Ask HN: What keyboards have a real strategic advantage?

[SteveDeFacto]

I bought a TypeMatrix 2030 and it does offer a few advantages such as being able to change layouts with the press of a button, a nice slim matrix design, and some other useful function keys. However, there are several disadvantages as well. What keyboards have you used or seen that you think would improve productivity?

[dizzystar]

I use a Das Keybaord. I've read the claims that you will be able to type faster with it, but I haven't seen an improvement here. I've tested my speed and it is about the same as what I can get on my laptop.

The boon for me has been that my hands don't get tired and sore. I was using a standard-issue Dell flat-key keyboard and every single night, my hands burned and I felt like my pinkies were going to fall of. My job requires near-constant typing, so this was a major issue for me.

The main productivity for me has been learning and getting comfortable with hot-keys as well as using the Vimium plug-in.

[SteveDeFacto]

Unrelated but I have used Vimium too. In my opinion Pentadactyl for Firefox is far better than Vimium. Firefox can also be as fast or faster than chrome if you enable pipeling. Then there are also countless other plugins for Firefox that can improve productivity.

[dizzystar]

I'll definitely try that out. I use FF at home but I'm basically forced to use Chrome at work. I have a few javascript scripts I run through the browser URL, and as far as I can tell, this doesn't work with FF.

[SteveDeFacto]

I think either greasemonkey or firebug extensions would do what you are looking for. Remember, firefox is all about extendability. They want to only provide you with the minimal features which most users need and let you choose what features you want to add.