I use many layouts and am totally comfortable switching between them. I primarily use Colemak-dh and QWERTY and each of my boards have a slightly different layers keymap.

You'd be surprised how flexible the brain is. I was able to do this after 25+ years of only QWERTY.

Never say anything over chat/IM that a company knowing would hurt

I used to work at Discord and I can tell you that this is, painfully, not the norm.

I'm a huge fan of the Kensington Trackball in the middle in between my halves. It's not especially subtle or cute but it's very comfy to use. I think the slimblade is smaller, not sure. Also, I love mouse keys. I use them for all small movements that I can, and the trackball for larger movements. I would love an app that like, subdivides my screen into a grid that I can use to just automatically jump to a place with just my keyboard, that would be perfect.

TBH though, especially if you're a frontend dev on Mac, you will still need the trackpad or Magic Mouse. Gestures are kinda not replaceable, as far as I can tell.

oh my god

bless you

I'm waiting for this guy to come back in stock. The KA360 and Glove80 are also mega premium, imo.

Shirogane Lab's Keyball has the most elegant integrated trackball situation, IMO. I thought I heard somewhere that it was an open source design but I haven't been able to find the socket. If your keyboard can support it I think mouse keys are really nice too.

There's a 3D hand model roaming around somewhere that you can put into the Dactyl model and give it a try. Also, if you know anyone with a Kinesis Advantage (2 or 360) you can test drive a default Dactyl (it's based on that). I 3D printed mine blindly knowing that I have smaller than average hands and want more aggressive stagger + tent and it worked out really well for me.

Also check out Ergogen and Ergopad for truly customized to your hand experiences. This video is a great primer.

Craigslist and r/mechmarket have been my go-tos to finding used boards. It's not very reliable as they pop up once in a blue moon, but every so often the stars align and I check mechmarket on a day when a board I want is there.

How did you get it for cheap?

My universe for an aluminum Swoop case...

Welcome to the infinite rabbit hole! At this point I've decided that actually, I'm just an ergo mech keyboard collector...

IMO, if you're just starting out, the Moonlander is one of the best options. It can be hotswap, which will help you figure out what kind of switches you want. It's incredibly durable and reliable. It's got the best configurator software of all ergo keyboards, in my opinion. Unless you have really small hands (like I do) it works quite well for most people's needs. And even if you get into the even more niche boards, having a board that you can count on to reliably work like the Moonlander is always going to be useful.

Getting into stuff like the Piantor is a lot more about narrowing down the specs you exactly want in a keyboard. Honestly, it's hard to know without just diving in and trying it. The Moonlander is great in this way as well because you really don't need to use all of the keys on it. I would also put on your radar the Corne, the Microdox, the Kyria, and the Iris. All amazing boards, all fulfill slightly different needs :P

Another way to figure out which board is best for you is if you have active pain or injury, you can go backwards from there. But it seems like you're doing something more preventative rather than reactive to pain.

Oh my goodness, I would love to see the keymap for this.

I'm a big fan of the LP Corne. The LP Kyria is also a good option IMO. Also the Glove80 has low profile keys and a curved keywell.

Are you in the Absolem Discord? They can probably help you confirm everything looking right.

I use colemak and its really easy to learn from a lifetime of qwerty.

The price tag on it feels ridiculous! I saw a youtuber call it "eyewatering" which I very much agree with. Part of the reason why I ended up writing this was to understand the price the spectrum of other comparable boards (that yikes, I've paid for!). I am more comfortable with the price now, haha

Since you're looking at non-ergo mechanical keyboards, you have way more options and flexibility.

I would get a quality hotswap board (Keychron boards are the usual recommendation, if you go Aliexpress you can find cheaper options too) and a set of any switches you like. Switches maintain resale value well (some even raise, because broken in switches tend to work better than non broken-in) so get a set you're interested in, daily drive it for a bit, and then see what you'd want changed.

You can also think about your current keyboard setup, what you like about it and what isn't working for you.

I'm interested in something like this that allows something like split keyboard tray mount. The Glove80 also has a pretty elegant tripod mounting option, since you mentioned low profile switches. The Ferris Sweep also has a greater pinky stagger, and you may also consider using Ergogen in the future to make something that properly matches your hand curvature!

as far as getting used to typing speed goes, i really don't think you need to stress about it or do any specific "training". you will very quickly adjust. if you really want to get good, i recommend just chatting in discord, lol. it will speed you up quickly.

Personally I think you can always have more keys and just not use them/only have them as "emergency" keys. I'm personally on a 5col corne layout, I love it.