Is there any purpose to this article besides complaining about the keyboard preferences of other people? Some people like the way certain things look or feel, and they pay money for it.<p>I agree that having a "hacker keyboard" probably won't make you a better programmer, but then people pay thousands of dollars for top-end laptops when they could probably do just as well with lower-end ones.
A large part of this person's reviews are complaints about the amount of keys. I found the other information in these reviews more enlightening, because personally I don't want more keys.<p>I like the HappyHacking keyboard. Nice size, good keys and layout, perfect for my needs. I have used it for ~3 years, no complaints, but at its current price you're also paying for warm, fuzzy feelings that come with the product.<p>Das Keyboard feels a lot cheaper in every regard and makes a ton of noise. I gave it away as a present to a co-worker. He loved it, and it improved his typing skills, but I can think of better ways to improve your typing.<p>I have a feeling that my HHK won't break anytime soon, but if I were to need a replacement, I would probably buy it again, or look for something similar. Perhaps one of the alternatives suggested by OP.<p>I am very happy with my ThinkPad keyboard as well. Even for gaming it works fine for me. Probably even better than a traditional keyboard, and definitely much better than the keyboards of previously owned Apple products (MacBook Pro & Air, early generation).
I don't really care what other people use in terms of keyboard layout or non-layout, but loud clicking is incredibly distracting. I had to get active noise cancellation headphones to be able to work in one room with a fellow developer who insisted on using such a monster.
Some of their other writing seems to be of a similarly low quality. Another of their pages [0] seems to mirror a post [1] that they had sent to comp.lang.lisp, where they describe their difficulty with finding out the identities behind some blogs in sufficient detail.<p>> PS it annoys me to no end when one cannot easily find the name of the author on blogs, when the blog author clearly didn't meant to be anonymous. Is there a reason you didn't want it spelled it out?<p>This turns into a small rant against handles, which, if you set aside the jargon, are essentially nicknames.<p>> (i despise hacker culture, where these “hackers” idiotic-namesake prefer to go by “handles” or abbrevs (e.g. “RMS”, “ESR”, “JWZ”) or whatnot insider-fashion fuck. But that's just me.)<p>One person seemed a bit annoyed by them, so they then responded with a larger rant [2] that proposes that “hackers” are a strict subset of the people who like to tinker with computers, without ever clearly describing <i>what</i> it is about “hackers” that they “despise” — concluding:<p>> It is this group of people, i despise. More accurately: i despise their general style and outlook. I despite them. Fuck them. FUCK hackers. FUCK their hacking. Fuck their mothers. Scumbags.<p>At this point, I’d have dismissed them as a troll, but they went to the effort of buying a domain name and everything!<p>[0] <a href="http://xahlee.info/Netiquette_dir/whats_hacker.html" rel="nofollow">http://xahlee.info/Netiquette_dir/whats_hacker.html</a><p>[1] <a href="https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.lang.lisp/VQF8CIUIotg/q8fpqJu1kocJ" rel="nofollow">https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.lang.lisp/VQF8CIUIotg/q...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.lang.lisp/VQF8CIUIotg/PBzANdq4JMgJ" rel="nofollow">https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.lang.lisp/VQF8CIUIotg/P...</a>
How is it surprising that premium/hobbyist keyboards are expensive?<p>$200 for a keyboard that you use for hours everyday for 5-10 years is not unreasonable.
Unclear for what reason the author put the Model M / Unicomp in there. When I click the link, he says he'd like one except for the lack of an ergo form factor.<p>I own a Unicomp (at home, where I can't bother coworkers), and love the tactile feel of the thing. Plus, I'm a weirdo who types dvorak, and I was pleased to be able to buy the keyboard with a hardware dvorak layout. And, the thing wasn't crazy expensive compared to most keyboards. I think I paid < $100 for it.
I am thinking of buying (somehow. because these things doesn't exist in my country, and I am thinking I will have to build it from scratch) a MX Brown keyboard...<p>Anyone here know if their clicking is less obnoxious, or if they click at all?<p>I do want the tactile feedback, when you feel the key giving away and can release it immediately, but I don't want to annoy other people (myself I don't get bothered by the noise...)
Chorded keyboards are silly - just like chorded instruments. Can't argue with the obvious superiority of the 2000-keyed guitar rather than just one with 6 strings and 20 frets.<p>Also, it's not like you'll be using keyboards for half a decade, so yeah... learning something like that would be a total waste of time.<p>^ typed on my favorite keyboard - the $12* Logitech K120<p>* Canadian... includes a mouse.
I work with one of the 60% keyboards. The biggest plus for me is having the navigation keys within the home row, but the biggest negative is having to press fn to use the function keys. I don't know if I'd go so far to call it idiocy though.
I'm sorry but how does having no key labels, improve speed and accuracy? I haven't looked at my keyboard in probably twenty years, and most of the keys are worn off on the current one now. Will erasing the existing ones somehow speed me up?