One thing that didn't make sense though was he mentioned the iMac keyboards. I assume he meant to say MacBook/Air/Pro, since those are the ones getting all the hate.
I wouldn't classify the Magic Keyboard as disastrous the way the MacBook keyboards have been, since it doesn't suffer the same types of catastrophic reliability problems. But ergonomically it's a horror show.
Also, one undeniable fact is that other people in the office/household usually aren’t amused about loud keyboards.
My partner and kids don't like many things about my job of a software developer, but they've learned to live with that. There are many, more difficult jobs in the world. And my family probably happy with the fact that I don't have a job that entails leaving them at 3AM with a fear that I may not come back alive.
Besides, at this point, split, mechanical keyboard for me is not a gimmick - I literally cannot type for longer than several minutes on a regular keyboard, my wrists hurt badly. I honestly think - Kinesis Advantage might have saved my career, my only regret that I haven't made the switch before I had my RSI, which was so severe that left me no option but to try it.
If you like mechanical keyboards without the noise, MX Clear (modded with brown springs) or MX Brown switches are the way to go. There's a whole subreddit on DIY and keyboard mods.
Of course, I mostly preferred the one before it because, aside from needing batteries, the keys had a bit more bounce.
And, of course, I'm mostly very happy because it's an immense relief to type on now that I have one of those fancy MacBook Pros...
When I first got this MacBook I thought the complaints were overblown. And yet, even after having it for months I still have trouble with it:
- double-pressing keys or, more regularly, somehow not pressing properly so entire chunks of words are skipped.
- daring tion in the document to put my palms anywhere near the machine and accidentally putting the cursor in an an entirely different loca.
- trying to up the brightness or volume and the touchbar not responding. I use caps lock as esc so the missing escape key doesn't bother me too much.
and perhaps worst of all, for the first time in years I've started feeling pain in my shoulders/fingers/arms again. and the only explanation I can think of is this fucking keyboard.
Recently I've tried out a Matias laptop pro keyboard. A bit retro-clunky looking and heavy, but it has good key travel and isn't as loud as some other "mechanical" keyboards. Not bad for a Bluetooth Mac keyboard.
What is your Mac keyboard of choice?
It's a fine keyboard that's ruined by a terrible arrow key layout.
Until you pointed it out, I couldn't quit put my finger (hehe) on the reason why.