IVEBEENUSINGTHISKEYBORDFORWHOLEMONTHNDMMOREEFFICIENTTHNIVEEVERBEENBEFORE
But wait!
This keyboard has 45 keys and not 100 like most normal keyboards, so they cut 55%!At least you still can press Alt+F4
You cab remap it to required less finger gymnastics… I prefer super+q, personally.
Ironically enough, talking about cutting expenses, the keyboard in the photo could easily cost 10 times more than the typical 100% keyboard you’d find in a corporate office.
Especially when they have luxury of lubed switches, foam, dampeners/stabilizers, custom case material (that keeb def. Custom one).
Don’t forget keycaps! It’s where the real money is lost.
That set looks like GMK Blue Samurai, which sells new for $150.
Keycaps are expensive but you can easily spend $500 on a keyboard chassis/plate/pcb alone
I was even thinking just about the case - good CNCd aluminium has come down in price, but it’s still expensive. You also have a point, I agree.
I SO hate the CapsLock, the most useless key in the best of locations. I converted it to XCape on all my keebs!
Usually on boards like this it’s remapped to Ctrl, Esc or whatever you actually want. At this point having the caps button still there is purely cosmetic.
Shift is A, Caps Lock is Z, Control & Backspace is spacebar.
Don’t ask me why, I just searched the image and found the reddit thread that this post is riffing from and got my answers
bruh why would they make spacebar a two key combo. That is literally the most used key
Even though I told you don’t ask me why… you’re asking me why. But I’m a good donut so I went back:
They dont have to press BOTH keys to press space, they just didnt have a spacebar key that is the correct size to fit, so they put those 2 random keys on instead until they get a permanent keycap set that all fits.
Split spacebars are thing mostly because of layouts that won’t support a normal spacebar key. But, since most of these keyboards have user created and designed firmware, one could assign those spacebar keys to do anything.
I have a few keyboards with split spacebars where the “right” spacebar is normal; it’s just a spacebar but small. The “left” space does dual duty; tap it and it’s a spacebar, hold it down and it becomes a modifier key for a custom layer. Custom layers are used on small keyboards to make the “missing” keys available, sort of like how a phone keyboard has number layer and symbols layer.
I fully embraced this habit of split spacebars because I cannot train myself to use my left thumb to hit space for the life of me even though I’m a touch typist. Since my right thumb is the only digit hitting space, may as well get some use out of the rest of the space taken up by that spacebar.
Wouldn’t a split spacebar be two different keys that both individually can be used to type a space? This keyboard requires that both keys be pressed together to insert a space because each individual key has a different function. Given the common occurrence of spaces, that seems needlessly difficult.
This is still a split spacebar layout though, the person on reddit who built this thing even said that they just didn’t have the right sized blank keycaps. This is very normal for small keyboards since keycap sets usually are designed for regular layouts and don’t always have the right size, sculpt, and legend for weird layouts.
Ah, ok, so “control” and “backspace” don’t actually function as control or backspace keys. Then that makes more sense.
Yep! This is far from the strangest layout and keycap use out there, but you’ll find that Enter and Shift keys are more common for split spacebar layouts on larger (and saner) 40% keyboards.
Uniqueness
Thank you!
FN key on quadruple duty
Itrieditandiamnothappythatthereisnospacebaronthatkeyboard.
You couldn’t have written this on that keyboard. That keyboard has no a (or z).
The central control probably is set to spacebar, i dont think they make small space bars and they already have another control key down the right.
It does however not have an “a” key, so maybe yours is misconfigured so the control-spacebar is the letter a?
Oh, different keyboard …
With home row modifier keys you could get rid of yet abother row!
I want a keyboard that is just one main key with 100 or so modifier keys surrounding it.
Let’s embrace that stenotype life.
Can someone explain why this would be even slightly useful to anyone?
How does one type without a and z?
The left Shift is A, and Caps Lock is Z.
To get those keys to function as Shift/Caps you would need to hold down the Fn key (bottom right).
I’m all for minimalist keyboards, but this shit is a bit too ridiculous.
this is a fancy mechanical keyboard and can be programmed. The missing keys are typed using key combinations.
In general I love the reprogrammability of mech keyboards, but this one is fucking weird ngl
it is possible if you get enough time to think of every word, you just need to to find synonims so you don’t write specific letters, often needing to switch both words/speech style
(it’s very difficult though, I’ve been writing this comment for 5 to 10 minutes)
You cn totlly get by without them
Definitely unneeded. The ending letter of the series of letters we employ to form words is especially useless, but to be honest the first is mostly superfluous too
No Z key ?
You’ve got an ‘S’ key, so that’s enough.
Perfect for ordering some pissa
No ‘a’, so it’s perfect for ordering some piss.
Fun fact: “pissa” means piss in Finnish
But can you still order it online?
Alphabet didn’t turn enough profit this quarter, so they had to make some difficult choices and cut their less used options
Managers will still expect you to do 60% of your work on 60% of your keyboard.
As someone that into mech keyboard hobby, I can say that’s still perceivable for average user as you still retain the familiar “qwerty” layout.
Look up stenograph keyboard. They have lesser keys but allows someone to write higher wpm and programmable though I don’t think they would fit for average office workload (unless you types a lot).
The control is right there, next to backspace
