this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2023
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ErgoMechKeyboards

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Ergonomic, split and other weird keyboards

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Keep it ergo

Posts must be of/about keyboards that have a clear delineation between the left and right halves of the keyboard, column stagger, or both. This includes one-handed (one half doesn't exist, what clearer delineation is that!?)

i.e. no regular non-split¹ row-stagger and no non-split¹ ortholinear²

¹ split meaning a separation of the halves, whether fixed in place or entirely separate, both are fine.
² ortholinear meaning keys layed out in a grid

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I am someone who has not used mechanical keyboards before, but I am curious about them since I read everywhere that they are great. The issue I have is that I obviously don't know which things I will like or not. For example the switches, there are a lot of brands, and they produce different switches. When I read about them, I see the familiar terms: "clicky", "tactile", but I have no idea what that actually means.

However, just starting to buy stuff to test it out will become very expensive, very quickly.

How do you start with this without spending hundreds and hundreds of Euro's at the start (and without knowing if you like it or not)

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Good advise. Given my job, I will need a numpad, so that will limit it somewhat, but I'll have a good look around.

Also thanks for the tip on the resale-value of switches. I thought they would be worthless once used indeed, so that is good to know.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

There exist external mechanical numpad/macro pads that you cna use if you wanna downsize the board. Then you can hook up the numpad only when you need it

[–] iZRBQEcWVXNdnPtTV 1 points 1 year ago

Pro-tip: getting rid of the numpad is good for you long term. Num pad existence is associated with RSI pain. I would consider a 60-80% keyboard and a separate numpad that you can pull out when you need it.