wanting to hop into the world of linux on a dual boot method (one of my favorite games unfortunately cannot be run on linux at all, and it’s a gacha. I don’t want to gamble with my account being banned, so I’m keeping windows for it specifically.) this’ll be my second go at it, I used Pop!_OS briefly but had some issues...
The K5 for instance, lists low profile keys and switches. Unfortunately, it doesn’t looks like you can hotswap between low profile and standard or I’d go that route :/
I like the K10 for the most part, I just don’t like that the switches are covered by the frame/case or whatever you wanna call it. I’m a bit OCD and brush my keyboard pretty much daily, sometimes multiple times… The frame adds a barrier to cleaning.
Maybe I’ll just order a couple KeyChron and DasKeyboard to see if any fit the bill.
I can definitely see myself using a smaller keyboard away from my desk, traveling, etc. Definitely use the hell out of the 10 key for work though, so a must at my desk.
This looks like it ticks most of the boxes. I’ll have to add it to the list. I think the only drawback is I can’t order it on amazon to try with little to no risk. On the other hand, I’d prefer to buy direct anyway.
I use the numpad pretty regularly. Could I survive without it, sure, but its a hell of a lot easier typing IP addresses and other strings of numbers in using a numpad.
Here’s a quote from their website. This indicates to me that at least at the time of writing there would be very limited options, which isn’t probably great for me since I have a couple switches in mind.
“At this time there are no other available brands with magnet switches that are compatible.
Wooting HE keyboards have hall-sensors on the PCBA to detect movement from a magnet inside the Lekker switch. Without the magnet it can’t detect the switch.
It is not possible to use any other technology switch.”
I think I’ll skip this one. It looks great, but without the ability to get other switches and a couple other missing features, I don’t think it’ll fit within requirements :/ Specifically the noise requirement that the GF has.
I ordered a bunch of keyboards to try out. I’m trying out some formatting here, so sorry if it looks like trash.
##KeyChron: One thing I didn’t realize about these keyboards is that you can switch between bluetooth devices using different keys on the keyboard. This was a big plus for the GF, since she hasn’t been able to find a good keyboard that can do that. She is now probably taking a K5 Pro, even after throwing shade at me for buying a bunch of keyboards to test.
K10 (Gateron Brown switches)This thing is fairly hefty, but reasonable. It’s bulkier than I like, but others may like it plenty fine. It’s keys are hot swappable. I used the brown switches that came with it. While the noise doesn’t bother me that much, the GF, we’ll just say she has feelings about this… This keyboard isn’t SUPER loud, it’s just a little louder than all the others I tried, it also a little higher pitch sound to it compared to the others I used.
K10 Pro (K Pro Brown switches)This keyboard is big, and heavy. It’s 3.5 pounds (1588 grams or something like that.) It’s big, not a fan. I tried to use it, but it just feels to bulky. I could probably get used to it and it would probably really great if I actually was responsible and got a wrist rest, but that’s not the only factor. I really don’t like frames the cover the key switches. They just make cleaning annoying. Aside from bulk I do actually really like this keyboard. They have dampening foam to reduce noise, which the GF loves. The brown switches that come with it are fine, the key caps are also fine. I’d honestly probably get different switches and keys if I went with this keyboard, but that’s an option. They switches are hotswappable and you can get a barebones model for just that. I really don’t like the frame though.
K5 Pro (Red and Brown switch variants)I’m going to start saying that I went into trying these keyboards expecting to hate them because they were low profile. I was wrong. I don’t love them, but they aren’t nearly as bad as I thought they would be.
These keyboards are fairly light, they’re thin, and they feel pretty decent to type on, I don’t like how short the stroke is, but I can live with it. I honestly don’t hear much of a difference between the red and brown switches, which was surprising, but they do feel very different. The reds have more of a springy feel that you feel a pronounced difference in tension as you press them down, which wasn’t nearly as pronounced in standard red switches in my opinion. I suspect that will become less pronounced as they wear in. The brown switches have a little actuation point to go over as one would expect, but doesn’t have that pronounced spring tension. Personally I prefer the brown switches. I like that actuation feeling.
DasKeyboard
DasKeyboard 6 Pro (MX Brown Switches)Honestly, I didn’t really do much with this keyboard. I typed a bit and didn’t like the sound or feel, the switches aren’t hot swappable, and it has that frame covering the switches so I put it away. Others might like the switches and keys just fine, just wasn’t for me. I also don’t like the built in media buttons, built in media keys aren’t a make or break, but them being tiny built in ones like that aren’t a plus to me. I do however like the big ole knob. That could theoretically be programmed to something other than volume, which would be a positive if I’m doing something in like CAD or video editing or something that I don’t do ALL that often. It does appear to have a USB-C hub, which I think is great. Still the frame, sound, and feel of the keyboard just wasn’t for me, and it doesn’t have hot-swappable keys and another big negative.
Notes about all keyboards:
Every one of the keyboards felt very well made and all seemed to have a decent attention to detail from the short period of time I spent with each of them. The packaging for each keyboard was what I would expect for a keyboard. There is foam around the keyboard separating it from the accessories and protecting the sides of the keyboard. All the Keychron keyboards were wrapped in a protective film dust cove, I’m guessing anti-static as well but maybe not? All the KeyChron keyboards had plastic cover over the keys is on all the keyboards to protect them, except the K10 Pro? Maybe I wasn’t the first person to get the keyboard? The DasKeyboard also didn’t have a plastic keycover. Honestly, I don’t think the plastic key covers are all that necessary, but I’m not shipping expert. In any case, I don’t really have anything negative to say about any of these keyboards, they’re all really great quality. You just need to try them to see where your preferences are in the feel department.
Final thoughts.
If the K10 and K10 Pro weren’t so bulky and didn’t have that annoying frame, I’d probably just go with them, but they are BEASTS of keyboards. In the end, of the keyboards I tried out,
I’ll likely just go with the K5 Pro with Brown switches for the time being. The primary reason being that there is no frame covering the switches making it easy for me to deal with my OCD of cleaning the damn keyboard way too damn much, The fact that I can use USB-C or Bluetooth to multiple devices, and it’s very linux friendly/easily programmable. I’m again not in love with the low profile, but it’s certainly not as off putting as I had originally thought. The brown switches are also acceptable as far as that goes.
In the end, I may just do exactly what I was hoping not I wouldn’t have to do, build my own keyboard. I felt like I was going to go down that rabbit hole anyway, but I have a million hobbies, so I was hoping to save my wallet from another one.
Thanks everyone for your input. I do really appreciate everyone’s input it was really helpful. Sounds like I have a rabbit hole to start going down with DIY keyboards, at least for a short while anyway.
One thing is Linux - I’m not sure if it has “Linux”
I took a quick look at their website and from what I can tell, their NGENUITY config tool is Windows only, which makes it a pretty hard no for me.
The other concern is hot swapping switches Their website doesn’t say anything about being able to hot-swap switches, and a quick (like 2 minutes) search of the interwebz seems inconclusive. I would suspect they are NOT swapable, at least not without de-soldering the old ones.
The cost of something isn’t always in the form of money. In many cases with Foss there are comprises in either simplicity, stability, documentation, or compatabiliry.
For instance I can boot my machine into a live garuda instance and it runs great, but as soon as I install it, it runs like trash. I spend something like 3 hours fiddling trying to get it going then wipe and try to install smaugos and it wont even boot. I install debian and it works okay but sluggish. Popos works fine. 2 days of fiddling around and I find something that works. Windows may cost more than just money, but it worked out of the box and I didn’t have to fiddle or try a bunch of different distros. We can go down that rabbit hole, but let’s look at other things.
Foss often has volunteer support that can be hit or miss and often requires more advanced knowledge of the os or software. There’s also often toxicity like people shaming for not knowing everything about the application or os. Commercial support is often dedicated and may even remote into your computer. I’m not saying Foss can’t do that, but I’ve never heard of it for free.
FOSS doesn’t work nearly as easily or reliably as commercial software a lot of the time. Nextcloud is a good example. There are a million ways to install it, but now you need to learn docker, or how to setup a web server and even then maybe the docker image is buggy or straight up doesn’t work. The different Linux distros is another example.
Then there’s the learning curve. Even if FOSS has 1:1 parity in functionality, it often comes at the cost of learning a LOT about a new application, or the functionality is different or harder to use compared to a commercial alternative.
Don’t get me wrong I live foss. I self host, I’m slowly getting rid of windows and degoogling. But there is cost to do all of this, even if its not monetary. Plus not everyone has the time, patience, or interest in it.
what's your current linux distro?
wanting to hop into the world of linux on a dual boot method (one of my favorite games unfortunately cannot be run on linux at all, and it’s a gacha. I don’t want to gamble with my account being banned, so I’m keeping windows for it specifically.) this’ll be my second go at it, I used Pop!_OS briefly but had some issues...
Full Size Mechanical keyboard recommendations.
Hi All,...
TC on open source evangelists (lemmy.ml)
TechConnectify@mas.to - Oh my gosh I just figured it out....