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Comment by dotancohen | Hacker News Reader

That sounds a lot more like a keyboard hobby, than a keyboard.

It is! If you want a keyboard that you never think about, a programmable wacky layout keyboard is not for you.

But if you use your keyboard a lot, keyboard hobbyism can be rewarding to a certain point.

With QMK you can essentially program your keyboard to behave exactly how you want it to. This can be as simple as creating layers or getting into combos and tap dances and more advanced features. It is actually pretty fun when you get the hang of it.

It makes perfect sense to customize the primary interface to computers.

It's very basic customization of a tool you use all day for your job. This is a strange attitude to me coming from a programmer.

Some of us don't program that much anymore but because we're older, the ergonomic aspects of something like Moonlander are important. Ortholinear and split keyboard for me. But I still want to be able to hop into a terminal or IDE once in a while, without having to spend a bunch of time customizing keyboard shortcuts/layouts. So it's painful to be missing all those keys.

I used to customise my car, my keyboard, even my fountain pens. Now, I just want to use them. I bought a car that's quick enough to pass lumbering trucks on tight roads (Tesla Model 3), I bought a pen that fits my hand and writes comfortably (Jinhao A10 EF), and I'd love a keyboard like the Matias Ergo Pro that I don't need to replace every year.

Not sure where you're getting the idea that you need to replace the keyboard every year. And you only really have to customize the keyboard for a short while until it covers your personal needs.

It took me maybe 1 week total after getting used to the keyboard to set it up in a way that worked for me personally, and the keyboard has already lasted a year and still works like new, and looks like new, and many people have had the same ergo-keyboard for years on end.

I like you did not like the idea of having to finnick with it all the time, but in reality those are just the enthusiasts. I set it up in a couple weeks and ever since then I've probably only messed with it a few times more just to try something out of curiosity.

  > Not sure where you're getting the idea that you need to replace the keyboard every year.

Because the Matias Ergo Pro really is the perfect keyboard, but for myself and many other users they break after a year. At $250 that becomes expensive real quick.

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