this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2024
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Mechanical Keyboards
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What I did was buy a keyboard with the features I wanted, (100%, volume knob, rgb, hotswappable switches), then got a set of switches and keycaps to swap in.
If the board has soldered switches you probably will never be changing those.
Red switches are terrible. Feel super gross. Brown switches are ok, but I found them to have too weak of a tactile bump. Holy pandas have a stronger tactile bump and are what I'm using right now bc I found the browns a but disappointing
Keycaps have standardized profiles/shapes; I have "OEM" keycaps. Each row has a slightly different height/shape which makes it a bit more ergonomic. There are others with identical row shapes.
It should act like a standard USB keyboard if its running QMK / ZMK and will work ootb with linux. Only thing is that any QMK keyboard is going to be a bit annoying to configure (change layout or rebind keys) on linux (e.g. with VIA or Vial). You have to be using a chromium based browser that is not sandboxed (snap or flatpak may interfere) and you might have to add some udev rules but its not a huge problem.
What model keyboard did you get?
I got a Keychron V6 knob. Looks great but if I could go back in time I'd choose something 1) lighter 2) with wireless/BT and 3) lower input latency
Also holy panda switches and mixed keycaps (white on letters/numpad, light green on the special characters on the right, dark green for the modifiers)
What would you get now?
Keychron is the safe first buy for any one interested in quality keyboards. They have a wide range of styles, layouts, and price points. I would suggest sticking to the $100 price range as they tend to be the best value for a first mechanical keyboard.
The cheapest is £80 and that doesn't even include the keycaps: https://a.aliexpress.com/_EJwLCix
The keycaps are available for a tenner though, so that's decent: https://a.aliexpress.com/_EzPUlhN
I might still go with Keychron for a general typing / wireless travel keyboard and get a second specifically for gaming. Ive noticed the keychron having sluggish or slow response sometimes, prob related to slow polling rate. Not 100% sure on what I'd get though. I'll see if i can mess qround with the firmware myself for now.