Moonlander Keyboard (Mechanical) (Ergonomic) (Split) (Ortholinear)

It’s looking big again now :joy: does it feel big/oversized?

I really don’t want it to dominate my desk :confused: I am going to reserve judgement for now but think I might be happier with that Bear :shushing_face:

Please continue to keep us posted on how you’re getting on Law - I am enjoying reading your progress with it :smiley:

How are you getting on @brentjanderson?

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Speaking as someone who has primarily used Mac keyboards over the past decade, it doesn’t feel oversized. Obviously nowhere near as thin or as small of a foot print as a Mac keyboard, but nonetheless still very reasonable. Especially for what it provides by way of comfort and the ability to customize the firmware and to an extent the hardware.

Remember, you can take off the wrist rest and the thumb clusters. And since you can put your mouse and in my case trackpad in-between the two halves (I find this adds to comfort as well) there is some savings in desk area there.

@AstonJ Is it the foot print that mainly concerns you?

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I think it’s that together with how it will ‘feel’ on my desk - i.e the aesthetics/feng shui. I have noticed quite a few times that when I have an untidy desk my productivity suffers, the untidier or more cramped it is the more I am affected! When everything is clear and tidy I work much better for some reason :confused:

It’s good to know that it doesn’t feel oversized for you as someone who’s used to Mac keyboards :smiley:

I just wish they’d hurry up and send me it now to put me out of my misery :rofl:

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Quite well - still deciding if I want to continue working on Colemak or stick to QWERTY. I have been using Colemak for a few minutes each day, gradually getting more and more practice in. I’m surprised at how quickly I have been able to pick it up enough to be useful.

I would say that it does occupy a fair amount of space on my desk, but I also don’t mind a messy workspace (and should probably do something about that).

My favorite parts have been:

  1. Caps lock is now backspace. This should just be default on any keyboard - when was Caps lock useful?
  2. The thumb clusters are surprisingly comfortable to me, and wonderfully useful. I miss them on my normal apple keyboard.
  3. Macros and customizing the layout. Having a 10 key, qwerty, colemak, and a function layer (including customizations for navigating slack, controlling mic and video in zoom, and browser tab navigation) has been awesome. Not to mention “shift cadet” (it sends a parenthesis when you tap the shift key).

The worst parts so far:

  1. I don’t know how much the ergonomics are helping yet. It’s nice to stretch out, but I’m still figuring out the right way to not tax my left wrist so much.
  2. The arrow keys - I’ve been so used to using the arrow keys along with command keys to navigate and edit documents. The arrow key placement isn’t natural on this, and I haven’t figured out a better place for them (maybe another layer with a different modifier). This has been tough enough for me that I installed Vim keybindings in VS Code to navigate around. Not sure if I’ll figure out the arrow keys or Vim bindings first!

I’m really pleased with it overall, though, and I really enjoy using this to get work done.

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Glad to things are going well. I’m still trying to figure placement for stuff. I feel like this might be a life long journey :sweat_smile:

Like you I was very used to navigating with the arrows keys even in… vim :see_no_evil::hear_no_evil::speak_no_evil: (I know, I know). Here’s my layout. I decided to add the arrow keys to their own layer with modifier buttons.

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Glad to hear you are enjoying it Brent! :+1:

If you’ve gotten quite used to it by just a few minutes a day I imagine it would become second nature if you made it your full time layout for a few weeks - well, according to @Dusty’s article anyway:

In the Colemak community, there is an approach called Tarmak, where you change only 3–4 letters at a time, progressing only after you have regained proficiency. This is not a bad approach, but the majority of successful switchers are in the cold-turkey club (myself included, 3 times). The way this works is that you find a period of several consecutive days where you can minimize commitments and you aren’t at work. This could be vacation time, a long weekend holiday, the grandparents are in town to watch the kids, you name it. You go after the layout in as full-time a manner as possible, and you try to hit 30 WPM. Many people can do this in just a couple days of dedicated practice. You then take your 30 WPM to work and grit your teeth through one tough week. After that, you relax, use the layout full-time, and the speed comes naturally. That’s it.

Try it, I dare you! :joy: :nerd_face:

Why is it impacting your left wrist?

I would do as Law has done:

I’ve heard people do that for numbers on ortholinear keyboards too - as they’re closer to numpads (something I miss from my old Apple keyboard!)

Don’t say that :rofl: I just want to get to something good without having to fiddle around too much :upside_down_face:

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I’m leaning into it more, although I swap to QWERTY when someone else is waiting on a longer response to something.

The moonlander isn’t, I got this keyboard to help with wrist pain that had begun to develop.

@foxtrottwist - I am copying from that layout. What a great idea to put command keys on home row!

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I prefer linear home row arrows to cluster style (I use home position rather than Vim position). The argument for cluster is finger strength, I suppose, but I’ve been right arrowing with 5 for several years now, and it doesn’t bother me at all. I feel the same way about numbers—I prefer home row to numpad layout. When it comes to comfort, reducing finger movement seems to trump everything else for me. My layout for reference.

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Guess what?

I cancelled my Moonlander order :see_no_evil:

Looking at everyone’s photos here, and the additional ones @foxtrottwist sent me, I made some paper cut-outs and it’s just too big for me and the overall ‘bulky’ design (thick ‘bezels’ and plastic wrist rest) along with the wire going from one unit to another is just a little too compromising on the aesthetic front for me personally :sob:

I think I am going to get the Planck or Preonic - I will start a dedicated thread about it now and why I feel they may be more suited to me…

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Here are the most popular YouTube videos I’ve seen:

Some pics/reviews from elsewhere on the web:

I’ve actually been wondering what might work best in the centre of a set up with this keyboard have had been thinking of trackball too, here’s the one from the review:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kensington-Expert-Mouse-ergonomic-ambidextrous/dp/B01936N73I

Not sure how practical it would be on my desk as I was planning on putting each side of the keyboard wither side of the foot of my monitor stand (perfect place for it really). May just stick to a trackpad…

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Oooo I just noticed Aaron Patterson has one! Aaron is one of my programming heroes! When I was new to Ruby he went to a great deal of time and effort to help me with with a nokogiri issue - such a nice guy! :orange_heart:

Glad he’s saying it’s thin - that was one of my concerns about using a mechanical keyboard…

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Here’s another vid/review about the Moonlander…

(I also merged the Moonlander Reviews thread into this one as I think it works better as one thread here :D)

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I took you up on this, my typing speed is up to 30 wpm at about 95% accuracy. Still getting the hang of it, and I hope I haven’t totally ruined my ability to type, but the results so far are promising!

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That’s not bad - what was your wpm before Brent?

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It’s tolerable, however my WPM was closer to 120 before switching. :laughing: Even so, I feel like I can be reasonably productive again after struggling for a couple weeks and making my layout just right for me and how I work. And my accuracy and speed feel like they are improving pretty quickly at this point.

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120 WPM!! That’s about twice as fast as me :rofl:

I posted a thread here:

Maybe you can post in there every couple of months to keep track of how you’re progressing :smiley:

I think I should mention that in the speed test thread too - it will be interesting seeing whether the faster types are using custom or other layouts…

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Is anyone interested in a brand new White / Kailh Copper? I’m in Los Angeles and can meet up locally or ship at my expense. Mine just arrived today and I already know I’m not going to have time to learn a new layout for a while. I’ll leave this offer up here for a week. Thanks!

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You didn’t say how much you want for it @togepi420 :slight_smile:

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Oops. $350 shipped

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Just got mine a few days ago. This is my current layout (work in progress).

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