A huge issue with non-standard keyboards are international layouts. German layout is already requiring 2 or 3 keys combined to reach {[]}, but on some laptops you need either 3 or 4 keys combined, or often can’t reach it at all. Equally on most mobile bluetooth keyboards.
It’s as if no one thought about languages using more than US keys.
How could anyone possibly enter numbers using the number keys in the number row?
It's almost as if the typical purchaser of laptops isn't entering numbers into spreadsheets endlessly.
No one replicated this. Sigh.
However, if you really are into all that much entering numbers to spreadsheet, you'll probably want one of those USB or Bluetooth number keypads.
I've never used the numpad in a game in my life (except maybe some flight sim from 1998).
I had to use one of those dinky Apple keyboards without it for a while, and I dearly missed it using Blender, Excel and even just Calc. I installed a numeric keypad app on my phone to work around it.
* Home
* End
* Backtick/tilde ` ~
* Backslash/pipe \ |
* PrtScn
* Break/Pause
* Any F key that is not F1 or F5
When's the last time most users typed a backslash? A pipe char? A backtick?! (If you say "in a command prompt" you are not talking about the mythical 99% of users)
Depending on the audience, [delete] is a waste of space too - a lot of people just use backspace. Would you abandon it?
Not being useful for everybody doesn't mean it's useful for nobody.
There has been massive encroachment of MBP and MBAs into the corporate world as BYOD policies have been adopted.
Very smart move.
The offcenter keyboard (and worse yet, off-center trackpad) is a much worse compromise.