Mechanical keyboards have several (clicky/thocky/tactile/linear/etc switches, Cherry MX Browns, etc), but if I had to choose one, maybe ortholinear vs staggered.
A picture will probably illustrate it best:
Ortholinear evangelists contend that the staggered layout was invented for mechanical typewriters exclusively to reduce the incidence of typebar collisions and is detrimental to optimal ergonomics. I, as someone who prefers staggered keyboards, just don’t want to be ruined for the majority of keyboards out there. (If my muscle memory “learns” that “m” is “here” because I use an ortholinear keyboard at home, I’m worried it’ll be awkward to use a standard keyboard on a laptop or whatever and I’ll be fat-fingering keys all over the place.) I might switch sides someday. Who knows. But for now, I’ll stick with staggered.
As an undergrad, I worked in the university’s tech support dept. We had one person come in–I think he was a computer engineer–and set his keyboard to Dvorak each day. Then he’d just leave and nobody else could use that computer until he’d come back and we’d yell at him.
As someone who has switched back and forth from a split ortho board and a “regular” keyboard depending on vibes it’s not actually that bad. I learned colemak dh on the ortho though and can not use it on the regular keyboard for some reason so you might have a point to some extent.
Mechanical keyboards have several (clicky/thocky/tactile/linear/etc switches, Cherry MX Browns, etc), but if I had to choose one, maybe ortholinear vs staggered.
A picture will probably illustrate it best:
Ortholinear evangelists contend that the staggered layout was invented for mechanical typewriters exclusively to reduce the incidence of typebar collisions and is detrimental to optimal ergonomics. I, as someone who prefers staggered keyboards, just don’t want to be ruined for the majority of keyboards out there. (If my muscle memory “learns” that “m” is “here” because I use an ortholinear keyboard at home, I’m worried it’ll be awkward to use a standard keyboard on a laptop or whatever and I’ll be fat-fingering keys all over the place.) I might switch sides someday. Who knows. But for now, I’ll stick with staggered.
Been on a tiny ortho KB for months now. Just now ketting the hana ow it. Kinsa.
Also, the delete key is above the backspace. I had no idea how either key worked because I’ve been working on reflex for 30 years.
As an undergrad, I worked in the university’s tech support dept. We had one person come in–I think he was a computer engineer–and set his keyboard to Dvorak each day. Then he’d just leave and nobody else could use that computer until he’d come back and we’d yell at him.
As someone who has switched back and forth from a split ortho board and a “regular” keyboard depending on vibes it’s not actually that bad. I learned colemak dh on the ortho though and can not use it on the regular keyboard for some reason so you might have a point to some extent.
Reminds me it’s been a while since I posted to !mechanical_keyboards@programming.dev