Conventional Keyboards Are STAGGERINGLY STUPID! 

Subscribe to my new custom keyboards channel! www.youtube.com/@BenVallacksKeyboards

Since getting an ortho then columnar staggered, I often find myself thinking whether we really should start from scratch on some of our man machine interfaces that originated from more analogue base designs.

First thought (never having considered ortholinear before): "This is dumb as hell. My muscle memory probably needs the different sizes of keys to remember their position" Last thought: "oh, it's like a numpad. that's true. makes more sense than the random layout"

In a single keyboard as shown, I'm not fully sold on ortholinear. BUT, since i'm looking at possibly (probably) getting a split keyboard and many of them are ortholinear, this makes a ton of sense when you can arrange the halves in an even more ergonomic fashion. Well done video, Ben!

Amazing how you are able to look at this logically and objectively. After watching this it seems so obvious ortho is going to be better for me.

The conventional explanation (no one really seems to know for sure) for the design choices that have survived all the way to modern computer keyboards is that the choices were basically made back in the earliest typewriter days. Back then it was very easy for them to jam and if people got too fast at it it was virtually guaranteed they'd have to stop and clear jams frequently. The staggered keys likely are more due to simply how the actual levers were positioned to the keys and combined with the QWERTY key layout choice overall it would slow down typists to at least decrease the frequency of problems like jams. It's very hard to exactly regulate your exact typing speed to a specific rate (and it certainly would have to be limited low on really old typewriters) so the idea is it was necessary to forcibly slow people down since typists started getting used to typing and started typing faster over time. Whether this is true or not, the fact remains: there is no positive benefit to those choices on a modern digital computer keyboard. Any key layout (even random) would be more efficient and a linear rather than staggered layout is going to be easier on the hands and ultimately produce less RSI. It's worth noting that later mechanical typewriters ultimately improved designs and it was no longer necessary to slow people down anyway. Digital typewriters and computers were never subject to jamming (at least not due to physical limitations though I can certainly remember the olden days of filling my computer's keyboard buffer when it was basically frozen up to process something, but the problem there wasn't my typing speed but simply whatever was freezing the computer) so these design choices simply don't make sense even under the idea of slowing people down and they both contribute towards RSI, so really need to go. However, it seems convincing people as a whole to change anything is an uphill battle at the very least and thus even in custom keyboards it's surprisingly hard to get a lot of ortholinear options compared to orders of magnitude more options in staggered layouts.

Incredible production quality dude, subscribed!

This is an example of a individual who is THINKING with his own brain and who is asking questions. Big props to you! Love the video and your thoughts. Converting to linear very soon.

"There's NO use for that. It is Mad." Lol. So true

I felt like I was having a conversation with a real person, great video!

6:01, speaking of row-stagger on virtual keyboards, I just realized that the bottom row on my iPhone is indeed ortho linear to the middle row. Just the top and middle rows are staggered to each other.

TLDR: Once you fix your bad typing habits that you're forced to fix on ortho, switching between the two layouts is really easy. Just to note, I've been using an ortho for the last year or so. I got to 100wpm+ on the ortho. The time to adapt to the layout was very short, only around 2 weeks. Even though I increased my speed to 100wpm on my ortholinear keyboard without hardly ever using a standard staggered layout, I was able to get 100 wpm on the staggered layout. The only real difference between ortholinear and staggered is that you're forced to type with proper form to touch type on an ortho if you had any bad habits before. The only habit I had that I had to fix was that I typed the "c" key with my left index finger instead of the middle finger.

Sir, thanks a ton for your videos. This one in particular sealed the deal and helped me jump on the 40% ortholinear train. Still trying to get used to the layers and figuring out what is the best key for which location, but the process is great fun!

Since we are talking about ortholinear being good for ergonomic purposes what about other alternatives that try to solve the same issue in the name of ergonomics? I recently built an alice layout keyboard with blank dsa keycaps for uniformity. I'd say that is a much easier jump for some people compared to ortholinear. Alice provides comfort for the wrist, as your hands naturally want to be shoulder width, with a certain amount of tilt to be comfortable. I wonder if an ortholinear would be hard to configure in this manner, since the the way the keys are positioned slope inward to the typist as you get to the center of the board. Not to mention the ortholinear market right now is conducive to catering people who love small sized boards. If the numpad was the great apologist for a non-staggered layout, what was the need to take it out of the first place? With my alice layout i have the perfect amount of width for my shoulders, the perfect angle for my hands to tilt in, and the perfect amount of "tenting" so my wrist arent so pronated.

"There's no use for that it's mad." Well put.

As someone with coordination and hand issues. I think my fingers can not use the not staggered kind. The stagger helps when i move my hands to the space i need to. Theres this neurologist test my old chiropractor used to do where you stretch your hands out and with your finger try to tap your nose, if you missed you know things are off and he would do an adjustment that helps improve that coordination and balance related to this. I haven't had that adjustment in years (he died so i havent found a chiropractor as good as him, he wasnt like an average one he was also a functional neurologist) so i think the stagger actually helps me miss less of the keys. Idk why but i tested based off your idea with the number pad vs the normal staggering of the rest of my keyboard and when typing, when i move my hand or fingers on each i miss the number pad keys more. And yea i move my whole hand not just fingers because your wrist will suffer if they are in one place for too long. You're better off not keepung them always in the same spot. Just using your sense of touch and memory of what key you where on last to go from place to place on the board is better. Thats what i got taught at least as a kid. Your wrist will need a specific position or angle to not hurt but I've learned how to hold my hand much like the way you'd hold a Japanese brush for Calligraphy in a special position while using it. Which btw Calligraphy clearly hurts less, instead of moving your wrist your moving your whole arm, as someone with carpal tonnel this applies to keybaord typing too, hence why i hold my write in that posution i know it will prevent wrist pain. Once the keyboard is memorized you only occasionally need to look down at it. I could be wrong but i think maybe that is part of your problem. Remembering what button you where on so you dont move as much.

I stopped using staggered keyboards when I first switched to the Colemak layout a few years ago. It is still surprising to me that most keyboards use a staggered layout when it is clearly such a suboptimal design.

Bruh I can't unsee the stagger on a regular keyboard now and it really bothers me lol. I think this is the first logical video that gave a case for ortholinear, great job! Gonna pull the trigger on one soon.

Thank you for making this video. I've just recently noticed that a staggered key layout is really weird and seems non-sensical. I'm going to be getting an ortholinear keyboard that will also be Split and then program it with the Colemak Layout.

Ben: So the staggered layout makes you do ridiculous asymmetrical things with your body, everything's pulling to the left Violinists and flute players watching this video: "Oh no, what a nightmare!"

I've learned touch typing fairly recently, when I started I searched online to find the proper way to type, but the lack of symmetry between left and right hand movements instantly didn't make any sense to me, then I googled "why keyboard keys are not aligned" which led me to discovering ortholinear keyboards (and your channel). Now imagine if numpads were also horizontally staggered like the rest of the keyboard, it would be a nightmare.

Interesting that you found the swap to ortholinear keyboard to be easy. I've gone through a large amounts of keyboards (compared to normal people, not compared to you 😁), and I found most things to be very easy. The swap to a split keyboard was trivial, adding thumb buttons was trivial, starting to use layers a bit harder, but going from staggered to ortholinear was without a doubt the largest step for me. It took me about a week to not consistently miss keystrokes, and I'm pretty sure I was occasionally hitting keys wrong over the coming months. It was worth it though. I'm now using the ZSA Voyager (with columnar staggered keys) and it's so comfortable to type on that I'm having troubles putting it into words.

Yo, 't' being closer to my finger than 'y' blew me away, never thought about it! Do you find the ortholinear helps with RSI?

Never noticed how terrible the standard keyboard layout is until i just started to learn how to type fast. So here i am now

I've been looking at getting an ortholinear keyboard for a while now, because i've been tired of fat fingering my keys when typing or even gaming and this just sold me on one.

Welp, I caved... You convinced me. I just ordered a Planck EZ! Your videos are what really got me interested and eventually got me to take the plunge(for both ortho and 40% board). I really hope this keyboard is as awesome/ productive as I want it to be. ooof it's a long shipping time though at 3 weeks. Timer starts.... now!

Thank you. I was wondering if I could get used to an Ortholinear. I am ready to bite the bullet and give it a try.

If you look closely you will see that specially the bottom left is the problem with the "correct" fingering. Using the index finger for c (in qwerty) and x with the middle finger, z with the ring finger solves the most problematic key placements -- not perfect, but pretty good. Then a staggered keyboard is surely not as good as ortholinear, but very usable. Most annoying keys then stay the Y and B, because they force a large stretch. But the advantage is that you can still use a laptop keyboard in that way.

I was literally doing a typing test and didn't realize how hard it was to contort my fingers. Been hardstuck at 100wpm even with touchtyping and I'm thinking ortho linear is the way to go.

Im just learning to touch type and noticed the stagger straightaway, my left hand is struggling so going to invest in an ortholinear, thanks for the vid

Really love the videos you've put up. Totally spoke my mind when I was thinking of moving towards ortholiner. Even made caps my backspace on my 60 pct. Also using the Anne Pro 2. Great audio balance you've achieved. Pleasing, straight to the point and really comforting. Definately moving towards ortholiner after this.

Thanks for your thoughts on ortholinear! I was hesitant because I'm a bit lazy to learn a new layout... but your explanation makes me mad that I've accepted staggered this whole time

Excellent and high quality content! Thanks for introducing me to the term "Skeuomorph". Looking forward to more videos!

My intuitive thoughts on ergonomics: human are born (kinda) symmetrical, but the normal keyboard layout is not. Therefore it's probably not ergonomic. I really want to try out something that's a bit more symmetrical like an ortholinear keyboard someday...

This isn't going to ever change, unless a company makes a ballsy move like Apple did with USB. If it weren't for them, it would have taken much longer to to get rid of all the different connectors we had for keyboard, mouse, printer, etc. Same for floppy disks and optical.

Hey man, awesome channel and content! I tried to get into the hobby last year but found it quite expensive and overwhelming. I decided to buy a fully assembled keyboard for my first one and it will probably be the Anne Pro 2, because I still find the Planck EZ a bit pricey, specially living in Brazil (shipping, customs, etc). Anyway, keep up the good work, this channel deserves to blow up!

I think the perfect general-use ergonomic keyboard design is the upcoming Dygma Defy keyboard. It will be split for shoulder ergonomics, tented for wrist ergonomics, and columnar for finger ergonomics. They decided against perfectly ortholinear because our fingers are naturally slightly different lengths. I say "general purpose" because there will always be superusers who want even smaller or specialized keyboards.

It's three years after this video was posted... and ortholinear keyboards seem to be just as dead, if not even more dead, than they were way back in the early to mid 2000s when I first learned of them and alternate keyboard layouts. Sad, because I've always been interested... but they're possibly harder than ever to find now. Back then they were expensive for even the more common generic rubber dome/membrane models... now they're flat-out impossible to find anywhere. The other problem I had with finding them, other than the fact that they were all crappy rubber domes, is that they were usually some stupid "split" layout or 40% board. I could never find any good fullsize variants (or even TKL, or 75/70/65/60%).

I used a Sony Viao keyboard most of my life when it came to gaming, mostly because the keys are ortho linear around the arrow keys. Then I switched to a Verbatim keyboard later in life for the same reason. I could never get use to WASD. This video make total sense. I'm looking forward to trying out an ortholinear keyboard.

this totally makes sense, but if you are already looking for keyboards ther are designed to fit our hands and finger better then I think you should skip ortholinear keyboards and jump straight to ergonomic split keyboards like the Ergodox EZ. it s Ortholinear too but since it s split you can adjust the two halves of the keyboard to the natural angle of your arms so you have completely straight wrists. Also that keyboard uses the thumbs for way more things then just the spacebar

Hey man just got recommended to your channel! Your production quality is pretty high for being so small. You seem pretty knowledgeable too. You are definitely getting a subscribe from me. I'm excited to see where you go.

I think staggered can be better, it depends on how you angle your hands. Another advantage is that keys are easier to distinguish by position. If you are off on a staggered keyboard the chances of hitting the wrong column are reduced. But I would love to try ortholinear. BTW the thing with the typewriters is not only true for the staggering but for the positions of the letters as well. The default arrangement of the letters is complete garbage, personally I switched to a different layout which is based on statistics so most common letters are on easy to reach keys and common letter combinations tend to be on different fingers. It's not dvorak but based on the same concept, if you are interested in optimizing your keyboard and getting rid of old typewriter crap I would suggest to look in to other layouts as well :)

this man gives me the most chill feeling

I think you should address the fact that a lot of issues with keyboards arise from the fact that you are forced to angle your arms inwards, and angle your wrists outwards thereafter. Saying that ortho helps with anything is disingenuous, because as it stands, you still need to come in at an angle to type comfortably. Unless of course, your arms stick straight out of your chest perpendicularly.Theres a reason these orthos are most popular in split keyboards, where you can align each half of a keyboard with your hand and arm. Otherwise, a staggered layout is more intuitive for a typing experience.

Welcome to the rabbit hole, split keyboards, dactryl manuform, and funky QMQ features you've never heard of, keyabord switches and keycaps.

Just built my first ortho. Your video is giving me the motivation to get accustomed to typing on it. At first, it felt all wrong because I hadn't noticed the stagger in all the keyboards I'd been typing on for 30 years.

In all seriousness, I do find the ortho layout really interesting (as much as I just want to be happy with my new Keychron K2), and it makes a lot of sense. Do you find it's easy to stay "backward compatible" with staggered keyboards in case you need to use a laptop or someone else's keyboard? And similarly, would someone be able to pretty much knock out a couple sentences without incident if they had to sit down and type something in at my computer with my Strange All-Numpad Keyboard?

there are some nice looking hexagon keycapped keyboards on Amazon, with these sorts of boards it's the wrist action people like. The wrist's don't do much on a ortholinear style board, with ortholinear typing is like stroking a cat with almost no wrist action at all.

Ben, what the hell! That numbpad logic was flawless! Never would've thought of that. Excellent point, and a great video!

Love the videos. Subscribe. I recently switched to a 65% mechanical keyboard and love it. Baby steps! Like everyone else, now was the perfect time to rethink my setup and challenge my basic assumptions. It's also a great time to invest in making these ergonomic changes. I was thinking 40% and ortholinear was too big a change but you have me rethinking. I'm a Vim guy myself. When programming does the 40% create major issues with all the non-alphanumeric key presses?

I find that the ortholinear layout really shines on curved keyboards like the Kinesis Advantage because t and y (and b/n, g/h, etc) become even closer to the index fingers.

great video. just realized it is not distanced symmetrically like bricks, in the middle gaps / grouts. what if we just simply move the keys just a little bit? i mean, you pointed out that it is asymmetrical distance. if we move the key gaps right in the middle of the next row, we would have a symmetrical distance. just like how bricks laid out. i kind of dislike columnar ortholinear layout because it kind of forces my palm to sit straight. feels cramped. i think it just works with split keyboard because then you can still position it diagonally, so your palms can be straight with your arms

You do such an amazing job of explaining these benefits! I've been tossing up between whether or not I should jump to ortholinear, but I think you've just helped me make up my mind. cheers!

I've suggested Logitech do a low-end ortho keyboard, with a layout shift key. Then people could try it out for

From my understanding Qwerty was designed to slow typist down bc of old mech typewriters. Great vid thx

When you remove the legacy history of staggering from the equation but keep the ergonomy (your hand should stay straight coming at an angle to your keyboard!) and you add the logical consistency of ortholinear (finger in a grid) then you should find out that "columnar staggering" is the best of the two worlds. We are no machines, our hand and fingers are not in a grid.

I've been touch typing since I was in elementary school. 2 minutes in and I'm sold on ortholinear. I always was bothered by staggered keys, It felt so imbalanced and weird, but I just kind of figured it was that way for good reason. I'm excited.

The iPad does support third party virtual keyboards. Though oddly I could not find an ortholinear one on the App Store.

You could have checked out vertical stagering like on ergonomic keyboards

This is interesting to watch few years later and notice my iPhone actually has (at least mostly) ortho keyboard and all my older android phones have also had the same. This is only true when I use finnish keyboard tho (apparently it's on many other's toi like russian and thai but not the basic english one) All the alphas are in perfect line but the modifiers are slightly larger just like in the english one but the few extra letters remove enough empty space to have ortho layout I guess. Maybe that's one of the reason's why I type faster with it (or it could just be that I'm very slow with normal keebs).

Never thought about it that way before…interesting. I know this is late, but I’m curious what your thoughts are on the columnar layout (staggered vertically because our fingers are different lengths but in a grid horizontally for the same reasons as ortho).

Before watching all the way through, i prefer staggered. I bought the Razer Tartarus Pro which is ortho i guess (not staggered) and i cant stand the way it feels. With your fingers moving up and inbetween two keys, i feel that for a small inconvenience you get a bigger convenience in return. That and the way your fingers fan out naturally as they extend, even if not by much, grants credence to staggered layouts. I think with staggered, its harder to hit keys lower than the home row, but easier to hit keys higher than the home row. Ive been looking at a 40% Vortex ortho board though, so maybe ill pick it up and legit try it out myself

Never thought about it, but now that I do I don't think I'm convinced. Like I absolutely agree with everything that was said in the video. It's just I write completely differently. My initial hand position is different to start off and then my hands move non symmetrically to begin with. My left hand in place ready to press and hold keys, while my right is flying all over the place, including using the mouse (which I use quite extensively, even while writing). Which true, I learned to do that because of the layout, not despite. It's just personally I don't have much to gain from the switch. I also still haven't seen a single ortholinear keyboard that doesn't remove quite a lot of keys, which is DEFINITELY a no go for me.

I’m making this up, but also maybe I heard it somewhere. The staggering of a classic keyboard is holdover from design constraints of tour writers which is the only reason they were staggered to begin with. Given that no one has used type writers for some time now, we just need companies to notice this foolishness in mass and make the change.

Great video, amazing production quality! I was so shocked when you talked about the subscribers expecting about a few thousand, but wow you really deserve way more. Really interesting video too, I too had just assumed that staggered keys were naturally more ergonomic since it had to be standard for a reason. But what you mentioned about typewriters and mechanical pragmatism being the real reason behind it really drove home the point. But that doesn't make it any more easy to find, so my question is that if you are someone that is forced to switch back and forth with staggered anyway out of circumstance (like when using laptops), is there any point in using ortho for the main keyboard or will that just confuse your muscle memory every time you switch?

Coming from an Alice layout (specifically: Sagittarius) I found ortho/columnar surprisingly easy to pick up!

thank you very much for taking the time to make this video, my dear brother. your aura/feel is very cool and honest, I love your speech style and delivery, it really feels more like a cozy conversation with a knowedged friend rather than a rigid presentation, your script/improv is on point. I'll take notes for when I start making my own videos. secondly, I wanted to say I also found your video when I searched for ortholinear keyboards. lately I been trying to learn the dvorak key layout given I've always had a case of irreparable dyslexia for qwerty, dvorak makes more logical sense for me but while practicing I also came across the senselessness of the rows being staggered. thanks to you I'll be getting soon an ortholineal one soon. blessings to you and your efforts, my dear brother EDIT: never mind, looks like getting hold of an ortholinear keyboard is quite the hard deal if you live outside a first world nation given the fact that they cost a bit too much, about 2 months worth of house rent in my currency, for example. off course theres the option to make one yourself off aliexpress but off course that also takes too much money and a bit of knowledge and time none of which i have so for the time being i'll have to keep settling with the 1800s poor people's keyboard

for me the staggered layout is actually helpful, as i can't afford a split keyboard yet, it helps me keep my hands at a more ergonomic 45 degree angle. so if you imagine my hands sitting like that, the problem of letters being shifted actually goes away because for example,the D and R letters are in a straight line for my middle finger.

Great production quality! Now, give us your favorite ortholinear mechs!

For whatever reason my left hand is in charge with mashing the Y key despite my right hand having a closer finger. It's weird but I can't get my right index finger to be comfortable pressing that key.

Its not about ergonomics for me its more about layout, having the keys the same size never feels right to me even on a ATM and its going to be tricky for a touch typer who is relying on the spacebar and or enter bar being a certain length. I personally cannot stand non US layout keyboards as the backspace is too tiny for me, I need that backspace to be large as if its tiny like it is in other layouts I cannot properly work.

I don't know. I feel that ortho makes me twist my wrists outwards

(sorry this got rambly, TLDR; it is true but angle matters, imho) After watching your video I tried to verify your statement, fingers move in the ortholinear direction, and my findings differ. I use a low profile Logitech craft keyboard, staggered standard also I use a high palmrest so my fingers and wrist are almost pointing down towards the keys. With the palmrest my fingers follow the staggered buttons, without the palmrest my movments seem to follow an ortholinear direction. You also can see this if you hold your hand like holding a cup, where then perform an ortholinear motion. With your hand flat out the motion would be staggered. This also applies, so it feels to me at least, when you use a tenting keyboard, so the angle of your wrist against the keyboard is the deciding factor. My point is, for on the go, like you use your keyboard with your tablet I see ortholinear to be the better layout. At a desktop I feel having your wrists straight is important.

This does make complete sense, man now I want to try an ortho linear set up 😩

finally built my first ortho, and there isn't really a relearning process given the same number of keys... a few mistyped letters maybe

Have to disagree on your points: - If your hands are slightly angled inwards, a stagered layout needs only the extension / contraction of fingers and not side movements for many of the keys (your example going from J to U which you display shows it). Ortholiear keys would then actually off to the relative side. You take the numpad as an example - but this works only because we use it with our hands coming in at a right angle which is a crippling position if you are using a non-split keyboard for typing letters. - A slight asymmetry for the left and right hand will not harm or overburden you. Remember we have a dominant hand that we use completely differently than the non dominant one. Symmetry has its beauty and its place, but not always. - Almost all people have a functioning cerebellum to memorize where a staggered key is. It is completely trivial to other movements we do in everyday life. That you have been fighting all your life with a staggered keyboard and then easily and swiftly learn ortholinear I find unusual. For most people I heard from it's the opposite. And then there is a lot of friction having to use staggered keyboards pretty much everywhere. Switching back and forth easily is not something anybody can do and most long time reviewers of ortholinears note it as an issue. If you have fought staggered keyboards before you switched to ortholinears, I can hardly imagine that got better when you are used to ortholinears. - If we could reinvent the keyboard - sure, make them ortholinear. Starting at zero things might be slightly better. But there is no need or benefit the dominant system today. It is like our railways being as wide as ancient imperial roman waggons and carts. Yes, we could maybe make things slightly better by chosing another width, BUT not anymore, as the trouble we as a society would have to go through is not worth it. And for an individual learning and building a wider train, it is extra futile, to use that analogy again.

My mind is blown. 🤯 Ordering a ortholinear keyboard NOW

I'm now pretty curious about this... just worried about then using a laptop (which until the last few months and return to a desktop for work has been my main typing setup). As a gamer, shooters in particular, I also wonder if the orto layout would be beneficial in that activity.

This production quality + your style is just fantastic. Easy sub decision

I have a planck ez as well. and I've even went ahead a learned a new keyboard layout. The layout goes a little differently. CNAEYGTIOM :XQRVKDJZ? The reason for this layout is that it puts the most common letters in the index finger and the middle finger areas and the most uncommon letters are away from homerow and or use your pinky. It also puts some common letter pairs in places that make sense like th and wh both just use your right index and middle one right after the other. also er is just your left index hitting the place it is resting and then moving down one space to hit the r right below the E. This layout also avoids row jumping. However. Similar to learning ortholinear which took me a month to get back to 60 wpm. Learning a new layout lakes even longer. Like I'm 2 months in and I'm getting back up there but muscle memory isn't earned fast and isn't something that you can skipp the hard work part. Since your brain wants to tell you the old way for a long time.

Really enjoyed this video, helped me decide on going with an ortho keyboard, Keep it up man!

Just wanted to say that I really enjoy your videos. They are high quality, have a nice tone and pace and are always informative. Stay safe and keep it up !

Got another subscriber here, I'm all about design and usability, so I'm looking forward to more videos from you, thank you!

Great point about the numpad!

Initially after watching the video I agreed with you that staggered is pointless and outdated. However, I realized that I don't type fully in the left diagonal way that you showed which I guess is the standard method that is taught now. Instead my right hand is staggered to the left and my left hand is mirrored so it's staggered to the right. I tried typing with my left hand also staggered to the left like the picture you showed but it does feel very uncomfortable to me. Both of my hands naturally want to swing more inward so with my method the staggered keyboard allows me to sort of create a inward sweeping motion with each of my hands which is more comfortable in my opinion. With the ortholinear I think that I would have to kind of tuck in my elbows or place the keyboard very far away from me in order to point my hands straight forward like that in order to make it comfortable.

Something else I have since realized: QWERTY only works on staggered keyboards because the N key is too far away on ortho. I can also type dvorak so this isn't a problem (I can actually do both now cuz I don't change OS layout anymore lol), but it definitely makes more sense for alt layouts. It's a shame the newer quefrency and sinc hotswap boards don't actually have the more thumb key options and you have to get something expensive like the raise.

Is there a split, ortholinear TKL keyboard? Every single split TKL keyboard I've seen are staggered rather than ortholinear...

Ortholinear is super attractive and I’m onboard but if I switch to an ortholinear at my desk, am I going to be a fumbling mess every time I try to use a laptop? (And lugging a keyboard to the cafe is an option but wouldn’t solve my problem, only make me a different kind of fumbling mess.)

What I can see as a problem with the ortholinear is that you don't have your hands at a 90 degree angle to the keyboard if you aren't twisting your wrists to achieve that, so you are losing much of the only having to move your fingers forwards and backwards and instead still have to move them towards the side. Compare that to the numpad which is on the side, so you will actually move your hand which will achieve that 90 degree angle. It thereby feels like it wouldn't be much of an improvement in an ortholinear. Now if it were a split one I could really see the improvement since you would rotate them to achieve that 90 degree angle for each of your hands.

This like My 20th time watching your vid and it always strikes me as, the people's exhibit A. "If it pleases the court, your keyboards are MAD, wrong and injurious. Here's why...." Like, how can you possibility provide a counter argument for staggered after this? Bravo

What do you think about a symmetrical stagger (so instead of .25s and .5s, each row has the same stagger) or a mirrored stagger for each half(to simulate a split board)?

I always viewed the keyboard vs numpad alignment as: we learned to type on typewriters and we learned to input numbers on calculators. I don't think there's any ergonomic choice of the numpad just like it seems widely accepted that we have staggered layout for historical reasons. That being said, I agree and touch devices should most definitely offer orto in the options!

O.O!!!!! When I was learning how to type as a kid I asked my teacher, "why the keys are staggered and not in line?" . Next thing I know is the whole class laughed at me. I knew something was wrong! :((((

4:30 - I disagree about the visualization. I don't visualize anything at all while typing. My brain almost unconsciously follows the patterns that I've learned without even thinking about it. I honestly couldn't tell you which finger I use to type the letter z without actually putting both of my hands on the home row and staring at my fingers. I've used both ortholinear and staggered split keyboards for ergonomic/comfort reasons and I've landed on a split + staggered keyboard because I just couldn't get used to the the ortholinear boards. I can type on it, yes, but at 50% of my speed and that is not something I am willing to devote more time/energy to fix. Maybe if staggered keyboards caused me wrist pain then I'd shift.

This isn’t mad. THIS. IS. Sparta.

This video was so clean, and well made and so so fun and informative.. Subbed. Hope we can start a shift to ortholinear keyboards ❤️

I completely agree with you. It is completely stupid how the staggered keyboards makes ur fingers move in angles. Which completely has no valid benefits.

Hmm this is actually a bit eye-opening. I had figured the staggered keyboard was fine. But this video made me realise that the staggered layout is really not good for touch typing, which I find very hard on my keyboard (a 'normal' staggered one).

Excellent video! Subscribed

Such a fantastic video I had to come back a fourth time