So far so good. I went with a logitech 10 keyless style since it was only $39.99 on sale. I don't know what kind of switches this thing uses but it has pbt keycaps, I think? Anyway here it is on amazon. Feels good to finally have a new kb where I don't have to struggle pushing down the p key.

  • glans [it/its]
    ·
    4 days ago

    i have gone in search of an mkb 3 times and every time i ended up with a keychron. they are the best price + selection. especially for a tkl. if i was OK with a smaller kb there would maybe be better choices. but how do you live without a nav pad???

    i'm sure there are 10000 youtubes and reddit posts to answer this for you.

    • RedWizard [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      3 days ago

      nav pad? you mean numb pad? I'm pretty good at touch typing numbers, but also I'd totally buy a stand-alone mech 10 key. I want this thing pretty bad: https://www.8bitdo.com/retro-18-mechanical-numpad/

      • glans [it/its]
        ·
        3 days ago

        no I mean the part to the left of the num pad:

        Show

        maybe that's just my personal nomenclature? you use it to navigate up down left right top bottom.

        what I can't stand is a 60% where you need to use some key combo for pg up, arrows or whatever. fts. but for some reason thye are more numerous and cheaper.

        Show

        that's a pretty fancy number pad, and not toooo expensive actually. I got a $10 number pad on aliexpress and found I never use it. But if you have data entry or gaming or some other application then very possibly justifiable.

        • RedWizard [he/him, comrade/them]
          ·
          3 days ago

          Oooohhhh! Yes OK that makes sense. I think the K2 is a 75% maybe? It has those keys but they are jammed in there. The home/end/pgup/down keys are on the right side positioned in a single column. The arrow keys are stuffed in the right corner.

          So I have that but it's just in a different spot. The K2 also has a separate F key row too.

          I do some spread sheet work at times in my day job and use a calculator at times. Plus it has built in game lol. I have the matching keyboard so u just want to complete the set too.

          • glans [it/its]
            ·
            3 days ago

            ya k2 is 75%. I'd rather just go up a tiny bit to 80% [tkl] and have an easy to use navpad. Also anything that abbreviates/relocates the shift key I don't like.

            for me personally since I will always have to use computers I don't control, I try not to deviate too much from standard at home because I just get myself all muddled. In highschool I changed my kb to Dvorak over the march break. It was great and I immediately got up to my prior typing speed on qwerty. But then I couldn't type anymore back in the school lab. So I decided I had to go with qwerty. Sadly. Lesson learned.

            (In the revolution, perhaps we may strike a committee to reform the keyboard. As it is, inherently, a location of collective struggle/complacency.)

            At home I have caps lock mapped to control and even that is annoying when I use other kbs because I'm constantly engaging caps by accident. This is why I won't go so far as learning emacs or vim or other more intensive kb interfaces; would constantly be a problem for me.

            Maybe when I am retired I will go back to Dvorak and make all kinds of mad macros on some custom QMK thingy. Or thingies, with a bunch of side kb macro pads hanging off the side for specific applications.

            +1 calculator - people don't value this enough; just because you can use calc on your phone doesn't mean it's the best way. honestly a printing calculator is amazing if you can get it cheap (which you can at a big box thrift store) but either is better than a dang phone.