[GTALUG] keyboards

[Jason Shaw]

On Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 16:40 o1bigtenor via talk <talk at gtalug.org> wrote:

>
>
> On Thu, Oct 21, 2021 at 2:41 PM D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk <
> talk at gtalug.org> wrote:
>
>> | From: Evan Leibovitch via talk <talk at gtalug.org>
>>
>> |   The emergence of high-end gaming on PCs has led to a quest for
>> | keyboards that are super-responsive and comfortable for long periods.
>>
>> Yeah.  That seems like the best place to look.
>>
>> Beware: I've found their goals are not completely aligned with mine.
>> Here are some.
>>
>> One feature that I don't care about is rainbow coloured lights for the
>> keys.  Benign, but you are paying for this.  On mine (a Razer Blackwidow
>> Ultimate -- love the names), I've got a green light per key, solidly on
>> unless I install a daemon to change that.
>>
>> Another is "tenkeyless" which means "without numeric keypad".  I use
>> the numeric keypad and don't want to lose it.
>>
>> Another is low-latency: I've never noticed keyboard latency.
>>
>> Another is: ugly seems to be valued.
>>
>> All support n-key rollover, for large n.  This requires sending multiple
>> USB packets per keystroke.  This in turn confuses the firmware on a
>> couple
>> of our machines: if we wish to adjust firmware settings, we have to plug
>> in a different keyboard.  As you can imagine, that took some effort to
>> figure out.
>>
>> There are many web pages that describe the colours of switches.
>> <https://geargaminghub.com/cherry-mx-switches/>
>>
>> My wife likes "blue" keys (noisy and tactile).
>> I like "brown" keys (less noisy but tactile).
>>
>> If you care a lot, you may care about the company that produced the
>> switches.  I haven't bothered to sudy this aspect.
>>
>>
> Interesting comments from all of the responders so far.
> Is anyone using an ergonomic keyboard from this group.
> The old rectangular keyboard makes my hands ache at the
> thought of using only this. I have some cheap keyboards gotten
> with machine purchases - - - my working keyboard for anything
> more than a few keystrokes is an ergonomic version. I'm about
> 60 cm across the shoulders so a keyboard that's some 35 cm
> just isn't comfortable.
>
> I also like my numeric keypad - - - - do a lot of entries on that
> for business use and would like to have it part of the keyboard
> if at all possible.
>
> I have used the mechanical keys in a very long time - - - think
> I would prefer less noise rather than more but for high quality
> would like give on that!
>
> Re: gaming - - - - I'm having too fun fun and use far too much time
> on my system without playing any games - - - tend to relax with a
> book (most often a physical copy too).
>

I switched to a split keyboard about a year ago, a Kinesis freestyle pro,
and after a few month learning curve, I honestly can't imagine switching
back. My shoulders feel so much better after a day of typing that I can
hardly believe it. It has quiet mechanical switches that feel nice and
responsive and should be fine for open concept offices.

Not the cheapest, especially once the tilting kit and wrist rests were
added in, but my posture is worth it.

-jason
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://gtalug.org/pipermail/talk/attachments/20211021/90b368ce/attachment.html>