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Comment by chin7an | Hacker News Reader

If MSFT released a cherry MX version of this keyboard, and moved the 6 key to the right hand cluster, it'd be an instant buy from me. I learned touch typing with 6 on the right side, and most keyboards I've seen have it setup the same, so not sure why MS sticks with this convention.

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Huh. I haven't used an ergo keyboard in many years, and never used one much, but just checked and sure enough, I type the 6 with my left hand, every time.

It's either an innate it's-easier-for-some-reason thing, or else it's habit from stretching across the number keys while playing WASD+mouse video games. I type 7 and up with my right, though.

Interesting, I never played much games but the WASD keys sounds like a really good reason why some may type '6' with the left hand.

Yeah, they're hot-keys for various things in a lot of games. If you've spent much time playing PC FPS games of the old-school type where your dude can carry a whole arsenal at once, for example, then you've had to get very good at quickly and precisely striking the entire number row with your left hand, since they're typically used to swap to a specific weapon, plus sometimes some of the F keys for other reasons (thinking in Jedi Knight, where F-keys are used to trigger force powers or healing in the default layout). Or any of the old-school keyboard + mouse or keyboard + joystick simulator games where almost every button does something, especially if they're combat oriented simulators (since that adds a lot of urgency to needing to hit many buttons very fast) like Mechwarrior or X-Wing/TIE Fighter.

I second this wholeheartedly. There were the Microsoft natural keyboards and the cheap $20 knockoffs that had the six key on the right. I always had to look for those. I thought I was broken but apparently I’m not alone.

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