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Re:Thinkpad X62 by cordite on Monday September 18, 2017 @09:33AM (#15275746)
As someone used to mechanical keyboards, I seem to keep physically straining or even internally bruising my right pinky on the Mac keyboards.

I'm not sure what to do apart from not using the laptop keyboards (both 2013 style and 2016 style)

Re:Thinkpad X62 by tertius on Monday September 18, 2017 @09:51AM (#15275891)
Right pinky brigade checking in.

Mechanical solved this for me instantly.

Re:Thinkpad X62 by _jal on Monday September 18, 2017 @10:28AM (#15276236)
Ditto. If you experience this, get a mechanical board immediately.
Re:Thinkpad X62 by k__ on Monday September 18, 2017 @11:12AM (#15276608)
For me it was the other way around.

Avoiding mechanical keyboards all my life and never got one of these typical programmer health issues.

Re:Thinkpad X62 by _jal on Monday September 18, 2017 @11:33AM (#15276800)
Just like this tiger-repellent rock that has kept me safe from tigers my entire life.
Re:Thinkpad X62 by k__ on Monday September 18, 2017 @12:27PM (#15277253)
Hehe, yes, maybe my genes are superior ;P

But seriously, I never understood the craze for these clunky things. Almost all devs I know use them and most of them have issues with their arms/hands.

Re:Thinkpad X62 by _jal on Tuesday September 19, 2017 @12:07PM (#15285860)
I use them. Cause and effect have a direction: I switched to mech boards because I was having wrist trouble. It made all the difference for me - they're fine now.

Other reasons people like them usually are about customizability. If you think of it as being roughly similar to how some people can be about noodling with cars, you won't be too far off-base.

- With the right firmware, they are fully customizable - you can remap things how you like, create macros, whatever, and config is stored on the board.

- You can customize the switches - there are a bewildering array of switch options. People also spend lots of time customizing switches in various ways to change how they feel.

- Layouts - keyboard nerds have produced a huge array of different layouts.

- Looks - you can buy your own keycaps. Those, too, come in a wide array of profiles and appearances. Some people make really nice boards out of metal, wood, sometimes odder things (I heard about someone trying to make cases out of Corian at one point). If you like that sort of thing, you can have them covered in blinky LEDs. There's a whole tiny art scene making keycap-sculptures that go for a ton of money, relatively speaking.

And that's before you get to the crazy stuff that leads to people paying $1k+ on a keyboard.

Really, it is like anything else - people do a lot of things as hobbies that look odd from outside.

Re:Thinkpad X62 by mediocrejoker on Monday September 18, 2017 @05:36PM (#15279837)
This is a reference to The Simpsons, for anyone who didn't get it.
Re:Thinkpad X62 by breakingcups on Tuesday September 19, 2017 @06:37AM (#15283317)
It's a much older joke than that though.
Re:Thinkpad X62 by tertius on Monday September 18, 2017 @12:28PM (#15277258)
Are those special rocks or can I just pick some up from my garden? I guess any garden that doesn't have tigers in it should work right?