[lars_francke]

Thank you very much for the detailed response. I'll look at all those options. I've been using a Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 for ages and it is slowly disintegrating so I'll need a replacement in the next few years.

The quality has been great. It's lasted 15 or so years now.

I switched to an optimized keyboard layout (neo2 - German) in 2006 when I had carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands and then also switched to one of those ergonomic keyboards.

Now, I'm basically looking for a successor.

[coldpie]

Check out the Feker Alice 98. It just came out (my pre-order arrived just last Friday) and is an excellent modern recreation of my favorite keyboard, the Microsoft Natural line of keyboards from circa 2000. There's a separate model without the numpad, if you don't use that (I do).

Complaints? No Home/End. The extra B on the right side is weird. The proximity of the arrow keys means sometimes I hit the left arrow-key when pressing backspace. But those are all easy to adjust to, I think. I'm excited to finally have a good, modern replacement for the Natural keyboards. Highly recommend this one.

[tom_]

My ~2000-era MS Natural keyboard has the following. (I keep it in a drawer, as an emergency spare for when I run out of MS Natural 4000s.)

- Full navigation cluster

- Arrow keys away from the main area

- Ctrl+Shift in line on both sides

- Right-hand Alt key

- Right-hand Windows key and right-hand Windows context key (you don't need both IMO, however having one is useful as you can remap it to be the right-hand version of the one you do use - the MS Natural 4000 is fine)

- Only one B key

- f6 on the left side of the split

For a device that relies so much on muscle memory, you'd think that designers would do a better job of laying theirs out exactly like every other one. But... apparently not?

My search for a replacement continues.

[coldpie]

> My ~2000-era MS Natural keyboard has the following. (I keep it in a drawer, as an emergency spare for when I run out of MS Natural 4000s.)

Hahaha! I have the same thing. I've got one original MS Natural still BNIB, and two Elite models each with a lot of mileage on them. I've long been dreading the day that my stash runs dry. Been keeping an eye on keyboard forums for years waiting for a replacement. The popularity of high-end keyboards with the terrible rectangle layout utterly baffles me. Why would someone who cares about keyboards ever choose that layout?

The Alice layout comes close enough to the Natural layout that I think it's a fantastic replacement. My complaints are small enough that I'm already adjusting after just a few hours of usage. I'm just thrilled someone is making a split ergo keyboard with a numpad!!

[tom_]

Indeed. The weird navigation keys are weird, as they're in funny places and half of them are missing. And I might have some suggestions about better places to put the arrow keys. But there's a numeric keypad, and there's a full set of F keys! Progress!