Humble Hacker Keyboard
humblehacker.com
humblehacker.com
...still, it actually looks like it would be a real pain in the ass to type on since the keys aren't staggered. Maybe it's something one becomes accoustomed to?
I've only recently been looking for a new keyboard for home because on my current (Microsoft Media Desktop 1000) all the function keys are tiny and packed together with no grouping (F1-F4 F5-F8 F9-F12). Coding is so much slower on it because I can't touch type/find the bloody keys.
And don't get me started on manufacturers who move the insert/delete/home/end/pgup/pgdn keys...
I ended up getting a Lenovo 73P4067 because it's one of the only manufacturers I could find who has a standard keyboard combined with wireless.
Maybe I'm just getting old, and set in my ways, but give me a standard keyboard any day.
/end rant
I can only imagine that it was to avoid having to move the hands off the home row. The keyboard's lack of a trackpoint means it's not the keyboard for me. Which is unfortunate, as the AVR USB uc series (they might be using one but the linked page is unclear) has a usb hid mouse profile available (http://www.fourwalledcubicle.com/LUFA.php)
Traditional layout may have its bugs, but that doesn't mean that anything novel is better.
- You can still hit shift with your pinkies in essentially the same position as traditional Qwerty.
- There's a control key in the "correct" position, next to the A, which is less of a stretch than PC keyboards with control in the bottom corners.
- Yes, you need to move your hand to reach the cursor keys, but how is this worse than Qwerty (where you need to move it even farther)?
- Backspace is a thumb key on this keyboard and requires no finger movement, while on Qwerty it's one of the least-accessible keys.
- PC Qwerty keyboards do require you to move your fingers more than one key left or right. Depending on your exact keyboard model, how else do you type backspace, Enter/Return, Escape, right-bracket/right-brace, pipe/backslash, or equals/plus? (These are totally common keys for programmers, and backspace/enter/return are common for everybody.)