Sawme here! Honmestly I dom"t thinkl I coukd ever go vack tp a mormal keyboard ¶¶¶¶
this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2025
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Can you recommend a cheap split keyboard? I'm not sinking 300$ to discover I hate it
Keychron has a cheap one
180£ isn't cheap
180 for a keyboard - not cheap
180 for a split mechanical keyboard - relatively cheap
I'm not aware of any other split keyboard that's cheaper.
So is this the new trend after 60% mechanical keyboards, ultrawide monitors or immutable distros ?
Maybe it would improve my typing speed, but I've been using a conventional keyboard layout for so long now, I'm fine with where I'm at. Almost thirty years of muscular memory made it "hard coded" in my hands.
it seems to be perfect for people who are not working on a desk
I think one of my favorite keyboards ever was a Microsoft “Natural” keyboard. I think they were available in the mid ’90s or so. Not quite a real split keyboard, but the ergonomics were great. I think I gave it away…it was great for typing, but I wanted a simpler keyboard for gaming.
the one with the biiig built in "leather" wrist rest? loved that thing!
I use a knock off ergonomic keyboard from adesso. 60% of the time, it works every time.
You can still get them on Amazon for like $40 if you ever decide you want to relive the split key glory days.
Fun fact: that's Elijah Wood and it's his first film role
You don't use a spilt keyboard set to colemak exclusively running Emacs weird
Recently bought a CharaChorder, haven't mastered it yet but it is promising.
You will encounter this man at work.
They will ask for your help with something on their workstation, and it would be faster for you to drive with them watching over your shoulder, but this cryptic thing is their keyboard.
Instead, you will be forced to sit behind them like Patrick Swayze guiding Demi Moore at a throwing wheel. You will eventually take your shirt off, launch Unchained Melody in Spotify, then slowly guide them through a system setting panel.
You will notice how soft their hands feel. The hyper-ergonomic keyboard has allowed their fingers to move with minimal effort, allowing the skin to remain supple, smooth - almost unused.
You will ask yourself, “Is he right?” How could a keyboard be so aggressive and wrong, and yet, support something so gentile.
You try to deny the feeling. Your friends and family will mock you like your uncle Dvorak. Maybe you start with a trackball and see if being naughty feels right.
I just keep the company keyboard on a drawer for the IT guy. I never thought all that I could be missing hahahaha
<3
I used to know a person who used this line to describe one thing about themselves: “I use Dvorak layout..”
Ergorotic literature.
I thought that was rowing machine porn.
This is coiling my cable just thinking about it.
Imagine having a keyboard like this, and still needing to be guided through a system settings menu.
I mean yes but no. Back at some old job all the devs had the local admin password so we could do things like install drivers for bluetooth dongles on our own (I said "old job", didn't I) and usually everything was fine but at some point my machine just barfed, it would neither install nor uninstall drivers. I called an admin because I have no idea about windows internals. They were ecstatic, finally, an actual problem, and not walking someone in marketing through how to write an email. Some arcane regedit magic later the problem was solved, and yes I had layout switching ready on the taskbar.
Nice
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That's ok, insanity comes in many forms.
When I was a kid, I got my hands on a PS/2 Y-adapter and so typed on two keyboards - left hand on one on my desk, right hand on one on a keyboard tray. I don't know what my typing speed and accuracy were then, but a few years back an entire office of people tried to beat me in a typing test and couldn't. Since then I've taken a typing test on a laptop while sitting in a hotel bed and gotten a score of 158 with, IIRC, 98.2% accuracy. (This was my best score but even since then all of my typing evaluations have gone well.)
I also use a trackball as exclusively as my environment allows, including while gaming (other than Minecraft). I'm not remotely a pro, but among my peers I tend to score highly in, for example, FPS'.
I'm not trying to brag; there are many better than I in both categories. The reason I bring these up is to demonstrate that something being the convention doesn't automatically make it better and something being unfit for your preferences doesn't make it inferior.
edit: AFAIK, I only have one left hand.
Which trackball? I was looking at them the other day but couldn't decide
My favorite has always been the Kensington Orbit. Probably a lot of people - even those who like Trackballs - would disagree, but I've been happily using these for around 25 years. Except in Minecraft.
Why are you so vehemently opposed to the use of trackballs in minecraft?
I wouldn't characterize it as vehemence, but rather a combination of consistency and honesty. People are fairly consistently surprised at my enthusiasm for gaming with trackballs, as though it's automatically a detriment; I don't find it to be so, except in Minecraft, so I don't want to represent it as other than it is.
With the style of trackball I use - ball in the middle, left and right click on their respective sides of the ball - and the way I use it - thumb on left click, index and middle finger on the ball, ring and pinky on right click - right clicking can be a stressor. This isn't a problem when tapping once or holding, such as when engaging a scope; but when repeatedly right clicking, it tires whatever muscles and tendons run between the outside of my hand and my shoulder, which already has its own problems.
Minecraft is the only game I play that requires me to repeatedly right click. (I know that now you can right click and drag to place lots of blocks, but that hasn't always been true and doesn't really allow for precision in my experience.) Therefore, it is the only game to which I feel my trackball is not well suited.
Have you considered remapping that control away from right click?
My mouse has five inputs: left click, right click, scroll wheel (not including clicking), ball movement and emulated middle clicking by simultaneously clicking left and right.
I can't see any of those being better than right clicking and neither a keyboard nor a controller seem preferable.
edit: correct a word.
I kinda like using a split keyboard sitting in an arm chair. Put one side on the left arm rest, the other on the right. Feels like I'm in the captain's chair of the Enterprise.
A good tool improves the way you work. A great tool improves the way you think.
May I introduce to you, the Banana Board. A keyboard that works by squeezing a banana shaped device.
😏
I built and configured an Arkenswoop some time in 2023. It's really nice. However... I have gotten quite fast on a conventional keyboard just by using it over the years, and re-learning that is just so tedious. Every time I try, something with a deadline comes up, and I switch back "temporarily".
Anyone have experience overcoming this?
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Split keyboard + a tiling window manager made my life better
What WM if I may ask.
Sway
Where's the rest of the keys? Also these things give off Nintendo Power Glove vibes.
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Fuck, I don't want to be a keyboard pervert, but these are some good points
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