It's a little better than a normal keyboard, yes. But there's many
tiny annoying things. Just to name a few:
-- The "F keys row" has been shifted to the left, there are no gaps
between those keys, and Escape has been moved far away from all
other keys.
-- The "B" key *must* be hit by the left hand. I didn't do that
before. This puts a lot more strain on my left hand because I
really have to stretch it.
-- I use a german layout, i.e. QWERTZ instead of the english QWERTY.
As a result, "Z" is on the *right* half of the keyboard. With a
split keyboard, I can no longer hit Ctrl+Z with one hand on the
keyboard and the other hand on the mouse.
-- There are no gaps around the cursor keys. Yes, I'm a Vim user but
that doesn't mean that I *never* have to use the cursor keys.
-- An LED stays on even when the computer is turned off.
The list goes on. You get the idea. The keyboard is different and in
some ways better, but it's not A HUGE RELIEF. It's not a revelation.
Yes, I could try other split keyboards. Maybe just the model I bought
is flawed. There's another issue. A split keyboard assumes that you
usually DO NOT straighten your wrists when using a normal keyboard.
So, when using a split keyboard, you can finally straighten your
wrists. But for me, that's not the case. I DO straighten my wrists,
even when using a normal keyboard. It's hard to explain, a photo would
help illustrating things. My right hand is angled at about 45 degree,
but not only the hand, it's the whole arm. I wasn't even aware of this
before buying the split keyboard ...
At the end of the day, I rather keep my Das Keyboard because of its
high quality.
