Heya David,
I've tried and own many keyboards (bit of a junkie). I have a couple
of Microsoft Ergonomic ones, I've tried a few mechanical ones, and
I've also got a few weirdish ones (microsoft arc, kenesis freestyle
split keyboard (split down the middle as two x half keyboards)).
My favourite is by far the Filco Majestictouch Tenkeyless with the
Blue Cherry switches. It's a mechanical keyboard with Cherry switches,
and this particular keyboard has no keypad, or other junk buttons
(email/paint/etc) AusPCMarket sell them in Aus and provide pretty good
service.
I use the Filco probably 80% of the time, and a Microsoft Ergonomic
keyboard the other 20%. What I really disliked about the Ergonomic one
was the Keypad as well as I found that reaching for the mouse started
to become a problem. Given that, their new one looks interesting.
I also found the new keyboard on Amazon, but it looks like neither
they, or anyone else is shipping.
I'm currently in Manhattan returning to Australia on Thursday (leaving
Tuesday here time) and if anyone knows where I can buy the new MS
keyboard locally and wants one, I can probably pick a few up and bring
them back to Straya (one for myself too!).
Cheers,
--
Les Hughes
[email protected]
Quoting David Richards <[email protected]>:
A bit off topic and a bit on topic. I've been in the market for a good
developer keyboard for a while but never seem to find anything I like. I
was just wondering if others on this list had found a decent keyboard.
A few qualifying points:
I don't want a number pad or at least I don't want one on the right of the
keyboard. Not that I have anything against them, I just want my mouse to
be closer. I've tested this using a cheap (and crappy) laptop like
keyboard and there is a noticeable difference in comfort. I can just as
easily by a separate number pad keyboard to position elsewhere.
I would prefer the cursor keys and the other navigation keys to be in a
reasonable location. My "crappy" keyboard as some of these along the
bottom. It also sacrificed the right Control key in favour of a Scroll
Lock key. Who uses scroll lock any more?
I don't like those "ergonomic" keyboards that split the keyboard to be
comfortable for two hands. I don't know about the rest of you but I spend
at least as much time with one hand on the mouse and the other on the
keyboard as I do with both hands on the keyboard. So the ergonomic aspects
are actually a hindrance when typing with one hand.
I don't care about media buttons or any other specific use button. I never
user them. They just make the keyboard bigger. 20% of the keys on my
current keyboard will never be used.
Obviously I want the keys to be comfortable to use 8 hours a day.
The recently announce keyboard from microsoft is fairly close to what I'm
looking for:
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/08/microsofts-new-ergonomic-keyboard-is-just-plain-weird-looking/
But it's ergonomic style is a bit of a negative.
Any thoughts?
David
"If we can hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes
will fall like a house of cards... checkmate!"
-Zapp Brannigan, Futurama
