Pleasant Surprise using an External Keyboard for a Laptop

[kfmfe04]

Last week, I bought a black Filco TKL MX red as my first mechanical.  At first, I hooked it up to an iMac and a Win8 box with mostly good results out-of-the-box (I still need to map function keys/media keys on both OSes, and find ways to maximize no-mouse/all keyboard operation).

I also lug around a 2009 13" MacBook Pro to be productive away from the office.  I love this keyboard so much that I've begun carrying it with me for use on the road.

To my surprise, having an external keyboard on a laptop is FAR SUPERIOR to using the built-in.  I can put the screen farther away and I can actually put the keyboard on my lap for far less strain on my wrists.  Also, there is no need for a wrist-rest - I just use my lap.

Although I was reluctant to lug around even more weight, having the Filco seems absolutely worth it, if I need to be typing any longer than 15-20 minutes.

I guess my only question at this point is, how have you set up OSX or Win8 for fast keyboard-only operation?  (I don't need LINUX because I only ssh onto those machines)

[rowdy]

I have no laptop, however you might want to look for something a tad lighter to carry around.  That Filco, with its plate, would weigh you down.

How about a nice HHKB?

[kfmfe04]

I have no laptop, however you might want to look for something a tad lighter to carry around.  That Filco, with its plate, would weigh you down.

How about a nice HHKB?

Is there a metal plate in this Filco?  Didn't know that!  No wonder it feels so good (the other keyboard I liked when trying ones out in the store was a Corsair K90? K70?).

With its UNIX keys (and its smaller size/weight), the HHKB is very tempting.  I have a friend visiting from Japan in January so it wouldn't be hard to ask her to pick up a White HHKB Pro-2 ANSI for me (90% certain at this point).

So I will use a HHKB with the MacBook Pro, and I'm currently moving this Filco TKL between a Win8 box and an iMac.

Any suggestions for my 3rd mechanical? 

I was thinking maybe another Filco (since I love this TKL so!), but I should really try something different.

[rowdy]

Might depend on budget.

Filco are great if you have a bit more money to spend.

CM QFR is a good budget option with a quality near Filco.

Or Ducky, particularly if you want a backlit keyboard.

[Linkbane]

I have no laptop, however you might want to look for something a tad lighter to carry around.  That Filco, with its plate, would weigh you down.

How about a nice HHKB?

Is there a metal plate in this Filco?  Didn't know that!  No wonder it feels so good (the other keyboard I liked when trying ones out in the store was a Corsair K90? K70?).

With its UNIX keys (and its smaller size/weight), the HHKB is very tempting.  I have a friend visiting from Japan in January so it wouldn't be hard to ask her to pick up a White HHKB Pro-2 ANSI for me (90% certain at this point).

So I will use a HHKB with the MacBook Pro, and I'm currently moving this Filco TKL between a Win8 box and an iMac.

Any suggestions for my 3rd mechanical? 

I was thinking maybe another Filco (since I love this TKL so!), but I should really try something different.

Corsair boards are made of metal. =P
Most keyboards are plate-mount. But Filcos are known for their good build quality.
And if you're getting an HHKB, you probably won't want anything else, anyways. But if you do, maybe something radical, like with super-fancy backlighting like a Shine II/III or an Ergodox, seeing as you seem to have enough money to get an HHKB. Ergodox massdrop is going on now, so if you want one you should hurry.

[kfmfe04]

Thanks for your suggestions.

Recently the dollars been strong so a hhkb will cost around $200, if the exchange rates stay near where it is until January.  I will heed your warning that once I use hhkb, I may not want to use the others - in that case, I should wait until January, use a few months before getting anything else. 

I thought about an ergodox, but then dropped it thinking it would be hard to modify keycaps or repair if anything goes wrong, although a fully ergonomic open-sourced programmable keyboard is extremely enticing.  I will pass on this round on massdrop and maybe go for the following round.

BTW, how much is a baseline ergodox expected to cost these days?

[Linkbane]

Thanks for your suggestions.

Recently the dollars been strong so a hhkb will cost around $200 for, if the exchange rates stay near where it is until January.  I will heed your warning that once I use hhkb, I may not want to use the others - in that case, I should wait until January, use a few months before getting anything else. 

I thought about an ergodox, but then dropped it thinking it would be hard to modify keycaps or repair if anything goes wrong, although a fully ergonomic open-sourced programmable keyboard is extremely enticing.  I will pass on this round on massdrop and maybe go for the following round.

BTW, how much is a baseline ergodox expected to cost these days?

The only difficult part for the keycaps is the many 1.5x and 2x keys, all the rest are the same. It costs $199 for parts, all parts are included and a very detailed how-to and video are provided. However, the massdrop is over in five days or something, and there probably won't be another for a few months, based on patterns.

And I don't think you'll give up all keyboards for certain, but it's definitely a possibility. Best thing about Topre switches is their sound, imo.

[kfmfe04]

Thanks for that info on ergodox - I will probably wait a year or two and see how things pan out.  Perhaps with revisions will come improvements; I will leave it to keyboard fanatics to work out the bleeding edge.

It's amazing the explosion of options out there. 

As for layouts, I knew about DVORAK from years back, but I didn't know about the recent ascent of Colemak until I saw it on DT.  Like many touch typists, I'm obsessed with efficiency and with reducing the possibility of CTS.  However, most of my time is spent writing C++ code in vim, which means with completion in the editor, layouts don't mean nearly as much any more.

Well, I shouldn't say that - I still need the CTRL key in the CAPS LOCK position, which is why, before I started down the mechanical route, I only used Apple's JIS layout with keys in great places for development.  Now that OSX lets you remap those keys, the JIS layout doesn't matter as much.

Now that I have a Filco ANSI TKL, I will make mistakes with symbols when I go back to the JIS.  I guess the bottom line is, even though it would be fun to have a bunch of different keyboards and to experiment with more efficient layouts, I'm kind of backing off now and trying to go back to ANSI (as unsexy as QWERTY may seem compared to Colemak) - for my sanity's sake and for the sake of getting some work done.

In case anyone is wondering, I have an odd setup.  I can't live without ITerm2 on OSX (I'm using it 95% of the time), but I ssh into a Linux box.  So the most important feature for me is a UNIX-like layout that works in OSX.

[davkol]

ErgoDox uses ordinary Cherry MX keycaps, all of them are 1x, 1.5x or optionally 2x (with *optional* stabilizers). Almost any aftermarket alpha keyset will fit on it. You might need some extra 1.5x or 2x keys though... but that isn't all that hard. Much better situation than in case of Kinesis Advantage or TrulyErgonomic.

All parts are pretty common or open source, i.e. you can make them by yourself or ask someone to make them for you. Apart from Massdrop, you can get PCBs from mechanicalkeyboards.com or there's gonna be European GB. If something breaks, the same applies.

HHKB is the exact opposite: completely proprietary product.

[Tony]

Right now I am typing on a Choc mini brown attached to my laptop. Your fingers deserve the best, of course.