Recently started using the chicklet one. The layout is ok, but not as good as the classic, for me, mainly because the home/end keys are harder to find and they are quite useful. Apart from that, it's not bad, although I preferred having a menu button on my thumb than a print screen button.
I preferred the feel slightly on the classic thinkpad keyboards, but these keys feel bigger in use which is nice too. Having the arrow keys separated slightly is a big win. So yeah, while I do slightly prefer the classic keyboard, I don't think there's much in it, and the underlighting is quite nice.
Mac as well. Small Mac keyboards has this, big has ctrl in the "correct" position. On the Mac there is no setting "bios" or otherwise to remap it though.
>On the Mac there is no setting "bios" or otherwise to remap it though.
That might be literally true for some sense of the word "setting", but its certainly misleading: in the lower levels of OS X, the function key can almost certainly be remapped to control.
The only reason I had to add the qualifier "almost certainly" is that I never had to learn how to use OS X's analog to loadkeys or xmodmap because for my purposes it sufficed for Emacs to swap function with control.
But since Emacs has access to the "raw scancode" for the function key, OS X must have it, too.
In other words, the Mac is not like one of those PC laptops where the interpretation of "the function modifier bit" takes place at a level lower than the OS. Consequently I would be shocked if there were no way to swap function with control OS-wide if one is willing to research the question on the net.
On the other hand, you can trivially remap CapsLock to control, and then why would you care about the bottom-left control when you've got a big one right in the (vertical) center of the left-hand side?
Probably because those of us who grew up with PC keyboards instead of workstation keyboards are used to pressing Ctrl with our pinky or palm. Still, Caps Lock remains an essentially useless key ripe for remapping.
Probably the piece I was missing. I grew up on PC keyboards but never hit Ctrl with my palm (I can't even figure out how I'd do it). And thus never understood the love some have for a control key in the bottom-left corner (with Fn between Alt and Control): even without the Caps remap, Ctrl next to Alt (as on thinkpads and macs) means easier pinkie travel (almost solely vertical versus an awkward stretch to the bottom and side) compared to a Ctrl stuffed in the far corner.
I guess it's not exactly my palm that I use, but the first joint where the pinky meets the hand. It's more difficult to do this on a laptop keyboard than my Model M.
> I guess it's not exactly my palm that I use, but the first joint where the pinky meets the hand.
Yes, that's how I figured it'd work (as the palm would require having the fingers over the top of the keyboard), but I still find it odd.
Then again, my "desktop" keyboard has been an MS Natural Ergo 4000 for the last decade or so, so it's got a very small control key with precious little definition compared to the surrounding keys, can't help either.
I preferred the feel slightly on the classic thinkpad keyboards, but these keys feel bigger in use which is nice too. Having the arrow keys separated slightly is a big win. So yeah, while I do slightly prefer the classic keyboard, I don't think there's much in it, and the underlighting is quite nice.