Keyboards & other thoughts. (Score: 2, Interesting) by kerrany@pipedot.org on 2014-10-24 14:40 (#2TP2) Programmer here: I wouldn't call laptop keyboards "great". Ever. Anybody ever found one that isn't terrible for programming?Other thought: maybe people are getting Chromebooks for the hardware and installing other stuff on them.Also, apparently Chromebooks are pretty full-featured. That last feature the article mentions almost makes me want one... and the price is killer.The keyboard is still a sticking point for me, though. I don't think I'd be able to get much done without a separate keyboard and mouse... which sort of defeats the portability of the whole "laptop" form factor thing. Anyone seen anything that's not too painful to use? And maybe a mouse that's not a touchpad? Re: Keyboards & other thoughts. (Score: 1) by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2014-10-25 04:38 (#2TPN) I wouldn't call laptop keyboards "great". Ever. Anybody ever found one that isn't terrible for programming?The keyboard I prefer to use on my desktop is smaller than many laptop keyboards:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0036WTWX0/89-Key-Mini-KeyboardOnly thing I really regret is that it only has one CTRL key, but altwin:ctrl_win takes care of that under X11 just fine. But it would be necessary for the wrist-wrest to be 0.5" lower than the keyboard, which I haven't seen any laptop ever do. That might make the difference between comfortable easy typing, and horrible laptop keyboards... I also prefer a trackball for faster pointing, which is a similarly good fit for laptops, though sadly haven't seen them on portables since the 486 days. Their pointless and unnecessary demise makes it clear that whatever laptop manufacturers are looking for, it isn't good input devices.
Re: Keyboards & other thoughts. (Score: 1) by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2014-10-25 04:38 (#2TPN) I wouldn't call laptop keyboards "great". Ever. Anybody ever found one that isn't terrible for programming?The keyboard I prefer to use on my desktop is smaller than many laptop keyboards:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0036WTWX0/89-Key-Mini-KeyboardOnly thing I really regret is that it only has one CTRL key, but altwin:ctrl_win takes care of that under X11 just fine. But it would be necessary for the wrist-wrest to be 0.5" lower than the keyboard, which I haven't seen any laptop ever do. That might make the difference between comfortable easy typing, and horrible laptop keyboards... I also prefer a trackball for faster pointing, which is a similarly good fit for laptops, though sadly haven't seen them on portables since the 486 days. Their pointless and unnecessary demise makes it clear that whatever laptop manufacturers are looking for, it isn't good input devices.