This is why I'm always so annoyed by all the "qwerty vs. dvorak" arguments. It's pretty much the least problematic part of conventional keyboard design.
Having used a DIY columnar staggered keyboard for about a year a laptop keyboard feels like using a device that is not designed for humans.
I'm planning to build a custom 3d printed one with a comparable layout but fewer keys. Mostly to try some ideas and features.
However I would say that today this has largely been superseded by a myriad of better choices. For the adventurous type there's e.g. Dactyl Manuform. If one does not care so much for the keywell there's Lily 58, Iris or Kyria. For built-in tenting there's ZSA Moonlander, Redox etc.
All of these have better customizability, repairability and portability than a Kinesis Advantage.
Want to try diffent key switches? Use hot-swap sockets.
Want wireless? Drop in a nice!nano microcontroller.
Want to create a crazy custom key layout or macros? You can do anything you want in QMK and flash it to the microcontrollers.
Why? To be blunt, I don’t care at all about fancy keyswitches, or wirelessness, or portability. I’m simply looking for the most comfortable input device possible.
If non-ergonomic rubber dome keyboards feel like plastic chairs, all of the other keyboards you mentioned feel like fancy wooden chairs. Some of them might be incredibly well-crafted and contour to your body! But the Kinesis feels like a top-of-the-line high-tech massage chair. I’ve tried dozens and dozens of ergonomic keyboards —- and even made one, by designing a PCB and printing it out —- but at the end of the day, the Kinesis is the keyboard I will ALWAYS reach for.
https://michael.stapelberg.ch/posts/2020-07-09-kint-kinesis-...
As a Linux user this leaves me really second guessing.
Best of all, all keyswapping and other layout changes are done via the keyboard itself so absolutely no software required to be installed :)
Thank you in advance.
I guess that leaves 3 on the thumbs unused ... I should look at that