geekhack

geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: dante on Thu, 20 November 2014, 13:51:53

Title: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: dante on Thu, 20 November 2014, 13:51:53
After a couple weeks of using my KBP 60% I thought I'd change it up and go back to tenkeyless ... NOPE.

60% is oh so comfortable and gives me so much more wiggle room.  My shoulders love it!

I'm thinking of cleaning house and unloading all my other boards larger than 60% (still undecided on 75%.)

Am I alone?
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: user 18 on Thu, 20 November 2014, 13:54:13
I can think of a lot of users who prefer to use a 60%, or a 60% with a separate numpad.

I'm heading towards this path, at least to see if I like it. Just need to find the time to actually build my 60% first.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: osi on Thu, 20 November 2014, 13:56:13
Unless you need dedicated F keys for gaming purposes, 60% is all you need!!!
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: inanis on Thu, 20 November 2014, 14:01:52
I use a 60% as my daily driver. I don't see any need to go back to full size. I do like to type on my SSK from time to time though.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: geniekid on Thu, 20 November 2014, 14:22:08
My experience is that 60% is adequate for general use and gaming.  Even on my TKLs and full-sizes where I have dedicated navigation keys I choose to navigate through a function layer because it is just more efficient in terms of how far I have to move my hand.

However, I find the lack of dedicated F keys to be noticeable when I'm coding as many IDEs make use of chords to perform functions and some chords that include F keys are very difficult to achieve if the F key is buried in a function layer (consider Ctrl+Shift+F6 for variable rename, for example).  Not impossible but my hand does have to contort more to hit 4 keys instead of 3.

The other area where I find 60% to be inadequate is when I'm doing accounting (taxes) or design (CAD) where I need a separate numpad. 
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: hwood34 on Thu, 20 November 2014, 14:25:31
I don't ever use the numpad, and the function row not very frequently, but I still use all the different sizes. It may have something to do with the way that I type, but I never use my pinkies for actual typing, just hitting shift and enter, so my pinkies are almost resting outside the mods sometimes, and my thumbs feel comfortable resting on the bezel below the spacebar when typing, so I use fullsize or TKL primarily for typing and 60% for gaming and casual use
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: Jixr on Thu, 20 November 2014, 15:15:55
The other area where I find 60% to be inadequate is when I'm doing design (CAD) where I need a separate numpad.

I use a pokerX for my DD at work and never have any problem doing cad work. num pad is nice, but Still prefer to work on a 60% both at home and the office.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: evolveS on Thu, 20 November 2014, 15:40:41
60% 100% of the time bb

If you miss the fn row but don't need a full TKL, Margo and GON have come up with a solution. (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=64168.0)
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: azhdar on Thu, 20 November 2014, 15:48:09
Using 60% 90% of the time for a while now , only time I go TKL is when I play PlanetSide2 (easier to plug a keyboard than rebind) .

And when I'm at work because it's a too old school environment to consider bringing in a "weird keyboard".
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: tjcaustin on Thu, 20 November 2014, 15:49:57
I haven't used a tkl in over a year.  I honestly can't remember the last tkl I used as a daily driver, it's been that long.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: Booper on Thu, 20 November 2014, 15:57:42
60% all the way!

I never liked big keyboards and actually used the small Mac board for a while. I liked how compact it was and never could fully switch to a mechanical until I used a 60%

I sometimes miss the arrow keys as I use them often for work, but it only takes a half a second for my brain to register it needs to use the FN layer. Also works perfectly fine for the games I play.

Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: HPE1000 on Thu, 20 November 2014, 16:03:37
60% is just about perfect for daily tasks. I don't have any strong feelings about 60% vs TKL though, as long as it isn't full size it's okay with me.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: johndavis33 on Thu, 20 November 2014, 16:09:44
I was surprised by just how little using a 60% affected me. Maybe it's because I switch keyboards so often, but I'll go between my hhkb and my giant model m and I'll be unaffected by the lose of space/extra keys.

Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: ithinkimkorean on Thu, 20 November 2014, 16:12:36
I also have a kpad on the side that I pretend to need, but never use. :))

Actually, I only use it for left and right arrow when I want to unhighlight something.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: azhdar on Thu, 20 November 2014, 16:13:49
I was surprised by just how little using a 60% affected me. Maybe it's because I switch keyboards so often, but I'll go between my hhkb and my giant model m and I'll be unaffected by the lose of space/extra keys.

Every time I get away from a 60% I look for the fn layer at least for the 2-3 first times before going back to nav cluster .
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: Joey Quinn on Thu, 20 November 2014, 16:35:37
I use a poker with a numpad on the left side but the numpad is only there because I thing they're fun to use.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: IvanIvanovich on Thu, 20 November 2014, 16:54:29
GH60 all the time, except if I 'need' to play some game that requires arrows, function or something else frequently and doesn't provide ability to remap... then I plug in my G80-3600.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: Pemdas on Thu, 20 November 2014, 17:15:04
98% of my keyboard use is my poker 2 and fc660c. Dedicated function layer/numpad is a waste for me nowadays, especially with a tiny workspace. 60% for life  :thumb:
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: heedpantsnow on Thu, 20 November 2014, 17:41:05
I have 3 Pokers and nothing else. Love 60%!
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: vivalarevolución on Thu, 20 November 2014, 19:21:56
My breaking point is the arrow keys.  I like my dedicated arrow keys.  Maybe I need a better FN key location.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: bueller on Thu, 20 November 2014, 19:26:38
60% all the way. My TKL has been bare of caps for over a month and will probably stay that way for quite a while. Thinking of doing a major cull soon actually, just going to wait till my Nerd60 is built.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: heedpantsnow on Thu, 20 November 2014, 19:40:09

My breaking point is the arrow keys.  I like my dedicated arrow keys.  Maybe I need a better FN key location.

Have you used one with an arrow lock mode like the Poker X?  When I'm going to do a lot of arrowing I just enable that and away I go. I use it in Lightroom and Excel mostly.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: SavvyBird on Thu, 20 November 2014, 19:56:35
60%=100% 
nothing better than 60  ;D
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: Sygaldry on Thu, 20 November 2014, 20:48:11
I've been exclusively 60% for a while now but have been interested in the 75% layout for a while a la MX Mini.

The Duck Octagon will likely be my first 75% keyboard.

(to this day I have never tried a TKL and reckon that I never will)
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: ideus on Thu, 20 November 2014, 21:25:47
GH60 all the time, except if I 'need' to play some game that requires arrows, function or something else frequently and doesn't provide ability to remap... then I plug in my G80-3600.

I was in the understanding that you were a classic keyboards user. Interesting to learn that you are also into the 60 fever. Cool! I just cannot use anything above 66. Only reason I do 66 are the arrows, for those cases where I need them heavily like editing a large spreadsheet.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: IvanIvanovich on Fri, 21 November 2014, 00:06:06
I've been a 60%er since the Poker X originally came out, pretty much exclusively. I just collect vintage stuff, don't actually use it really.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: pichu23 on Fri, 21 November 2014, 00:07:50
60% all the way ! :)
I have 2 60% board, soon to be 3 :D
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: Oobly on Fri, 21 November 2014, 01:28:15
I use 60% at work, 46% at home :) Until I build my next prototype. Then I'll be 46% exclusively, although I may pull out my 60% now and then for the sake of nostalgia or taking pictures of keycap sets.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: RoflCopter4 on Fri, 21 November 2014, 02:27:55
I can't deal with anything less than a full board. I use Wolfram mathematica all the time and I enjoy having the numpad there for things. I especially like having a num enter key. I'm too lazy to push shift-enter to get the current line to compute. Pushing num enter is slightly easier.

Bah. Humbug.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: StylinGreymon on Fri, 21 November 2014, 02:33:37
Within a few weeks of using my Poker II, I couldn't imagine even going back to my Filco TKL, much less a full-sized KB.
It's just too comfortable.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: beefjerky on Fri, 21 November 2014, 03:52:46
My breaking point is the arrow keys.  I like my dedicated arrow keys.  Maybe I need a better FN key location.

Why not a 65% keyboard like the FC660M? Or a Filco Minila Air.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: Skuloth on Fri, 21 November 2014, 08:21:33
My breaking point is the arrow keys.  I like my dedicated arrow keys.  Maybe I need a better FN key location.

Why not a 65% keyboard like the FC660M? Or a Filco Minila Air.

Because caps lock + wasd = arrows is so much nicer than dedicated arrows. Also standard keycap sizes. I love my poker :D
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: Hypersphere on Fri, 21 November 2014, 08:52:20
I go back and forth. While I much prefer the 60% form factor and layout of my HHKB Pro 2, I also enjoy the solid sound and feel of my RF 87u 55g or my IBM XT. However, when I am using these larger boards, I realize that I hardly ever use the F-row or navigation keys. In fact, I remap my larger boards to a HHKB configuration, and even when I am using a board that has arrow keys, I usually use Fn + the HHKB cursor diamond.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: beefjerky on Fri, 21 November 2014, 08:54:28
My breaking point is the arrow keys.  I like my dedicated arrow keys.  Maybe I need a better FN key location.

Why not a 65% keyboard like the FC660M? Or a Filco Minila Air.

Because caps lock + wasd = arrows is so much nicer than dedicated arrows. Also standard keycap sizes. I love my poker :D

I agree with you but for the person I quoted, it could be a solution.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: Telephasic on Fri, 21 November 2014, 09:09:55
Only regret is buying a full sized board two months before scoring a Poker II.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: usno_oj on Fri, 21 November 2014, 12:11:19
I would love keeping my Poker II I recently received from massdrop, but I haven't realized how often I used the function keys as well as arrow keys.
I guess I'll have to resort to a TKL or a 75%. Only thing bad about a 75% is that it's going to be hard to find key sets that fit.  :(
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: Skuloth on Fri, 21 November 2014, 12:12:47
I would love keeping my Poker II I recently received from massdrop, but I haven't realized how often I used the function keys as well as arrow keys.
I guess I'll have to resort to a TKL or a 75%. Only thing bad about a 75% is that it's going to be hard to find key sets that fit.  :(

Swap your caps to a function key and give it a shot before giving up. I thought I would have a difficult time transitioning since I use the arrows a lot when coding, but having access to arrows very close to the homerow without moving my hands is amazing. All my keyboards form now on will have wasd + caps = arrows.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: eth0s on Fri, 21 November 2014, 12:16:06
I exclusively use my HHKB Pro 2 Type-S every day, all day.  But, I also use my RealForce Numpad almost every day too.  So I dunno what I am.  60% + 10%?
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: frosty on Fri, 21 November 2014, 12:35:02
NO U R NT
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: mason on Fri, 21 November 2014, 17:53:52
The only keyboard I have right now is the Poker II and the only time that I only need the function keys to change the song or volume. I love how compact it is  :)
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: dustinhxc on Fri, 21 November 2014, 18:55:18
I was 60% only for awhile. Then moved to realforce 87u and realized my endgame is realforce 104ubdk. But still love my 60% forsure.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: Flyersfan1 on Fri, 21 November 2014, 19:08:41
I was 60% only for awhile. Then moved to realforce 87u and realized my endgame is realforce 104ubdk. But still love my 60% forsure.
Realforce 104UB-DK is my favorite keyboard too! I would buy another one in a second if I could find one.  60% is fun for me to go every once in a while, but I always end up coming back to my realforce pretty quickly.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: dustinhxc on Fri, 21 November 2014, 19:35:27
I was 60% only for awhile. Then moved to realforce 87u and realized my endgame is realforce 104ubdk. But still love my 60% forsure.
Realforce 104UB-DK is my favorite keyboard too! I would buy another one in a second if I could find one.  60% is fun for me to go every once in a while, but I always end up coming back to my realforce pretty quickly.

Awesome! Same with TheBinary, its his favorite too. :)
The only one I've ever seen lately is $350 on eBay.
60% is an awesome board for collecting though! Love my 60% for collecting.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: demik on Fri, 21 November 2014, 20:48:39
you could say that
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: Geroximo on Sat, 22 November 2014, 06:52:53
Since I have the Poker II 60% , TKL feels HUGE.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: vivalarevolución on Sat, 22 November 2014, 10:00:48

My breaking point is the arrow keys.  I like my dedicated arrow keys.  Maybe I need a better FN key location.

Have you used one with an arrow lock mode like the Poker X?  When I'm going to do a lot of arrowing I just enable that and away I go. I use it in Lightroom and Excel mostly.

Not really.  I may integrate that into my one 60%, the Kishsaver.  I just prefer to have easy access to those keys because I use them a lot, and having to hold down an FN key is annoying.  I will play around with some options.

Honestly, my most favored keyboards are basically a 60%, with the extra column on the right and the backspace key in the place of the pipe/backslash.  So a 65%?  I like the slight addition of layout flexibility.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: dante on Sat, 22 November 2014, 10:15:17
For those who own the Poker 2 : Do you find that the FN key is too far to the right?  Which finger do you use to strike it?
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: yasuo on Sat, 22 November 2014, 10:18:34
i dont like 60% cuz arrow keys not make sense like pokerx ctrl fn win shift or wasd+fn
but spacefn may solved this :D
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: Skuloth on Sat, 22 November 2014, 11:00:11
For those who own the Poker 2 : Do you find that the FN key is too far to the right?  Which finger do you use to strike it?

I use my left pinky to hit fn on my poker. I have caps lock swapped to an fn key.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: KeyZero on Sat, 22 November 2014, 11:25:50
I've been use to my 60%(also KBP V60 but clear) and I've been loving it since I don't need more keys. Being that I'm usualy on a terminal somewhere, the extra FN row isn't that useful and having Pageup/Pagdown be two keys away is damn nice.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: mz/x on Sat, 22 November 2014, 14:48:28
I do not want to hijack this thread but I have some questions about how the various 60% size boards can be programmed. I am not sure whether I should post my question here and stop the other thread I started (here: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=65922.0). My apologies but I noticed this thread after when I posted mine.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: SL89 on Sat, 22 November 2014, 14:58:40
As an answer to OP's question, i am on the other end of the spectrum and i need Fullsize or higher. Idk how you all manage to do it with the small boards, but they are oh so pretty.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: Roibhilin on Sun, 23 November 2014, 10:23:38
60% is love, 60% is life
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: hwood34 on Sun, 23 November 2014, 10:26:19
As an answer to OP's question, i am on the other end of the spectrum and i need Fullsize or higher. Idk how you all manage to do it with the small boards, but they are oh so pretty.
A lot of people don't use their numpad at all or need a dedicated f-row, but lots of people do, mostly for their respective jobs it seems
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: dante on Sun, 23 November 2014, 15:04:37
Any 60% users here who play Starcraft without issues?
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: Puddsy on Sun, 23 November 2014, 15:50:57
Any 60% users here who play Starcraft without issues?

My cousin is Diamond. He said that it's a hard game to play without F-keys, since he likes to set his control groups to them.
Title: Re: Anyone here who is exclusively 60% and lower?
Post by: KeyZero on Sun, 23 November 2014, 16:46:58
As an answer to OP's question, i am on the other end of the spectrum and i need Fullsize or higher. Idk how you all manage to do it with the small boards, but they are oh so pretty.
A lot of people don't use their numpad at all or need a dedicated f-row, but lots of people do, mostly for their respective jobs it seems
Yes it depends on the job but also choice. As a programmer on the terminal the Fn row and numpad are mostly useless. Page up/down and arrow keys are useful and most 60% keyboards do offer them.