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Comment by pizzazzaro | Hacker News Reader

Ergodox EZ lets you pick which keyboard switches you prefer. Its another crowdfunded split keyboard, but fully opensource.

Cherry MX Brown switches are normally recommended for very light activation pressure and "super-fluid motion". That is an option available.

You can order parts for yourself, make it yourself, and everything. It is opensource hardware, built around the "teensy" opensource controller. But it ends up cheaper just to buy the keyboard unless you want to build something custom.

While it sports up to 32 custom layers, it does lack a dedicated hardware module for a mouse. It is completely programmable.

I only mention it because I love mine.

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I have Ergodox EZ and absolutely love it as well.

IMHO Dampened Cherry Red switches configuration is almost as good as Topre if not better.

The ability to program it has been the killer feature for me, I have a layout that works absolutely perfectly for me! f.e. dual function keys! I have ' set as dual function key so if I hold it is Shift, if I just tap it is ', in place of usual Caps Lock location I also have Shift, having moved both Cmd/Win keys to usual Shift location. Home row Shift has improved the typing comfort so much! I also remapped function keys and made many other tweaks.

Also have alt/ctrl mapped with dual key feature to z/ctrl x/alt and ./alt //ctrl, this way all modifier keys are clustered together and easily accessible. I don't think I can ever go back! the mind did get used to switching between the two layouts though, so thankfully I can still use the laptop keyboard on the go :)

For anybody interested you can have a look at their configurator https://configure.ergodox-ez.com/keyboard_layouts/new

I have an Ergodox EZ, with many customizations, and I love it too.

I wanted to use dual function keys, but as soon as there is one such key on the keyboard, I feel a delay for all the key presses. It is ok for the dual function key (the firmware needs to wait to decide a tap or hold), but not for all the other keys. So I avoid using this in my layouts.

Maybe this has changed recently? I have not tweaked my layout for about 6 months.

I cannot notice any delay at 100+ wpm, but one thing I had to get used to is typing key combinations faster/holding the key for the right duration, I still lift a bit too fast a few times per week, f.e. getting 'a instead of A, but it is definitely becoming second nature, and even if I cannot eliminate it completely the ergonomics of home row shift, and other handy dual function keys, makes it still totally worth it for me.

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