I've looked at the Kinesis quite a lot, but have never been able to use one, so the cost held me back. One thing I like about it over other keyboards (Microsoft Natural, for instance) is that it doesn't maintain the leftward 'sweep' of the keys. The MS Natural is perfect for the right hand: fingers 'sweep' up and down along the axis of the wrist/elbow. But the left hand, while pointing the wrist in the right direction, forces a finger sweep that's now nearly perpendicular to the wrist. It's mindboggling.
So two things hold me back: I've grown to love 'short travel' keys: if activation was at 1mm I'd be ecstatic.
In reality, I'll probably order it here shortly: I need something that's more comfortable. Getting the foot pedal as well (for shift) is probably the best combination.
Do you use a foot pedal? If so: single or triple? From years of bad habits, I pretty much only use left shift and ctl (even going so far as to use my ring finger for QAZ): I think moving that motion to my feet would be a pretty good change.
Apart from eagerly awaiting your reply, I have to say: I don't see how our voting history would have much to do with our preferred keyboard layout.
Disclaimer: This is going to sound like a sales pitch, but I don't have any affiliation with Kinesis.
I'm only 25, but I've dealt with tendinitis in both wrists since I was 18 (me and computers have a love/hate going on.) The only real downside to the Contour keyboard is the cost. Effin' $300? Are you kidding me? On the flip side, they're so good that I actually own 2 (1 for home, 1 for work). They're amazingly comfortable, and have become the only keyboard that I can use for more than 20 minutes. I have a single footswitch at work, and a triple at home. Honestly, I wish the triple at home was just a single, as I only use one switch on it. That switch is the shift key, and saves my hands lots of "acrobatics" and time, especially when coding (special characters). A hardward Dvorak mode is just icing on the cake.
On the flip side, for a $300 keyboard, their support department sucks. One of the keyboards was exhibiting some really funky behavior out of the box, and they made me pay return shipping on the faulty keyboard. Obnoxious given that you assume a premium product like that would just work, and if not then they don't stick you with the bill. That just sounds like sloppy management, but the product is excellent.
Pair it up with a Kensington Expert Mouse (actually a trackball) and I can work away for hours on end with far less of the pain and fatigue I used to deal with.
So two things hold me back: I've grown to love 'short travel' keys: if activation was at 1mm I'd be ecstatic.
In reality, I'll probably order it here shortly: I need something that's more comfortable. Getting the foot pedal as well (for shift) is probably the best combination.
Do you use a foot pedal? If so: single or triple? From years of bad habits, I pretty much only use left shift and ctl (even going so far as to use my ring finger for QAZ): I think moving that motion to my feet would be a pretty good change.
Apart from eagerly awaiting your reply, I have to say: I don't see how our voting history would have much to do with our preferred keyboard layout.