK that I haven't heard about?
Colemak is an alternative keyboard created by Shai Coleman, named as a portmanteau of Dvorak and Coleman. Its design goals consist of easy transition from QWERTY due to repositioning only 17 letter keys. Additionally the AZXCV shortcuts are in the same location perhaps allowing an easier time switching from QWERTY.
It also claims greater efficiency than Dvorak. Furthermore it places complete emphasis on the home-row: the ten most-common characters in English are on the ten home-row keys.
Source: Wikipedia
I type in dvorak and actually love it. It just feels comfortable when I type.
just to chime in on alternative keyboard layouts:
I'm german and can't recommend the neo2 family of layouts enough.
I currently am using the "noted" layout and it feels absolutely amazing.
The different layer approach makes it easy to write all the symbols for programming I need, or if you are a writer, all the »correct« „quotation“ marks.
there's even support for all the greek letters used in math equations: ℤℵ×∀ℂΣ∫∃∇ℕℝ∂ΛΦΨ
You can learn more about the layout here (site is in german):
https://www.neo-layout.org/
Fellow Dvorak user here. Can't recommend it enough.
In one of my classes at the beginning of my doctoral studies we talked about parth dependency, and QWERTY was used as an example. All studies showed that even experienced typists would increase their typing speed within just a few days of switching, and that it's just a superior set-up. But because of path dependency we all write QWERTY.
I changed my layout the same day and I haven't looked back. If you want to start messing around with your keyboard and you use it for typing, switching to Dvorak should be the obvious first step. Colemak is a compromise solution that is still a lot better than QWERTY and probably quicker to learn.
No need to get a new keyboard. Dvorak is designed around touch typing, you won't be looking at the keyboard anyway.
Oh my gosh, there's a whole two of us! 🥲
Only 17 letters that's not half is it
This is something I would consider using. I've had issues in the past with tendonitis and I don't want that issue to get worse.
Moving away from qwerty to colemak-dh did more for my tendonitis than the keyboard itself. Having both an ortho linear / columnar stagger keyboard and a better layout is the end goal though. But the layout makes the biggest impact.
Then the next biggest impact will be getting a keyboard with a thumb cluster so you can do more with your thumb in a comfy position rather than your pinkies stretched out to the edges of the keyboard.
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Glove 80 keyboard:
There's also a wide world of alt letter layouts.
I would really love to try something like that, but I don't want to sink money into it just to realize I hate it.
Edit: 400$ for the Glove 80. As much as I love the idea, that's a no for me
Look into DIY keyboards you can get PCBs created of the keyboards you like the look of for pretty cheap nowadays. You just need to be willing to solder, there's not many small bits for keyboards so it's not that hard.
The best way to "try before you buy" is to go to keyboard meetups in your area if they're available. Unfortunately, that does leave a lot of folks out, but if you live in a city that will probably be your best bet.
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I have a split ortholinear keyboard that I made with parts from Keebio, I fucking love it. It has really reduced wrist strain for me.
It's the Levinson Rev. 3, which is relatively cheap (this is an expensive hobby just FYI) if you want to get into keyboards.
Edit: Levinson Rev. 3 was discontinued but the BFO-9000 is still a good option for a no-frills dip into things.
(this is an expensive hobby just FYI)
Yeah custom keyboards get absurdly expensive very quickly.
Only if you keep getting new ones though and doing it DIY is pretty good too. Don't think I'd buy another keyboard again after building my current DIY one. Instead I'll just be designing my own from what I've learned that I've liked with this current one.
I had one of the ZSA moonlander split keyboards for a while and I loved parts of it. My RSI vanished.
1 - it was hard for me to use other keyboards that weren't colemak
2 - in split, if I took my hand off to use the mouse I found it hard to find the home row again. It took me like 2 months to learn colemak but never clued into the home row the same way I can on a normal keyboard.
3 - I felt like it took up a lot of space, not good for small spaces.
As a fellow Colemak user who has used other layouts in the past, I have to wonder how many of the issues I have with my keyboard now are because of Colemak, since I didn't seem to have them with Dvorak or Workman.
But maybe I'm just salty that my WPM never recovered fully after switching.
Tried a Typematrix. At the time, I was a roving freelancer who frequently worked with other people at their machines, so I decided that it was safer to stick with a conventional layout.
Having Enter on the thumb was interesting, but I never got used to it.
Prefer column staggered, but yes they really make you wonder how we got stuck with the dominant keyboard configurations. Typing with linear columns feels way more natural.
Typewriters.
They had bars that needed to physically move, and so staggering them helped them not collide and get jammed.
If you imagine a bar coming from the center of each key towards your screen, you can see how the staggering was helpful. For instance, M misses J and K above it, naturally, but it also slightly misses I and the 8 above that.
It's a great solution for a nonexistent problem in keyboards.
It probably really helped people who learned to type on a typewriter make the first changeovers, and now it's what everybody learns to type on for the most part so it hasn't budged. I've noticed at work that my gen z coworkers often struggle to type out a solid nursing note (most of them learned to type on a phone screen) so I wonder if this is maybe an opportunity for more of those alternative layouts to start taking hold as typing becomes a less common thing people need to learn early on.
Wasn't the whole idea to minimize the amount of times your typewriter seized up? Happened often enough with QWERTY keyboards when it came to the cheap typewriters. Yes, I'm old.
That is why the letters are all in a funny order, but that's not why the keys were staggered. They were staggered because of the mechanical linkages underneath the keys, so the linkages could be made straight rather than having to bend around other keys in the way.
I love my ortholinear 40%. I don't think I can ever go back.
I'm of the firm opinion that the best keyboard layout and type is the one you feel most comfortable with.
But then I'm also of that opinion when it comes to things like desktop OSes, phone brands, etc.
It's not a popular opinion.
Unfortunately what you are most comfortable could also cause repetitive stress injury like carpal tunnel. I have a brother in law who damaged his nerves because a Macplus keyboard felt best to him.
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