Part of the reason I got into mechanical keyboards was because of the WhiteFox. I saw the Kickstarter, fell in love with it, pre-ordered it. And waited. And while I waited, and months passed, I looked at other stuff and built some keyboards, and eventually I cancelled the WhiteFox order.
Because you see, as much as I admired it, the WhiteFox was flawed. I became very committed to the idea of a split spacebar. I know not everybody loves them, and that's OK, but it became a must-have feature for me. I want Backspace under my left thumb. With a 2.25-1.25-2.75 split, that center key also becomes a perfect place for Fn. I built a couple of DZ60s and a couple of Banana Split 60s based on this layout. But the WhiteFox, it had no split spacebar option. As much as I admired it in other ways, I knew I would soon be pounding the spacebar with my left thumb and wondering why it wouldn't back up.
And now, finally, there is this:
https://kbdfans.cn/products/coming-soon-kbd67-mechanical-keyboard-diy-kitAnd to be more specific, I have this build in mind:
http://zobeid.zapto.org/image/keeb/kbd67_split_fox.pngBased on how well the true 60% keyboards—sans any dedicated cursor or nav keys—have worked for me, I'd almost forgotten about the WhiteFox and lost interest in this concept. However, now that I have the prospect of actually building this (and without resorting to any heroic measures like hand-wiring), I am once again thinking this is End Game material for me. There's nothing to keep me from programming it so my left-handed navigation still works just as it did on the DZ60 and Banana Split. Yet, having all those dedicated nav keys on the right can be convenient too, especially when using them in combination with the Super key shortcuts to move around windows and workspaces. And the footprint, it's only one key column wider. Given the slim case edges (compared with the 5° cases I've been using), it shouldn't take up any more actual desk real estate at all.
