<story><title>Why the Amazon Basics Keyboard Is My Favorite Keyboard</title><url>https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/why-the-amazon-basics-keyboard-is-my-favorite-keyboard</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>whitehouse3</author><text>You&amp;#x27;re right. I bought a $250 Leopold FC660C to combat repetitive strain injury, because my doctor said to minimize the distance between the home row and my mouse pad. But most less-expensive 60% (&amp;quot;ten key-less&amp;quot;) boards either lack arrow keys or have obnoxious, loud switches. These weren&amp;#x27;t feasible because I use arrow keys all the time for Visual Studio and I work in open-office hell. The Leopold has quiet Topre switches.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d buy a $15 keyboard in a heartbeat if it wouldn&amp;#x27;t hurt my wrists. But for me, the Leopold is a medical device. I would have paid twice as much for it, which has nothing to do with the key switches at all.&lt;p&gt;In fact, I did pay 2x for it because I bought one for my home system as well.</text></item><item><author>notus</author><text>Most engineers with jobs aren&amp;#x27;t making compromises on the price when their goal is comfort and usability.</text></item><item><author>simonsarris</author><text>Which decent mechanical keyboard has the feature of being $14.50?</text></item><item><author>pteraspidomorph</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s what I was thinking. Any decent mechanical keyboard has all of these features and more, and the sound the keys make depends on the switches, of which there are many different types. Some switches are designed to be loud (like the MX Blues) but you don&amp;#x27;t have to use them.&lt;p&gt;I usually find that people who disparage mechanical keyboards do not actually know a lot about mechanical keyboards...</text></item><item><author>vladharbuz</author><text>&amp;gt; Jokes aside, I totally understand the appeal of mechanical keyboards. I’ve used them and it is satisfying to hear that clickity-click sound and the keys do feel amazing but that just doesn’t work for me due to being on so many pair programming calls and recording video courses.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t like it when people equate mechanical keyboards to loudness. They don&amp;#x27;t have to be loud! My keyboard has MX Clear switches which are not loud in the slightest, and I personally think they feel miles better than any non-mechanical keyboard I&amp;#x27;ve used.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Symbiote</author><text>Both my Microsoft and Logitech ergonomic keyboards are wearing out, so I spent some time last week looking for a replacement. Logitech seem no longer to make one, and Microsoft&amp;#x27;s has laptop keys, which I find very uncomfortable.&lt;p&gt;This site [1] has a quick gallery, and this[2] Github page a lot more (including many niche or kit ones). The Kinesis Freestyle &amp;lt;whatever&amp;gt; looked like a good option, but I decided to try one of the nerdy ones, so I&amp;#x27;ve ordered a VE.A clone from AliExpress.&lt;p&gt;I found both of these pages through the &amp;#x2F;r&amp;#x2F;MechanicalKeyboards wiki [3]. That community has a lot of posts and comments of people showing off gamer&amp;#x2F;geek&amp;#x2F;nerd stuff, but also seems to give reasonable advice to &amp;quot;normal&amp;quot; people wanting advice.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;xahlee.info&amp;#x2F;kbd&amp;#x2F;ergonomic_keyboards_index.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;xahlee.info&amp;#x2F;kbd&amp;#x2F;ergonomic_keyboards_index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;diimdeep&amp;#x2F;awesome-split-keyboards&amp;#x2F;blob&amp;#x2F;master&amp;#x2F;README.md&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;diimdeep&amp;#x2F;awesome-split-keyboards&amp;#x2F;blob&amp;#x2F;mas...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.reddit.com&amp;#x2F;r&amp;#x2F;MechanicalKeyboards&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;buying_guide&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.reddit.com&amp;#x2F;r&amp;#x2F;MechanicalKeyboards&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;buying_gui...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Why the Amazon Basics Keyboard Is My Favorite Keyboard</title><url>https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/why-the-amazon-basics-keyboard-is-my-favorite-keyboard</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>whitehouse3</author><text>You&amp;#x27;re right. I bought a $250 Leopold FC660C to combat repetitive strain injury, because my doctor said to minimize the distance between the home row and my mouse pad. But most less-expensive 60% (&amp;quot;ten key-less&amp;quot;) boards either lack arrow keys or have obnoxious, loud switches. These weren&amp;#x27;t feasible because I use arrow keys all the time for Visual Studio and I work in open-office hell. The Leopold has quiet Topre switches.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d buy a $15 keyboard in a heartbeat if it wouldn&amp;#x27;t hurt my wrists. But for me, the Leopold is a medical device. I would have paid twice as much for it, which has nothing to do with the key switches at all.&lt;p&gt;In fact, I did pay 2x for it because I bought one for my home system as well.</text></item><item><author>notus</author><text>Most engineers with jobs aren&amp;#x27;t making compromises on the price when their goal is comfort and usability.</text></item><item><author>simonsarris</author><text>Which decent mechanical keyboard has the feature of being $14.50?</text></item><item><author>pteraspidomorph</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s what I was thinking. Any decent mechanical keyboard has all of these features and more, and the sound the keys make depends on the switches, of which there are many different types. Some switches are designed to be loud (like the MX Blues) but you don&amp;#x27;t have to use them.&lt;p&gt;I usually find that people who disparage mechanical keyboards do not actually know a lot about mechanical keyboards...</text></item><item><author>vladharbuz</author><text>&amp;gt; Jokes aside, I totally understand the appeal of mechanical keyboards. I’ve used them and it is satisfying to hear that clickity-click sound and the keys do feel amazing but that just doesn’t work for me due to being on so many pair programming calls and recording video courses.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t like it when people equate mechanical keyboards to loudness. They don&amp;#x27;t have to be loud! My keyboard has MX Clear switches which are not loud in the slightest, and I personally think they feel miles better than any non-mechanical keyboard I&amp;#x27;ve used.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>wilsonnb3</author><text>For what it&amp;#x27;s worth there are many cheaper options that would work for you.&lt;p&gt;For anyone else looking to reduce the distance between mousepad and keyboard, this size is usually called 84-key, 75%, or 80%. They have all of the keys that a tenkeyless has but laid out in such a way that the keyboard is significantly less wide.&lt;p&gt;this one is relatively cheap (they used to sell an even cheaper one that I currently own, which has off brand switched instead of cherry mx)&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.amazon.com&amp;#x2F;DREVO-Excalibur-Mechanical-Keyboard-Specially&amp;#x2F;dp&amp;#x2F;B01N6GBUQE&amp;#x2F;ref=sr_1_3?keywords=drevo+84&amp;amp;qid=1567528824&amp;amp;s=gateway&amp;amp;sr=8-3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.amazon.com&amp;#x2F;DREVO-Excalibur-Mechanical-Keyboard-S...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>