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Comment by jimpudar | Hacker News Reader

I backed Keyboardio in the initial round of funding, and now use the Model 01 every day. It is truly an incredible product!

I've been extremely impressed with Jesse and Kaia's transparency throughout the whole process. I'm sure they will come out on top of this.

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Would you mind elaborating on what makes it different from any other programmable, mechanical split keyboard?

I've had RSI issues for a few years now, and I've tried a whole lot of split mechanical keyboards. I've found others I like, but there are a couple of "killer" Model 01 features that will keep me from going back to any other board:

* The 'fn' buttons under the palm are super ergonomic. They make the lack of physical function keys a non-issue. Which leads to:

* vi-style arrow keys everywhere! Just hit 'fn'!

* Modifier keys under the thumbs took a little while to get used to, but are so much more comfortable in the long run.

* Frequently used keys like 'Return', 'Tab', and 'Esc' are under your strong index fingers. Can't tell you how much better my pinkies feel between this and the previously mentioned modifiers being under the thumb.

* Curly and square brackets are very close to the home row. You just press 'fn' and they are right above the fingers of your right hand.

* Individually sculpted keycaps aren't a gimmick; they really make it much easier to find where your hands go.

In addition to those features:

* Matias keyswitches have long been my favorites.

* It has high quality wooden enclosures and cool programmable LEDs that really look great and stand out in the office. (Could be a con if you don't like the attention)

* Open source! Need I say more?

On top of that, it's been fascinating to read Jesse and Kaia's blog throughout the entire process. They are extremely responsive to questions and comments. You can tell they really have a passion for this product.

The Model 01 improves upon its inspiration, the Esrille, but has wobbly, non-standard switches and the keycaps feel cheap. The open source community built up around the hardware is the real asset.

I could not disagree more. I bought one after the Kickstarter, and the hardware is very high quality.

Same here. If you think there may have been QC issues with your board, reach out to Jesse and Kaia and they will take care of you.

Matias keyswitches are fantastic, I've never heard of anyone calling them "non-standard" or "cheap". They are a recreation of the classic ALPS keyswitches used in early Apple and IBM keyboards.

Although I am overall happy with my Keyboardio, I must say the Matias keyswitches have been a bit of a disappointment. They're okay, but don't feel quite as nice, to me, as actual ALPS — I still have a working Kinesis Evolution that I use frequently, so I can compare them directly — or as Cherry switches. I wish they'd gone with Cherry.

Do you use the quiet ones, or the clicky ones?

I have one of each, but I generally prefer the quiet ones.

I originally ordered two with the Quiet Click switches, but when my first one arrived I wasn't that taken with them, so I asked Jesse to change my second one to the Click switches. But those were even worse; some of the keys were sticky. There was eventually an update from Keyboardio (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/keyboardio/the-model-01...) about the problems with the Click switches, but before that came out, I decided to try converting the Click keyboard to the Quiet Linear switches, as described by someone on the forum. I do like the Quiet Linear better; I think they're almost as good as anything else. However, I have also noticed that I dislike the Quiet Click less than I originally did; I think they've loosened up a bit with use. (The problem I had with them was that there was a bit of friction in the travel; not enough to make the key stick, but enough to make them less pleasant to type on.)

Do you have a link to the forum post about the Quiet Linear mod? I'd be interested in checking that out.

I used the Matias Ergo Pro with the Quiet Click switches pretty much exclusively before I got my Model 01, so I was already very used to that style of switch when I first got the board.

https://community.keyboard.io/t/swapping-out-keyswitch-mecha...

> its inspiration, the Esrille

Note: there have been several loosely similar keyboards. Both the Esrille folks and the keyboardio folks were inspired by some of the same sources, such as the English Maltron from the 1970s and the Japanese TRON project from the late 80s–early 90s. e.g. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/TRON-Key...

(And of course both are directed by human hand anatomy.)

But it is not accurate to claim that the Esrille was a primary inspiration for keyboardio.

> non-standard switches

There is no “standard” type of keyswitches.

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