I was pointed this link (well similar) out by another person of another forum. All I can say is this:
- It looks ugly.
- It is probably less *nix friendly as definitely there will be a need to rebind keys.
To switch between virtual terminals under *nix one needs F1-F12. I am sure the function key has other uses such as certain programs may use them for macro. F1-F12 combined with Ctrl+Alt are almost a necessity. On Lenovo, where? gone!
Closely looking at the keyboard layout, ` and ~ are put somewhere on the bottom of the keyboard. That key is handy for many uses including gaming which in certain FPS the ` is to bring down the console menu, on *nix it is needed for escaping certain contexts and/or the ~ is shortcut for things like home directory. I can imagine there will be joys for one to learn a layout like this, it is more radical than HHKB which I can clearly see has two changes but without sacrificing much due to its small size.
Has Lenovo really gone nuts with this design? in a bid to make the keyboard more compact by sacrificing the size of the keyboard and now to this (ugly) layout for a bigger touchpad. I guess time will tell whether or not will I be forced to eat my own words. Certainly I cannot imagine this sort of keyboard layout would be nice for *nix users without re-mapping a whole bunch of keys. It definitely seems like it is more geared towards windows and maybe those who probably wouldn't do much of anything to do with macros/programming or even gaming (FPS).
I personally do not like this layout, and the lack of certain keys along with yet another weird placement of a fairly commonly used key under *nix is just wrong.
