| I use an Advantage 2 and love it. I really like the Squeezebox, I'd love to try it! > the performance for him is the same Does he mean for RSI prevention? Because if you're using an ergonomic keyboard for anything else, it seems unlikely you'll get much benefit from one. Being able to remap keys and record macros is handy, but other than some remaps for comfort, I don't use that feature really. I do also use the foot pedals though (mainly for shift, although I don't always use it). Typing "performance" isn't thaat much better than other keyboards, but typing "comfort" is a lot better and I hate using other keyboards now. > I think when it comes to keyboards and layouts Again, for comfort (not speed), I switched to Colemak about 7 years ago and I feel it was a very good decision for me. Typing is super comfortable and OS support is good (OS X and Linux have support out of the box, windows does require the layout to be installed but its easy to do). > Ctrl + x/c/v are no longer in a row Colemak was designed for this in mind. It keeps all the very commonly used shortcut keys in the qwerty positions: wqazxcv are all unmoved. Yes, vim hjkl is different but tbh, I got used to it quite quickly and also when using the Kinesis, I have foot pedal + (qwerty) ijkl (ie a wasd layout but on the right hand) mapped to them for even more convenience. Additionally, the cursor keys are in comfortable reach on the Kinesis Advantage2 too. I leave the keycaps in qwerty layout, since I don't look at them anyway and sometimes its convenient to be able to see what a key would be in qwerty (like telling you the ijkl keys just now, in colmak that's unei) > I think a casual user would face challenges trying to adapt the keyboard to day-to-day tasks Agreed, I don't think these alternative keyboards or layouts make any sense for a casual user. For a heavy typist though, I think its very worthwhile, if only to protect your hands from injury and strain. As bsdubernerd mentioned, my favourite features of the advantage (roughly in order) are: thumb button clusters, columnar layout, arched keys, mechanical keys, foot pedal, customisability. |