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A comment on The origin story of our new ortholinear keyboard. Parent comment

Re:The origin story of our new ortholinear keyboard by monkmartinez on Monday February 28, 2022 @01:02PM (#30502871)
I would like to second this and add some discussion. I follow /r/ErgoMechKeyboards/ and the "regular" mechanical keeb subreddits... The amount of jargon used is dizzying. I have no interest in a collection of keyboards, but would like to try to build one for myself... I have been hesitant because keyboard culture goes from like 0 to hypersonic in a day.

That is, "Buy a mechanical on Amazon to try some switches... " to "Do you want a spilt with PCB or handwired? linear, clicky, or tactile switches?, tenting with a thumb cluster? LEDS?, QMK or KMK or some other firmware? GMK caps or?, USB-C or wireless?, How many layers can you remember?" and on and on!

It seems like the JavaScript ecosystem but even more complex/subtle with no clear answers because its subjective from the start. I realize little problems with one keyboard lead to buying another and so on. How do you buy a kit to build yourself without having to invest the hours of learning the culture?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The origin story of our new ortholinear keyboard by Melatonic on Monday February 28, 2022 @01:46PM (#30503420)
You do not need to really know most of that stuff - the most important things are just the actuation force of the switches and the type (linear, clicky, tactile).

I would just recommend going to a physical store that has any brand(s) of mechanical keyboards and try them out - then you will know if you want one with higher actuation force ("heavier" switches - harder to push) etc etc. Instead of a switch tester I would probably just recommend starting with getting a deal on a decent cheap keyboard that is close to what you want and see how you like it after testing.

[ Parent | on HN ]