As a big fan of ergonomics, it's really hard for me to understand how anyone likes these types of keyboards....

Maybe its just my physical size, but to me, one of the biggest problems with traditional keyboards is how close the right and left key 'wells' are to each other.

I started using a kinesis advantage some years ago and find them simply amazing for a multitude of reasons.

- First off, the separation between right and left key 'wells' decreases pressure at my wrists significantly.

- Secondly, the small, natural curve in the wells seems to greatly reduce the effort required to reach the most used keys.

- And thirdly, thumb keys are bomb!!

All of that said, it is a pretty expensive piece of gear... but it's also where the rubber meets the road -- where my fingers do the talking.. so why shouldn't it be nice?

slezyr

You can also build ergodone or sp50 for half of the price.

wrecursion

Yeah... that seems like a reasonable option - certainly for the price reduction alone.

A couple of cons to that option for me:

- Having already found a keyboard I love, It would be hard for me to switch without trying it first at no cost to me :).

- I notice it does not have the curved key wells, which I have really come to appreciate. It may seem subtle, but after typing on one for a while, I find it really amazing what a difference the curves make. Any keys around the home keys just require less effort to activate. It feels quite nice to type with.

- I have never built a keyboard before (but would like to give it a shot). Does that require soldering? Unless assembly is just completely foolproof, I think Id just prefer my main keyboard to be built by people who build them regularly :P

SuperPaintMan

Ergonomics was a large factor in building my own ErgoDox, my shoulders were killing me due to the keyboard being too short to be supported by the rests on my chair. Choosing to build your own keyboard is it's own little rabbit hole to go down, but it's worth it and you have a truly personalised device at the end. Some soldering and research is required but places such as r/mechanicalkeyboards and geekhack exist along with many many tutorials.

As far as curved keywell that comes down to your choice of key profile. I'm using XDA which a flat profile, while a SA profile has a decent curve to it. The choice of board does come into play but most kits are flat as to avoid 3d printing and whatnot[1]. For the feel of the key itself there are a ton [2] of options, from extremely smooth and light linear switches to heavy clacking tactile switches, most being compatible so mixing and matching is possible. PCBs come in all sorts such as tiny 70% sizes, split, stenographic and some freakazoid monsters [3]. Even FOSS firmwares such as QMK are common and hackable! There are are too many options to enumerate!

I just wanted a split keyboard that was small, light on my fingers and wouldn't wake the girlfriend up. I took some time and built a ErgoDox with Gateron clears, XDA blank keycaps and a programming focused layout. For less then 150CAD, it was worth it for it being entirely my own.

[1] https://github.com/adereth/dactyl-keyboard [2] https://deskthority.net/wiki/Category:List_of_all_keyboard_s... [3] https://keeb.io/products/bfo-9000-keyboard-customizable-full...