You have left out galaxy brain giant IBM model M. (Not more keys, but thicc keys.)
It’s not just the size. It’s also the way the sound of typing will bother everyone else in the room.
I need to get mine fixed. I sometimes tire of my steel series and wish to deafen all my online friends
While I love my full-sized keyboard, respectfully - who cares. The whole idea of a PC is the freedom to use whatever you want.
Keyboards, controllers, speech to text, a wii-mote, literal bananas/bread, eye/blink trackers, whatever suits you best. Insisting there’s a best device for everyone doesn’t change people’s minds and just leads to hostility when we should be glad more people are using the device that makes them happy. One day you might be one of them when your circumstances or preferences change.
Full-size is objectively superior, everything else is a mitigation for sub-optimal circumstances.
If you have reduced desk space and need to conserve your keyboard size to allow more room for a mouse then absolutely, pick as small a keyboard as you’re comfortable with to get sufficient mousing space.
Anything beyond that is subjective personal preference, which again I have no qualms with, but calling it better without further qualification is going to invite incredulity.
If a full-sized keyboard provides all the keys you reasonably need to do your tasks efficiently, then yes a full-sized keyboard is superior. But that is just not the use case for everyone, hence why it can’t be objectively so. Unless you want to imply that more keys even if you don’t need them is better anyways.
If so, you could argue this monstrosity of a keyboard (or something even bigger) is what everyone should be using if they have the space, since it has way more buttons than a full-sized keyboard, making it even more objectively superior. In reality you would not use more than 30% of the buttons on that keyboard, so the rest might as well not exist. But if you are, I don’t know, some macro-wizard playing 4 instances of WoW at the same time, maybe it is objectively superior for your needs, but for me a normal sized keyboard would do.
But to try and sense where you’re coming from, it should also be said that someone telling you their choice is better and disregarding that your criteria aren’t the same as theirs is being silly as well. And sometimes they can be stubborn and agitated about that as well - exactly the kind of hostility I meant in my initial comment. But someone’s got to step up and swallow their pride and accept it really is just all subjective at the end of the day.
the main advantage of full sized keebs iirc is that some programs have key combos involving F keys or home/end and don’t support changing the mapping (Minecraft shakes fist at sky F3+g)
That’s true, and if that’s the case then that definitely changes the choice. Although, afaik these smaller keyboards often come with software to remap keys or add macro’s at the driver level. (And for this choice specifically, 75% keyboard and higher do seem to mostly have both F keys and home/end). But yeah, some people’s use consist of just writing emails and streaming video, in which case they won’t care about any of that.
My biggest problem with that “monstrosity” is that it’s ortholinear.
You imply that such a thing being “optimal” is absurd, but if you had infinite usable desk space then what, exactly, would be the argument against it? If space is not a consideration then what does it matter if you don’t use every key?
Lots of people like smaller keyboards, and that’s perfectly fine. I get it as an aesthetic choice, and for many people it may not impact their daily use at all. But you will not convince me that removing the option of having additional keys for binding is a non-zero cost, even if they’re not currently being used.
For what it’s worth, I never used anything like that monstrosity, but I was quite happy with my G15 for the time that I had it which had 18 additional keys, plus media control, over a typical full size.
but if you had infinite usable desk space then what, exactly, would be the argument against it?
So I guess we agree then. Circumstances make something more or less optimal, meaning they are not objectively more optimal in every situation. That was my entire point, nothing more.
No one has discussed split keyboards, which offer all the benefits of a full size and addresses ergonomic concerns across the board. Need only half your keyboard today? Done and done.
Need ALL the keyboard, we gotchu.
This is objectively superior, as it saves you from RSI.
A keyboard without a numpad is like a cock without a foreskin.
Stupid as fuck, but some people don’t know any better
That analogy is a work of art. So casually out of pocket
part of it is that on 75% the numpad is optional, and it gives you more desk space for other things
100% or bust!
Get a larger desk. No way I’m typing numbers not on a keypad
I’m pulling my separate numpad out when I know I’ll be entering a lot of numbers. Or reach over to it when I enter a PIN from muscle memory. Otherwise I toss it to the side.
I use this occasionally when i need to do a lot of number typing whilst using my mouse so i can relax my arm to the side rather than reaching across the KB and straining the muscle behind my shoulderblade.
sorry but I agree. numpad masterrace. say no to degenerate keyboards.
I went up to a comfortable 110 WPM.
Excluding numbers.
I have a split 40% because I type for a living and normie keyboards destroy my wrists.
I went from a 100% membrane to a 60% mechanical, then a ~63% (think the 60% one but ONLY with extra arrow keys) then to a tenkeyless minus some of the useless keys, now to a full tenkeyless one
Here’s what I have. Honestly it’s perfect.
That’s my current keyboard too! (Except the NES color-scheme)
They recently came out with a full-size version, which is tempting me.
If I could I would have two tiers and pedals like an organ master
The fuck do you people need the num pad on your daily driver? Are you all deviant accountants or retro computer enthusiasts typing in code from magazines?
I use it to type numbers
Entering IP addresses for work (mostly network info for printers tbh), and a decent amount of games use it for flight.
To remap the numlock off keys as a macropad.
Camera/perspective controls in blender
I love this meme, but I feel like including TKL in the circle would be a little more fitting. I know I’m a little biased for being a TKL user, but they really aren’t that esoteric. Every key is where you expect it. It just doesn’t have a numpad.
Over here loving my 60%. It’s all about modifier keys y’all. That 60% actually has all the keys your 130% and more all within reach.
Ya these dudes are high maintenance needing all those bullshit keys tbh and I like not having my arms doing the splits all day with giant keyboards
You’ll have to pry my 70% and 75% keyboards from my cold dead hands. Smaller keyboards are much more ergonomic if you need to also regularly use the mouse.
Look, I’m not an accountant, I don’t need a numpad.
I worked retail in the late 90s-00s, and whenever I have to type in a string of digits longer than three I regret my tkl.
My cat, however, enjoys the extra real estate on the desk.
Ah yes, because all people need to enjoy what I enjoy
