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Comment by isaac_is_goat | Hacker News Reader

Mechanical keyboards are overrated. They're great, don't get me wrong - and I've used them for years - but they are not the end all be-all to everything your fingertips will press down.

I've actually given up on my Cherry MX Brown DAS and switch to a Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop and it's absolutely fantastic. The design is odd at first, but after using it for a few hours I realized that the way I thought about mouse and keyboard ergonomics has been wrong my entire life until now. The pain and finger fatigue that I'd started to feel from the mechnical keyboard and gaming mouse I'd been using as my daily drivers simply vanished after just under a day of standard use. It really is a thing of beauty.

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I've done the same transition. I used to love my keyboard with Blues but it never quite solved the problem for me and is too noisy to use at work. I then also realized that the position and angle of the hands and wrists is probably more important then the type of keys.

After I tried the sculpt keyboard it has become my new daily driver both at home and work.

I'll have to give another spin at MS wavy layouts. I fell in love with ThinkPads and old school keyboards. My view is biased by music. Guitar and pianos are straight, but with time you shift how you use your hands/fingers to allow fun on it. I do think it's the same for keyboards. But maybe I'm wrong.

I love the Sculpt. I have one at work, and one at home.

I've been using it home, because I have a magic keyboard at work but I'll probably get another one to use there as well; it's that good.

I wish there were some split mechanical keyboards. I know there is the "Ultimate Hacking Keyboard" but that is out of my price range.

Have you considered eBay? Mechanical keyboards are durable so used is likely to be worthwhile. I got my Kinesis for $170, which is much less than the new price.

You can buy the Ergodox EZ pre-built, which is a nice split mechanical keyboard. If the price is too high, there are people on r/mrchmarket who are selling ones they've built using generic parts for half of that price, sans keycaps. Either way there are split mechs out there.

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