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Ask HN: What keyboard do you use to code?

16 pointsby sriharisabout 8 years ago
I want to buy a good keyboard for myself. And I didn&#x27;t find a question here in HN that asked this. So I figured I&#x27;d ask.<p>What do you use?

32 comments

nradovabout 8 years ago
Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.microsoft.com&#x2F;accessories&#x2F;en-us&#x2F;products&#x2F;keyboards&#x2F;natural-ergonomic-keyboard-4000&#x2F;b2m-00012" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.microsoft.com&#x2F;accessories&#x2F;en-us&#x2F;products&#x2F;keyboar...</a><p>I have large hands so it&#x27;s very comfortable and allows me to type without contorting my wrists. Conventional flat keyboards are likely a major cause of repetitive strain injuries.
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marssaxmanabout 8 years ago
I&#x27;m not picky as long as it is &quot;tenkeyless&quot; and not too bulky. I never use the number pad anyway; being right-handed, the mouse feels uncomfortably far away when the keyboard has a big bulky extra sidecar sticking out.<p>At present I&#x27;m using Lenovo&#x27;s thinkpad-style USB keyboard (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;dp&#x2F;B00F3U4TQS&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;dp&#x2F;B00F3U4TQS&#x2F;</a>). I like its slimness and the trackpoint is convenient. There&#x27;s nothing especially lovely about it, but neither does it ever annoy me. It&#x27;s also nice for muscle memory that all three of the computers I use regularly have exactly the same keyboard layout, whether they are portables or desktops.<p>I tried out the Happy Hacking keyboard, but it&#x27;s been collecting dust for a year or two now. It&#x27;s nice in a nostalgic way, reminiscent of the original Macintosh keyboard I used when I was first learning to type, but the long-throw keyswitches and loud clicking sound got old.
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zckabout 8 years ago
I use an ergodox (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ergodox.io&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ergodox.io&#x2F;</a>) with Cherry MX Clears at work, and one with Cherry MX Greens at home.<p>The ergodox is a split-hand^1 columnar^2 layout, with a thumb cluster. I like the thumb cluster because normally your thumbs are wasted.<p>Also, as a bonus, I got to build it myself! This is not required, but I had fun doing it.<p>[1] Each hand has a separate piece of the keyboard, and these pieces can be moved independently of each other.<p>[2] A &quot;traditional&quot; QWERTY keyboard has horizontal rows of keys, and these rows are not aligned. An Ergodox has vertical columns of keys, and these rows are not aligned.
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derstanderabout 8 years ago
I use a Corsair Vengeance K70 Mechanical Keyboard. It&#x27;s a &quot;gaming&quot; keyboard, so it&#x27;s unfortunately got what I would consider garish red lights. But it was one of the more economical mechanical keyboards that I could get my hands on relatively easily.<p>I&#x27;m interested in an ergonomic mechanical keyboard -- either one that&#x27;s completely split or something more reminiscent of Microsoft&#x27;s Natural Ergonomic Keyboard series -- but I have yet to find one for what I would consider a reasonable price.
jmiserezabout 8 years ago
Kinesis Advantage 2 LF with US layout. Best there is, after a ~2 week adjustment.<p>Now they even offer it with blank keycaps, very much looking forward to those.<p>At home I also have a CODE TKL, also a very nice keyboard.
dzolvdabout 8 years ago
Kinesis Advantage, I used to have pretty serious carpal tunnel issues and the kinesis took care of the problem. I love the usability of the thumb buttons.
Kareeeeemabout 8 years ago
Topre Realforce, the tenkeyless 55g model. Very expensive but I can definitely recommend it.<p>It&#x27;s quiet enough for the office as well.<p>On a sidenote, I hate the keyboard on my thinkpad x220. People rave about thinkpad keyboards but aside from the switches, which are nice, the base feels bouncy. Feels like it&#x27;s mounted on cardboard.
brudgersabout 8 years ago
In my opinion, the best resource for programming keyboards is Xha Lee: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;xahlee.info&#x2F;kbd&#x2F;keyboard_blog.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;xahlee.info&#x2F;kbd&#x2F;keyboard_blog.html</a> Agree or disagree, there is a lot of information accumulated over many years.
avitzurelabout 8 years ago
ErgodoxEZ.<p>Tried before All versions of MS natural&#x2F;ergo etc.. Happy hacking keyboard Truly Ergonomic DAS professional Apple keyboard Matias Ergo Pro<p>I finally settled on the ErgodoxEZ and it feels great. I had to force myself to learn touch typing. After about a month, it started feeling really comfortable.
neilsimp1about 8 years ago
I use a $25 or so PS&#x2F;2 keyboard from Newegg that I bought 6 or 7 years ago. I couldn&#x27;t be happier with it. It &#x27;s a plain old keyboard with zero flair.<p>I&#x27;m curious, though. Does anyone here have any experience with Jeff Atwood&#x27;s CODE Keyboard?<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;codekeyboards.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;codekeyboards.com&#x2F;</a> <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.codinghorror.com&#x2F;the-code-keyboard&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.codinghorror.com&#x2F;the-code-keyboard&#x2F;</a><p>Edit: Of course after posting a see a few people&#x27;s comments saying that they like them.
framebitabout 8 years ago
Kinesis Freestyle2 Blue for Mac: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kinesis-ergo.com&#x2F;shop&#x2F;freestyle2-for-mac&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kinesis-ergo.com&#x2F;shop&#x2F;freestyle2-for-mac&#x2F;</a><p>My coworkers make fun of me for it, but it really helps my posture and wrist issues to have a split keyboard. I thought it would take me a long time to adjust, but within five minutes I was good to go! I&#x27;ve heard some complain about the placement of page up and page down right next to the arrow keys, but it doesn&#x27;t bother me. I really appreciate the one-button cut, copy, paste functions.
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anotheryouabout 8 years ago
Cherry KC 4000: cheap, laptop-style, no num-pad and not ugly.<p>I removed the annoyingly positioned fn-key (removed the rubber-dome and glued it down, so the felt edge of the keyboard is the ctrl key).<p>I tried mechanical cherry brown keyswitches, but it wasn&#x27;t for me.<p>No num-pad and no fn, because my keyboard layout¹ has the numbers under my right hand when I hold a modifier.<p>¹ <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;neo-layout.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;neo-layout.org&#x2F;</a> (hover &quot;Ebene 1&#x2F;2&#x2F;3&#x2F;4&quot; above diagram of the keyboard)
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sharmiabout 8 years ago
I use a TVS Mechanical keyboard with Cherry blue keys. This is the only model we get in our country. I would like to have quieter keys but this is much better than the mushy keys.<p>Laptop is Thinkpad T410. Thinkpads always have awesome keyboards with good key travel and tactile feedback (atleast the older ones). That and the fact that I can always open the laptop and fix anything myself means I will be a Thinkpad user for a long long time.
rstoabout 8 years ago
I use a KUL ES-87 Tenkeyless Mechanical Keyboard: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.keyeduplabs.com&#x2F;es-87.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.keyeduplabs.com&#x2F;es-87.html</a><p>It&#x27;s quieter than a keyboard with Cherry MX Blue keys and the tenkeyless form factor doesn&#x27;t require my right mouse hand to travel unnecessarily.<p>Edit: I see that it comes with a choice of Cherry keys. I use Cherry MX Brown.
afarrellabout 8 years ago
An IBM external keyboard with a trackpoint. I like it because:<p>- I don&#x27;t need to move my hands back and forth to a mouse<p>- It only takes up 1 USB port<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;ThinkPad-USB-Keyboard-with-TrackPoint&#x2F;dp&#x2F;B002ONCC6G" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;ThinkPad-USB-Keyboard-with-TrackPoint...</a>
cageyabout 8 years ago
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Microsoft-286-00082-Natural-Keyboard-Elite&#x2F;dp&#x2F;B00000JDFD" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Microsoft-286-00082-Natural-Keyboard-...</a><p>Have a stash of Model M&#x27;s and a Kinesis Advantage, but seem to be liking the above-linked MS Natural Elite for now.
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neverminderabout 8 years ago
<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.madcatz.com&#x2F;keyboards&#x2F;strike7.php" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.madcatz.com&#x2F;keyboards&#x2F;strike7.php</a><p>You don&#x27;t have to be a professional racer to drive a ferrari just as you don&#x27;t have to be a gamer to appreciate a keyboard like this.
kasey_junkabout 8 years ago
At work I use a Code keyboard with the MX clears as they are quieter. At home I use a Code keyboard with the MX greens.<p>I also use my macbook pro keyboard by itself a fair bit, but I feel much worse after a few hours of use of it vs the Code keyboards.
kevivabout 8 years ago
I use Cooler MasterMasterKeys Pro S RGB Keyboard. It&#x27;s a Tenkeyless but there&#x27;s a full keyboard available too. Comes with variety of Cherry MX choices. I&#x27;ve got one with Cherry MX Brown.
WillKirkbyabout 8 years ago
At home, Logitech G710+. I love the Cherry MX Brown keys on it.<p>At work, Logitech K120. The &quot;we just buy everyone the same cheap keyboard&quot; keyboard. I&#x27;m not particularly fond of it.
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bergieabout 8 years ago
Custom-made version of Atreus <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;atreus.technomancy.us&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;atreus.technomancy.us&#x2F;</a><p>Cherry MX Blue switches.
emidlnabout 8 years ago
Das Keyboard 4 Pro with Cherry MX Blues. I also use the keyboard on my 15&quot; Clevo which, although not mechanical has good travel and a nice sound.
PaulHouleabout 8 years ago
Razer black widow ultimate, most of the time. Sometimes I swap in a Logitech washable k310 if am on calls a lot because mechanical keyboards are noisy.
vldxabout 8 years ago
Magic keyboard. I&#x27;ve got into the hype of mechanical keyboards and bought HHKB2. Now it sits on my desk as a talisman.
s_kilkabout 8 years ago
A Filco Majestouch, the one without the num-pad.
sriharisabout 8 years ago
So far, I see&#x2F;hear good things about<p>- CODE keyboard - Mircrosoft Ergonomic ones - Filco Majistouch - Matias Ergo Pro
GnarfGnarfabout 8 years ago
das keyboard (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.daskeyboard.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.daskeyboard.com&#x2F;</a>). Built like a tank.<p>If I&#x27;m going to spend my life on a keyboard, it better be good.
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peternickyabout 8 years ago
Happy Hacking Professional 2
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space_ghostabout 8 years ago
Vintage Model M. I own several, some full size and one tenkeyless.
tugberkkabout 8 years ago
My Toshiba laptop&#x27;s generic keyboard for most of the time.
sboselliabout 8 years ago
Leopold FC750. Amazing build quality, super sturdy.
midknightowlabout 8 years ago
Cooler Master Storm Quickfire Rapid, Tenkey less