Mild rant - forgot keyboard

General
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Back in an office after four years, have used one of two UHK v2s since the end of 2021.
Brought my silent one home to client at the weekend. Forgot it this morning.
First time using a non UHK since then. F*&king horrible experience. No macros, not split, no modules, using a physical mouse. F*&king mare.

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Thanks for the covert compliment! :slight_smile:

We appreciate it, and we’re working to make the UHK even better.

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I made myself some macros in AutoHotKey (for windows) and keyd (for Linux) so I can at least get some layers whenever I use my Laptop keyboard (i.e. no UHK).

Described here: GitHub - mhantsch/maxtend: Extended keyboard layers for easy navigation and functionality based on Colemak

UHK is tons better, of course, but at least I don’t have to rewire my brain each time I need to use the Laptop.

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I literally can’t go back to using a regular keyboard after living with a split, it’s like I can feel my shoulders tense up when I have to occasionally type on a laptop keyboard.

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You probably can improve your typing experience on a standard keyboard by different posture/ hand position. I prefer a split keyboard, but can type without problems on a standard keyboard and it is not too different. Floating hands, keyboard close, left side symmetrical as good as possible (c-key with index and so on) should be helpful in my experience.

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Perhaps I’m missing something I don’t know but I did make a big effort with ergonomic attempts like you suggested on a normal keyboard but I still felt uncomfortable. I didn’t have any major problems, but that uncomfortableness just bothered me so much I searched for better keyboards and came across the split community. I even tried the ergo dox before the UHK but realised I much prefer staggered keyboards. The ergo journey has been an expensive one :sweat_smile:

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I did not want to suggest that a standard keyboard is the way to go. Split is IMO the biggest step to make it easier to use a keyboard in a comfortable and ergonomic way.

The Ergodox has IMO a horrible thumb cluster, so I am not surprised when someone does not like it. But a symmetrical keyboard (for example with some columnar stagger) is in my experience better, because there is no reason to stick to the row stagger. It just does not make sense, in the same way that holding a key to get to a layer does neither and is just there, because of typewriters more than 100 years ago. It just does not make sense.

Still hoping that UHK will become available one day with a modern key layout, but for now I have have switched to a Lily58, which I find more enjoyable to use. Important for that to work out good for me is that I use a 1.75u thumb key. Look at your UHK. :slight_smile: Over the last months I came to the conclusion that a wide enough thumb key at the position where your thumb falls naturally is a mostly overlooked aspect of what makes a keyboard comfortable and ergonomic to use. The wide space bar of standard keyboards is a big plus in that regard, although it is wider than it needs to be and IMO should also be split of course.

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Yeah columnar stagger is probably better I agree, but I it’s just I’m so used to the typewriter stagger that it feels normal to me and couldn’t get used to the columnar stagger. I didn’t actually mind the thumb clusters, I thought they were quite nice to use. Ergo dox is just such a pain in the ass to customize with all those 1.5 keys - another reason I switched to UHK; and I love custom keycaps. I’ve spent more on keycaps than keyboards themselves :face_with_hand_over_mouth:.

The Lily58 looks cool! I’d deffo consider getting one if I had spare cash. I’d probably prefer a 2.0 thumb key instead of 1.75, but you can’t always get what you want I guess :sweat_smile:

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