I honestly don't understand the mechanical keyboard hype. I've now owned and used several but I prefer a plain old low profile keyboard like the Apple keyboards. I have a theory about this.
I notice that some people like to stab the keys. They seem to use an excessive amount of force. I've always been all about using the least effort possible so low-profile keyboards seemed optimal to me. You just need barely a touch to register a keystroke. Mechanical keyboards seem built for excessive travel time in comparison.
I have no evidence of this but I really do wonder if excessive typing force contributes to RSI/CTS.
The author here really did go down a rabbit hole and I suggest that as soon as you look at changing layouts, you've perhaps gone a bit too far. At some point you'll be using a keyboard that isn't yours. The universality of QWERTY (or whatever the equivalent is in your locale) has virtues all of its own.
My only real objection to mechanical keyboards is people who use super-clacky keyboards in an open-plan environment. That's just antisocial and inconsiderate.
I think for me 90% of the joy of a mechanical keyboard is customization.
- You get to chose the keycaps
- You get to chose the switch type
- With QMK/VIA you get to completely change the way your keyboard works (If I had this on a Apple Magic Keyboard I might have been happy with it)
I don't want some crappy software that achieves this, none ever work as good as a firmware solution. I plug my keyboard into any PC and only send the commands I want.
You can configure a mechanical keyboard to be even less silent than the Apple Magic Keyboard. I have some colleagues who really hammer down on those Magic Keyboards and they can get loud.
Also it sits good with me that I can have my keyboard layout in version control[1].
> I notice that some people like to stab the keys. They seem to use an excessive amount of force. I've always been all about using the least effort possible so low-profile keyboards seemed optimal to me. You just need barely a touch to register a keystroke. .
This is interesting. I find that my mechanical keyboard (using Gaterown Brown switches) is the one that requires the least amount of force to operate. I also get the least (basically none) pressed keys without intention (say when resting my hands on the keyboard while thinking).
This is actually to the point that when I switch to my MBP (2013 model) or HP laptop, I usually tend to miss some keys because I don't press hard enough. I really dislike the "full up" or "full down" way of working of these keyboards.
> Mechanical keyboards seem built for excessive travel time in comparison
But this is how you prevent the "shock" from bottoming-out: you don't press the key 'all the way'. With rubber keyboards and very short travel, I'm not able to react fast enough to stop pressing before it hits the bottom.
> My only real objection to mechanical keyboards is people who use super-clacky keyboards in an open-plan environment. That's just antisocial and inconsiderate.
Oh yeah. Even though I love my brown keys and consider them quite quiet, I use a "normal" keyboard at work, out of consideration for my colleagues.
> But this is how you prevent the "shock" from bottoming-out: you don't press the key 'all the way'.
A light touch seems to me to be an all-round better solution to this.
I first learned to type on an old mechanical typewriter where force was required and travel time was inescapable. Soon thereafter I switched to an IBM electric typewriter and you just can't ever go back. It would be interesting to compare the feel now.
Whatever the case I barely want to move my fingers at all.
> I honestly don't understand the mechanical keyboard hype. [...] I notice that some people like to stab the keys. They seem to use an excessive amount of force. I've always been all about using the least effort possible so low-profile keyboards seemed optimal to me.
People, me included, like mehcanical keyboards because the feedback when the key registered is so unmistakably clear both on the way down and on the way up. The worst kind of keyboard is the mushy one where you can't blind type because there's no clear mechanical feedback whether keypress actually registered or not. I'm one of those people who can unconcisously matches the sounds of keypresses to characters typed so when those are out of sync, I notice. The least effort principle doesn't contradict this. I love typing on both of my old Mac wired keyboard as well as my mechanical with inch-high keys.
I remember when I was younger, having gone through a few 'gaming' keyboards that were just standard rubber-dome type with extra lights, 'missing' some keystrokes because the dome had been worn out. Most notable, having to rock my finger certain ways while using W in videogames. I'd have to use a somewhat aggressive amount of force to reliably actuate it.
The first mechanical keyboard I got wowed me with how smooth and consistent the switches felt, compared to what I was used to. They were linears (Cherry MX Reds, on a Corsair k95, which was technically a hybrid board that still had some rubber domes), but the consistency alone was a godsend. I still had heavy hands, but have since eased up a bit.
I no longer tolerate a mushy keyboard that behaves inconsistently. I used to bring a keyboard to and from the office every day, just to avoid dealing with the standard $15 cheapo that is usually offered at the office.
> I love typing on both of my old Mac wired keyboard as well as my mechanical with inch-high keys.
I find that hard to believe, if what you like is meaningful feedback. I'm in the same camp as the parent, in that I don't like mech keyboards (MS Sculpt for life), but the old apple non-chiclet keys were so mushy to me. I would always prefer to re-map a commodity dell keyboard with similar looking keys but more satisfying click.
Other slim one I can work daily with is Logitech K750 solar first gen, it's reasonably crisp and firm. Later iterations are mushy as hell, feels like typing on fresh dough. But that first gen one is 12 years old and still going strong, solar panels are still working, it's still holding charge. I love when I find something that I can keep for decades.
People seem to refer to this era of keyboard as the chiclet keyboard. MBPs at the time used a very similar design before the disastrous butterfly switch where user experience was a blood sacrifice at the Johnny Ive's Altar of Thinness.
I too like these keyboards, particularly the wired ones (which have a numpad), so much so that I started to hoard them when Apple stopped making them. I think I have 5 of them. 1 stopped working and it gets salvaged for keycaps now.
Oh, ya that's the keyboard I like actually, forgot it's also quite old now. The one I thought you were referring to, which seemed to me more like most mechanical keyboards in terms of their keydepth, would be this one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_keyboards#/media/File:Ap...
I really like the Sculpt, because it has roughly the same chiclet style depth, while also being 10-keyless, wireless, reverse-tilting, and divided in a way that I find comfortable.
Now that I've been typing on it so long though, I find that typing on any keyboard that's straight is just so subpar. Taika Waititi communicated this best, because your shoulders have to bend inward and your hands outward https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/9/21130967/oscars-taika-wait...
There is something about that chiclet style that just works so well for my hands and fingers. Using a "normal" keyboard now is super fatigue inducing as you need to move your fingers so much compared to a chiclet one like this where your fingers just glide over the keys.
I think the biggest misconception about mechanical keyboards is that they exist to give a specific experience (clicky/loud keys).
Mechanical keyboards are all about choice, some people like to stab keys and want the super duper heavy-duty springs to resist their stabs (bottoming out, which is the biggest source of clacks, is usually seen as a bad habit) while others want their keys to be like typing on air. And yes, some are all about making it as noisy as possible because that's an option.
I personally have settled with Boba U4s, probably the most silent switches I've ever had, even more than a lot of non-mechanical keyboards, though the noise is but a small part of why I like them so much. They are on a split keyboard with many less keys than you'd find, which helps me have a comfortable hand arrangement and as little hand travel as possible. Anything else just feels uncomfortable and unnecessary nowadays.
I am currently typing this using https://www.cherry.co.uk/cherry-kc-6000-slim-for-mac.html which is a spiritual successor to me for the old mac wired keyboards that I used for years (I recently went back to the office for the first time in 2 years and the old mac keyboard I had there for several years worked for ~30 seconds then - enough to login etc - then just totally died which was a shame)
There is something about the low profile chiclet thing that makes typing a joy - your hands glide over the keys with minimal movements needed to register a press. Your fingers are barely 1cm off the surface of the desk so you can support your wrists or forearms without having to lift them up or use wrist supports or whatever. I feel so nimble and quick this way. I have owned mechanical keyboards and have not enjoyed their huge keys with huge travel - so fatiguing to type on! I don't feel like I am missing much from the mechanical keyboards, but I would certainly be keen in a mechanical chiclet if someone were to make one (provided it had the same dimensions & travel as a normal slim chiclet)
I've been through the same cycle. I also found that it matches the cycle of customising everything (IDE, build toolchain, OS, hacky meta-programming things) once you have a little bit of knowledge, before falling back to mostly defaults once you get more experience. Less friction is underrated.
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I notice that some people like to stab the keys. They seem to use an excessive amount of force. I've always been all about using the least effort possible so low-profile keyboards seemed optimal to me. You just need barely a touch to register a keystroke. Mechanical keyboards seem built for excessive travel time in comparison.
I have no evidence of this but I really do wonder if excessive typing force contributes to RSI/CTS.
The author here really did go down a rabbit hole and I suggest that as soon as you look at changing layouts, you've perhaps gone a bit too far. At some point you'll be using a keyboard that isn't yours. The universality of QWERTY (or whatever the equivalent is in your locale) has virtues all of its own.
My only real objection to mechanical keyboards is people who use super-clacky keyboards in an open-plan environment. That's just antisocial and inconsiderate.