Thanks for such a detailed response tuxsavvy! I'll look more into your linked post concerning linux specifically. I'm still on the fence of whether of not I should get the JP version.
Is it at all uncomfortable to write English with such a small space key? That is one of my biggest worries.
Not quite a detailed response heh, not as detailed as the link I posted.
Definitely not, the small space key is really just aesthetics issue. I have had lots of people telling me that the HHKB Pro JP spacebar is tiny/puny/small/etc. I always retaliate by saying that it would not matter to a touch typist. From QWERTY typer perspective if one laid out their fingers on the home row keys as they would for touch typing they would see the two thumbs are closer to one and another on the centre of the spacebar. This really then makes the need for a wide/long spacebar not much of a necessity.
Another way to look at it is I guess is to take rowdy, et. al. sort of perspective. On an older/used keyboard, look for shiny spots on the spacebar. On ABS and maybe POM the shiny spots are probably more pronounced than PBT. Those shiny spots indicates where your thumb hits the spacebar. I am sure in most cases it would be close towards the centre of the spacebar rather than the opposing ends of the spacebar. Some people may have weird way of "angling" their thumbs when touch typing and that may come into play when it comes to using smaller spacebar. Though otherwise on a more general consensus one would not be having their thumbs going on a weird angles just to hit the spacebar normally.
HHKB Pro JP somewhat follows the JIS layout. So if you look at any JIS keyboard, you will see they all have small spacebar. Though again that is really not that much of an issue to be frank. Here it took me a few moments to get accustomed to HHKB's small spacebar, mostly it had to do with the positioning of my hands.
To be really frank, there are some other notable issues when switching to JIS layout than the tiny spacebar alone. The tiny spacebar imo is really a small problem compared to say right shift being small and with extra key placed to the left of the right shift as opposed to ISO layout with an extra key placed to the right of the left shift. That and maybe the extra key before the backspace/delete key on the top row.
I have at times proven to others that the small spacebar is hardly an issue when one does proper touch typing. In fact when I got used to the small spacebar (which was only hours after I started playing HHKB) I took online typing tests and I scored a tiny lower WPM compared to when I was on full sized keyboard. At most I only lost three WPM but recently I took the same online test a couple of times (and having to learnt the JIS layout more properly) my speeds are again mostly fluctuating but instead of going slower I was getting faster. Speed differences are minimal within slow and fast but it goes to show that the small spacebar was not of an issue when it came to touch typing English words to be frank.
