I've had a Moonlander for a couple years, and an ErgoDox Ez for 3-4 years before that, and, honestly, I'm looking to move to something else.
My biggest issue seems to be that I'm switching between a Macbook and the Moonlander all the time, and the Moonlander I just find myself making too many dumb typos on. In particular, I think the ortholinear layout isn't doing me any favors, and the missing extra keys on the right (particularly the missing "+" key) I really struggle with.
I do love the thumb clusters, but as the article above says, the red button I never use.
The real star of the show is the programmable firmware. I have a lot of custom mappings on my main layer that I really love, with dual use keys being a big one (z and / are control if held for example). The Framework 16 keyboard with QMK firmware sounds really, really good to me.
Unfortunately, my next keyboard doesn't seem to exist: Low profile mechanical switches, QMK or similar firmware, split, thumb clusters, staggered layout, enough keys to have []\ on the right. The low profile seems to be the killer there.
Could not agree more, it's frustrating that there seems to be such a focus on the 'mechanical' aspect of these keyboards instead of the ergonomic and programmable which are the real stars.
I would love just a low profile programmable keyboard with 5 individual keys instead of the long space bar. That would tick all my boxes.
You could explore a different paradigm entirely. The svalboard (https://svalboard.com/) is the modern evolution of the datahands and goes much further than mere thumb clusters and programmable firmware.
You may be interested in the Glove80[0]. I moved from the Moonlander to it for the very same reason. I have since moved on to a very small form-factor (Pteron36, which has just 36 keys) as I my hands started to tire from reaching for the keys on the perimeter so chopped right down.
Or get the soldering iron out and build one of the many kits available[1]
What they are describing sounds like the Glove80. I've been using the Glove80 for a year, and I'm a huge fan of it. Took a while to get used to, but now typing is way more comfortable than it was on even my old Freestyle Kinesis.
I like the look of the Glove80, I came very close over the pandemic to building a Dactyl Manuform to try the "bowled" layout. I'm a bit skeptical of that though.
I've made a point of staying away from more radically different layouts precisely because I live in a reality where use of laptop keyboards is frequent and dragging an external board around isn't really practical.
It would be nice if laptop manufacturers standardized on a modular keyboard deck design, making it viable to do small-batch group buys of replacement decks with relatively esoteric layouts. This wouldn't cover every possible layout due to size constraints but it'd be a marked improvement.
I find laptop keyboards to be so poor in general that catering to them seems like a lost cause (in my case). I would prefer a laptop w/o a keyboard (basically a beefy tablet) where I would bring my own keyboard. Ideally I'd like it to be even more modular than that and I might even look into it one day using frame.work components and a 3d printer.
The issue with the PC tablet form factor, in my opinion, is that it's extremely limiting so long as you're trying to keep the device reasonably light and portable. It's also awkward at sizes larger than ~13". If I think about a tabletified form of a 16" M4 Max MBP for example, it'd be so clunky (including kickstand an all that) that I'd question the usefulness of it being a tablet. A 13" MacPad Air would probably be the upper limit.
Not wanting to retrain myself on ortho is the main reason I went for the Dygma Raise over other ergos. It’s been pretty fantastic with some nice switches and custom PBT keycaps but I would spend another princely sum for a proper low profile edition.
When i switched to my kinesis advantage (then called the essential) in about 1999-2000. I had to spend a very dedicated amount of time using ONLY that keyboard. Once I became fully proficient I was able to switch between the advantage and 'normal' staggered boards without any problems. Muscle memory is incredible.
With the Ergodox the big issue I have is that my muscles know where a few of the unusual keys are (+/= primarily) and if I just type it I'm fine, but if I think about "where is +" I'm just jacked. I should probably just get used to using the second layer for +, which I do for {} and %, I really should more fully embrace that but it has just never stuck.
yeah if + and - are the same as the advantage (furthest left and right on the numrow). I could see how that might cause an issue. If I ever have had that problem I've mostly gotten over that. That said, I don't often actually code on a normal keyboard so +/= and -/_ aren't really something that I'm using much. Any time I'm away from my desk it's often taking notes or responding to emails or slack .. so less technical things.
Just to say in my experience once you've fully settled into the advantage, and maybe this is just because I use an advantage and i've got the extra little 'hint' to my brain from the keywell shape, moving back and forth to flat boards doesn't cause any issues. I'm not missing keys because of the stagger differences, which I think was the primary concern.
The only things I keep on a separate layer are some multimodified keys that I use for window management, the f-row, and random things like keyboard backlight and bluetooth stuff, and a few macros.
I also switch between my macbook keyboard and my external ortholinear keyboard. In my case, getting used to the ortholinear actually improved my typing on the macbook keyboard, as it taught me to use my pinky finger more, and also fixed some other bad habits of reaching across with the wrong finger to type certain keys. But I have an ordinary rectangular ortholinear, not a moonlander-type layout.
I love my ErgoDox EZ but I have the same problem as you. Even after a few years, I'm still not used to the location of some of the punctuation keys that you need when you're writing code (braces, pipe, etc.) which in turn really hampers my flow state. I end up undocking and using my MBP keyboard when I'm writing code because I just can't get into that same flow state on my ErgoDox.
It may not exist now, but you can make it! It's not that hard to create a mechanical keyboard of your own. You can create the profile in ergogen or if you are comfortable with CAD, you can just model your own case then handwire the switches! There are many examples online and the space is very willing to help out people with their own projects.
You sure this doesn’t exist on Temu? I’ve had a few custom keyboards printed, and they have all been nice… though for wireless everyone uses ZMQ because from memory I believe QMK will never support wireless properly
My biggest issue seems to be that I'm switching between a Macbook and the Moonlander all the time, and the Moonlander I just find myself making too many dumb typos on. In particular, I think the ortholinear layout isn't doing me any favors, and the missing extra keys on the right (particularly the missing "+" key) I really struggle with.
I do love the thumb clusters, but as the article above says, the red button I never use.
The real star of the show is the programmable firmware. I have a lot of custom mappings on my main layer that I really love, with dual use keys being a big one (z and / are control if held for example). The Framework 16 keyboard with QMK firmware sounds really, really good to me.
Unfortunately, my next keyboard doesn't seem to exist: Low profile mechanical switches, QMK or similar firmware, split, thumb clusters, staggered layout, enough keys to have []\ on the right. The low profile seems to be the killer there.