from Hacker News

Martin Fowler – Kinesis Advantage2 – Review after three years of use

by dc_ist on 8/19/20, 2:34 PM with 14 comments

• by secure on 8/19/20, 9:34 PM

  I love my Kinesis Advantage, have been using it for 10+ years at this point.

  I have recently released the kinT replacement keyboard controller: https://twitter.com/zekjur/status/1281130647776608257

  Why would you replace the controller? There are a couple of good reasons:

  * to build or modify your own keyboard

  * to work around bugs in the standard controller, like I did back in 2013: https://michael.stapelberg.ch/posts/2013-03-21-kinesis_custo...

  * because you prefer to run open source software such as the QMK firmware (https://docs.qmk.fm/), even on your keyboard

• by emit_time on 8/19/20, 6:17 PM

  If anyone likes the ergodox / moonlander, but wants a keyboard with curved keys, look up the Dactyl Manuform / Dactyl keyboard. It’s a split keyboard that also has curve keys so it takes less movement to reach keys.

  Unfortunately you have to have them custom built or build one yourself, but there are sites that let you easily order one.

  Here’s an example https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/ak8d0m...

• by joshribakoff on 8/19/20, 8:30 PM

  I use it too. For anyone questioning Dvorak vs QWERTY layout I recommend Dvorak. You’re learning a new layout anyways when switching to this thing. Dvorak won’t speed you up even after years of using it, but you can be essentially just as fast as QWERTY and it’s much more zen in the sense you have to stretch for keys less often. However you may find you need to change keyboard shortcuts as some chords that are natural in a regular QWERTY keyboard are no longer natural with the unique layout. Luckily you can buy foot pedals and program macros for common keyboard inputs right in the onboard computer in the keyboard. Well worth it if you have any kind of pain or uncomfortable experience with a traditional keyboard

• by cls59 on 8/19/20, 7:26 PM

  I have one of these, nearly 12 years old at this point. Around two years in, it took nearly a full pint of double imperial stout head-on during a buzzed coding session. Was sticky for a little bit, but otherwise no ill effects. Built like a tank.

• by bsder on 8/19/20, 9:52 PM

  One caution about folks thinking about foot pedals: your operating system might get in the way.

  OS X, for example, can't use the foot pedal for "Shift" and apply it to the "A" that you hit on the keyboard if they are two different USB devices.

  So, you may need a keyboard that the foot pedal plugs into in order to avoid this.

• by julesallen on 8/19/20, 3:22 PM

  I'm still banging away on my original one from the mid 90's (PS/2 adaptor and all!) and it's still going strong. The ESC has all but worn off the rubber F key strip but other than that it's in fine shape.

  I understand the new fangled 2 comes with real switches for the F key strip?

• by dhruvmittal on 8/19/20, 8:28 PM

  I had one of these at a previous job, great keyboard. I still miss the reliability of the thing. Ended up building an ergodox the year after I left, and I've kept with that for the last 6 years.