Hacker News Reader

Comment by mtlmtlmtlmtl | Hacker News Reader

Split ortholinear keyboard with a clit mouse. If someone makes this to where I can just plug and play and program the keyboard firmware directly I'm switching at the next opportune moment(I'm not a hardware guy, I stop at the lowest levels of programming and leave the soldering to steadier hands...)

Though my Thinkpad can still handle another 5 years of wanton abuse I'm sure, so I have all the time in the world.

Man my next laptop is gonna be awesome. Literally everything I want in a laptop, which has never existed until now(well, soon).

View on HN

There is a huge untapped market segment here. It's only a matter of time before someone makes it happen.

Honestly, I see the biggest problem that people have entering the ortholinear/ergonomic keyboard market is cost: the obvious choice is to target mechanical keyswitches, but you quickly realize your consumer base would rather pay more (in parts cost and construction effort) to get exactlty what they want.

But what if you went as cheap as possible instead? What if you made flat rubber dome boards that cost next to nothing to manufacture; and sold them for $40 a pop? You would probably broaden your target audience by a factor of 100, and have huge profit margins.

Doing that for an integrated laptop keyboard would be even easier to sell. I would gladly use shitty rubber dome switches if it meant having a split ortho layout that I didn't have to lug around separately from my laptop. I would buy that yesterday.

I'd love someone to do a split ortholinear keyboard on a laptop. That'd probably push it to instant buy for me almost regardless of the rest of the specs etc.

Split ortholinear is possible. We didn't show this, but it is technically possible to build an Input Module for the Framework Laptop 16 that is full width, giving a lot of horizontal real estate for a split layout.

Please do an ortho or split ortho layout. I get that it'd be low volume but I'd be willing to pay a premium if it meant being able to keep my Helidox Corne at home while I travel or go into the office, without sacrificing ergonomics.

Looking forward to purchasing the 16 regardless though. Keep up the amazing work / mission with Framework. Fantastic work to the team.

As a dev with hands that won't let me use a standard laptop keyboard for more than a few minutes without being in pain, this is so needed. It would be so good to be mobile again.

Have you had much experience with mechanical keyboards? I do much better with just unicomp m-style buckling spring or cherry mx brown (real cherry, not the fake that some use).

I'm curious what you found that helped alleviate your pain? For me it was the kinesis advantage.

+1 to the sibling comments for a split keyboard option.

(Preferably a proper version with thumb clusters.)

At least for me, that would make this laptop a must-buy.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com