F-122s really are the most "usable" unmodded Model F's...
Really? Personally I think these are way too big for a 'modern' desk. It's uncomfortable to use them, cause you automatically get a strange position of the mouse. If you don't use a mouse or use a rollermouse or something like that...ok. But for the rest... hmm... I could never get used to such a large keyboard for daily work. Even my Unsaver is a bit too wide for my taste.
It depends on what's important to you.
To me, how the KB responds is paramount, and everything else—desk space, mouse placement, what kind of doughnuts are in the lunch room, etc.—is secondary. I'm here to type, baby.
I've made a point of learning as many KB shortcuts as possible. When you're a writer, you work with words, characters, keys. If I have to stop and grope for a mouse, it takes my mind away from the keyboard, the writing tool, and I must shift my mind back to it afterward to resume what I'm doing. The more my hands stay on the KB, the more freely my thoughts flow and the more efficient I am.
They call them KB "shortcuts" for a reason: They take less time and require less effort, once you've made that bit of effort to learn them. (Merriam-Webster's defines
shortcut as "a method of doing or achieving something more directly and quickly than by ordinary procedure.*) And when I'm using a KB whose touch I love, I want to do as much of my work on it as I can—why wouldn't I?
But people have different computing styles. My wife uses the mouse whenever she possibly can. I don't think she knows a single shortcut. I've never even seen her press Alt to drop a menu—it's point, click and hold, select text. Point, click, Edit, Copy. Point, click, place cursor. Point, click, Edit, Paste. I've tried showing her things like Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V. ("They couldn't use P, because that's for Print. But a V looks like an editor's insertion mark—get it?") She uses them a few times to humor me, then goes back to pointing/clicking. Obviously, to someone like her, how far it is to the mouse is important, because she spends a lot of time reaching for it, then finding her way back. Watching her type is almost like watching someone conduct an orchestra.
I've never seen you compute. Maybe you're more like my wife than me. In that case, I don't recommend an F-122, an M-101, or even a contemporary compact full-size KB. In fact, I don't even know why you're. posting in this topic; it doesn't seem to have anything to do with you. Model F's aren't about "modern desktops"; they're about typing.
