Whichever I damn well please! ;)
I’m so tired of being judged by my keyboard selection. So I’m telling you that now before I tell you.
Let’s start by considering who actually has the greatest need for maximum typing speed in the world. Here’s a hint. It ain’t coders and gamers. Yeah, it’s writers.
So what keyboards do writers use?
Here’s another hint. It doesn’t glow with LED hues and make enough noise to drive any normal person to a level of insanity calling them from inside to track you down and beat you to a bloody pulp with the damn thing. (I fucking HATE keyboard noise.)
Ding, ding, ding! You guessed it.
The now “classic” 52-key (yes I use ever one of those number pad keys) chicklet keyboard from, wait for it, Apple Computer Company. I own about 16 of them (left over from a school I ran).
I know. I know. I despise Apple.
But there is simply no keyboard more silent, more ergonomic, and faster for most regular typing demands than this beautifully ugly aluminum white thing. In fact, it is the only white colored thing within three feet anything at my workstation (which I admittedly hate, but cannot find a “dark mode” equivalent in any knock off I’ve tried).
The modern keyboard from Apple prompted a class action lawsuit. They are horrible, loud and prone to utter destruction from the smallest bit of corn chip. I know, I have a shitty Macbook Pro that I would love to unload but can’t now because this. Thank God it still has an escape key though.
But really that shouldn’t matter.
Speaking of the escape key. I don’t use it. I use Control-[ and have
had international techies tell me they actually prefer American keyboard
layouts just so they can have that and have the | key in expected
place.
There. Laugh all you want, gamers. My keyboard of choice is a Mac. (108 is my top on Nitrotype, btw). If you actually care about your hands, you will get off those noise, beastly mechanical keyboards as soon as possible. I predict a wave of all kinds of ergonomic, chronic conditions in about 20 years. We already tried these, people. That’s where the low profile came from. But none of y’all remember so you are making the same mistake we made in the 80s that led to the slim keyboards of the 90s. I know because I personally knew people who had to wear a brace constantly just from using their horrible IBM keyboards.
But y’all are gonna do what you want anyway. You have been warned.
Oh yeah, split keyboards are useless pieces of wacky shit that “appeal to a certain type of person who also is inclined to wear five-finger shoes” (a great quote from green_jenny on Twitch ).
Oh wait, there actually may be evidence to the contrary! Looks like split keyboards might be better. I maintain my hypothesis that low profile, low travel keyboards reduce the muscle strain that was the major cause of those studies. None of them includes studies with low-profile keyboards. Only the shitty mechanical ones. And yeah, I agree, a split keyboard beast like that would obviously be better given the travel and muscles required to activate the keys. Not so with a low-profile, low-travel, writer-preferred Apple keyboard).