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Why do they never make these with 4 modifier keys on the left side like Mac keyboards(Ctrl, Fn, Alt, Cmd)? Hate not being able to use muscle memory switching be

by nanook 2y ago

Why do they never make these with 4 modifier keys on the left side like Mac keyboards(Ctrl, Fn, Alt, Cmd)? Hate not being able to use muscle memory switching between my MBP and an external keyboard.

zamadatix 2y ago
The standard first 3 R4 keys (control, option/alt, command/win) are 1.25x width while the "true" Mac layout has those at 1x width to prevent the spacebar from having to migrate too far to the right (even though it's still a bit farther right than normal). This means to serve the niche of fn muscle memory users of the niche of Mac keyboard users you not only need the create the custom positional layout but custom keycaps (and the board/firmware you build it with must support layers to do fn in the first place). Then when you do all of this these people will still probably be uninterested because it's not some additional niche design criteria (70% vs 100%, low profile vs full size, split vs not, yadda yadda) anyways. All that is to say, there's a lot more going against it than just repositioning 1 key would seem. I had a coworker who liked https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/products/mk-lowkey70-black https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/products/mk-lowkey70-black. Basically "an external version of the MacBook keyboard with hotswap switches, RGB, and caps". Dunno that I've seen any full sized variants of the Mac layout though.
- nanook 2y ago
  > niche of Mac keyboard users Is it a niche though? Logitech, cheap BT keyboards etc mostly stick to this layout. And it's not just the left side that is the issue - they move fn to the right in place of the alt key. Can't cmd-alt-i with 1 hand anymore! The only other keyboards I've seen with this mac-like layout are - - https://nuphy.com/collections/keyboards/products/nutype-f1?variant=32851509870701 https://nuphy.com/collections/keyboards/products/nutype-f1?v... which looks slick but I much prefer the 75% layout - https://electronicmaterialsoffice.com/ https://electronicmaterialsoffice.com/ which I can't justify paying for right now > an external version of the MacBook keyboard with hotswap switches, RGB, and caps Wow, this is almost exactly what I've been looking for! Thanks for the rec! It's a shame they don't ship to where I am right now. I'll try to pick one up next time I travel.

by nanook 2y ago

Why do they never make these with 4 modifier keys on the left side like Mac keyboards(Ctrl, Fn, Alt, Cmd)? Hate not being able to use muscle memory switching between my MBP and an external keyboard.

zamadatix 2y ago

The standard first 3 R4 keys (control, option/alt, command/win) are 1.25x width while the "true" Mac layout has those at 1x width to prevent the spacebar from having to migrate too far to the right (even though it's still a bit farther right than normal). This means to serve the niche of fn muscle memory users of the niche of Mac keyboard users you not only need the create the custom positional layout but custom keycaps (and the board/firmware you build it with must support layers to do fn in the first place). Then when you do all of this these people will still probably be uninterested because it's not some additional niche design criteria (70% vs 100%, low profile vs full size, split vs not, yadda yadda) anyways. All that is to say, there's a lot more going against it than just repositioning 1 key would seem. I had a coworker who liked https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/products/mk-lowkey70-black https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/products/mk-lowkey70-black. Basically "an external version of the MacBook keyboard with hotswap switches, RGB, and caps". Dunno that I've seen any full sized variants of the Mac layout though.

nanook 2y ago
> niche of Mac keyboard users Is it a niche though? Logitech, cheap BT keyboards etc mostly stick to this layout. And it's not just the left side that is the issue - they move fn to the right in place of the alt key. Can't cmd-alt-i with 1 hand anymore! The only other keyboards I've seen with this mac-like layout are - - https://nuphy.com/collections/keyboards/products/nutype-f1?variant=32851509870701 https://nuphy.com/collections/keyboards/products/nutype-f1?v... which looks slick but I much prefer the 75% layout - https://electronicmaterialsoffice.com/ https://electronicmaterialsoffice.com/ which I can't justify paying for right now > an external version of the MacBook keyboard with hotswap switches, RGB, and caps Wow, this is almost exactly what I've been looking for! Thanks for the rec! It's a shame they don't ship to where I am right now. I'll try to pick one up next time I travel.