I got a review copy of the Kinesis Advantage, tried the keyboard for a while, wrote a review (http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/kinesis-advantage/), sent back the review copy, and, a couple weeks later, bought the Advantage.
YMMV, but I think they have a somewhat long return period in part to assuage people in your situation.
I don't mind the size of the rubber keys, but I wish they'd make a keyboard with decent switches for them!
I've grown quite attached to the RollerMouse classic over the years as the ultimate pointing device but I'm wondering how that would work with the Kinesis.
Hacking a trackpad in the middle also seems like an odd compromise ...
http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=32232.0
You can see some attempts here:
https://www.google.com/search?q=kinesis+trackpoint&tbm=isch
When I first got my Kinesis Advantage, I secured the Adesso Smart Cat trackpad to the middle:
http://www.amazon.com/Adesso-Button-Glidepoint-Touchpad-GP-4...
It's what the other Kinesis users around me were using and it's the only wired touchpad that could fit. It's a piece of garbage and I've given up on it. I've fallen back on using my Evoluent Vertical Mouse, as it's the only mouse that doesn't leave me in pain.
The real answer is that I've adapted my tools and workflow to be as keyboard operational as possible, using a tiling window manager, Emacs, and Conkeror for everything.
As a datapoint, when I switched cold-turkey, it took about a week to be passable (~40wpm) and another week or two to get up to normal speed (~100wpm). The letter keys in the bowls actually aren't so bad; the harder part for me was retraining the control keys and punctuation. It's totally worth it though, and IMHO much easier than a full layout retraining (e.g. Dvorak, which I've given up on twice).
I learned Dvorak before switching to the Kinesis. I was only able to do it by having some strategic down-time in my job, and I would say it took around a full year before I was even close to my old QWERTY speed. I can now switch between QWERTY (laptop) and DVORAK (desktop) with only an occasional hitch.
Take it from me: the advantage of Dvorak pales in comparison to the advantage of a good keyboard. Add in the fact that the whole world (games, vim, cut/copy/paste) revolves around QWERTY, and Dvorak starts to lose its luster.
(Come to think of it, the biggest plus for me with Dvorak is that I can left-hand mouse and hit copy/paste/undo with my right hand...)
Because Colemak has more overlap with the QWERTY keyboard, the learning curve is much more gentle; it took me about 2 weeks to get up to around 50% of my old QWERTY WPM, and probably less than 3 months to get where I felt I could match my old WPM. By 1 month in I felt that I was efficient enough with Colemak that it was worth it to type a bit slower in exchange for the increase in comfort it afforded.
I've found that the biggest inefficiency that came with the transition was not physical, but mental. During the early weeks of learning the new layout, I needed to actually devote some conscious thought to what my fingers are doing, meaning that those brain cycles couldn't be used to process what I was about to type next, leading to a process where I frequently needed to pause and think about what I was typing, whereas it's typically more continuous and interruption-free as my fingers try to keep up with my brain. During the first few weeks of transitioning, I used Colemak only for "clerical" tasks like writing emails and some documentation I was working on at the time, and not for coding.
It has definitely taken some getting used to, but I am typing pain-free for about a month and a half. I am a software developer by trade, so I use a big chunk of the keys and do so without issues.
Only thing I don't like is that the bracket/brace keys are really out of the way. If I cared enough I'd move and re-map them (the keyboard is very customizable), but I don't.
Using a Kinesis is possibly the best way to unlearn all your bad typing habits. :)
/Kinesis user for 12 years
I've seen this mentioned pretty frequently, so there are some good mapping ideas out there for those who use languages with lots of braces.
My wrist pain actually increased slightly when I first got it, due to the strain of having to interrupt my years-old muscle memory. It took several days for the thumb keys to become (somewhat) automatic. Within a couple of weeks, I was on my way to pain-free computing. It's now been over a decade, and I consider the Kinesis keyboard to be the primary factor in my recovery.
Well actually I tried an ergonomic keyboard before and it wasn't bad, except for when I had to go back to using a regular one at other workstations. It was hard because I had gotten so used the ergonomic design. So I prefer the "rectangular" kind since then.
If I could get buckling springs as keyswitch units, I'd be using em.
I've tried just about everything: https://secure.flickr.com/photos/obra/sets/72157632594731205...
For anyone having problems with the links, the public urls are:
There are several reviews of ergonomic keyboards on this site so you can glance around, I'm sure you'll find your fit.
http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=47590.30 may have some leads.