Keyboards...

Hey everyone,

I was just wondering what keyboard you guys use for coding/casual use. My Sidewinder X4 broke (Who knew pepsi+keyboard=broken keyboard) and I was just wondering what you guys use?

My laptop’s built-in keyboard.
With Dvorak as my layout.

I was going to switch to Colemak layout, but I haven’t yet. I use a Logitech K360, I think. It’s wireless!

QWERTY Razer Blackwidow 2012. It’s a nice keyboard, with blue switches, but the keys are really fragile. I pressed down on the “L” key too hard while playing a game, and it damaged the switch.

It does have a really nice feel though, and if you can think faster than you can type, you’ll code faster with this keyboard.

For anyone wondering, the Microsoft Sidewinder X4 is a lovely keyboard to program with. Especially with its red-glow keys at night. Plus it has loads of macro keys and stuff which is handy.

The default laptop one and some random $6 keyboard for the desktop.

Originally posted by DPbrad:

For anyone wondering, the Microsoft Sidewinder X4 is a lovely keyboard to program with. Especially with its red-glow keys at night. Plus it has loads of macro keys and stuff which is handy.

I used to have a really nice Microsoft keyboard. I don’t know what it was called, and it was hideous looking, but felt really nice.
However, for that much money, I’d just get a mechanical keyboard. It’ll last longer.

Only free included Dell keyboards & mice are suited for hardcore gaming and coding.

Currently, I use some crappy $2 hp keyboard from Goodwill, because my old keyboard’s QWE key contact points disintegrated due to overuse. I blame world of warcraft. That old keyboard survived several glasses of water over the course of nearly 11 years. It was purple, too!

The keyboard was purple, or it was a PS/2 keyboard?

11 years? You should put that thing in a frame and use it as a pillow.

a very durable HP mechanical keyboard that was bundled with my computer when it was bought, 10 years ago. it’s had soda spilled on it many times, and still functions; on top of having about 75 million total keystrokes. the “e” “s” “a” “d” “w” “o” “r” “m” and “n” keys have all been rubbed off; leaving an indentation. best i can tell it doesn’t even have a name, let alone something that’d sound cool like “sidewinder”

i’d say the keyboard is worth more than the computer that came bundled with it (for free, even!) based on the amount of punishment it’s been delt and how well its stood up

Originally posted by skyboy:

a very durable HP mechanical keyboard that was bundled with my computer when it was bought, 10 years ago. it’s had soda spilled on it many times, and still functions; on top of having about 75 million total keystrokes. the “e” “s” “a” “d” “w” “o” “r” “m” and “n” keys have all been rubbed off; leaving an indentation. best i can tell it doesn’t even have a name, let alone something that’d sound cool like “sidewinder”

i’d say the keyboard is worth more than the computer that came bundled with it (for free, even!) based on the amount of punishment it’s been delt and how well its stood up

For years, I had an old TIME-UK keyboard which I had used since my Windows 95 PC and I still had it, however when we moved house a few years ago, I got it back out its storage box and it must have been underneath something heavy as every key was broken and split in half and come off the keyboard. EDIT: Must have easily been over 100mil key presses. It was used daily for around 14 years.

Originally posted by DPbrad:

EDIT: Must have easily been over 100mil key presses. It was used daily for around 14 years.

i average around 1 million keys every month and a half, most of it is from programming and chatting with friends

The built in keyboard of my laptop (Asus, if it changes anything?)

BTW, I must ask, how did you all count the number of keystrokes on your keyboards?

Mostly estimates, along with the number of characters we type in programming files and other text files.

Originally posted by jerimo:

The built in keyboard of my laptop (Asus, if it changes anything?)

BTW, I must ask, how did you all count the number of keystrokes on your keyboards?

programs that count the number of keys you’ve pressed over what time period; allowing you to graph the most used keys (hint: it’s space), i have a few years of data and can extrapolate out to the years i don’t have hard data

Oh that makes sense then, you’ve been collecting the datum for a while. I was starting to wonder if keyboards don’t keep a record of he number of keys pressed or something of the like… Yes yes yes, fairly idiotic an idea…

Same as Jerimo (same brand, even!)

I use a Dragon War Desert Eagle gaming keyboard, which is color-coordinated with the rest of my rig. Its blue WASD and arrow keys even matches the light emitted from my computer’s power button. It also lets me launch Window’s Calculator program with a single press of a button, which I find myself having to do fairly often.

Originally posted by Senekis93:

The default laptop one and some random $6 keyboard for the desktop.

Pretty much this.

Originally posted by jerimo:

The built in keyboard of my laptop (Asus, if it changes anything?)

BTW, I must ask, how did you all count the number of keystrokes on your keyboards?

There was an old program called KeyKount (I think that was it’s name) that I used for a long time (early 2000’s), but since about 2010 I have been using WhatPulse.

Originally posted by DPbrad:

Hey everyone,

My Sidewinder X4 broke (Who knew pepsi+keyboard=broken keyboard) and I was just wondering what you guys use?

Funny, I use exactly the same keyboard. :) I like it a lot, though I don’t use the macro features very often at all. Also, it takes a little bit of time getting used to at the beginning because the keys on the very left, especially shift and ctrl are very small.

I’ve got a.

Faux. What is this thing.

A…Dell L2OU.

Yeah.

Two of them even.

At work.

Originally posted by Gama11:

Originally posted by DPbrad:

Hey everyone,

My Sidewinder X4 broke (Who knew pepsi+keyboard=broken keyboard) and I was just wondering what you guys use?

Funny, I use exactly the same keyboard. :) I like it a lot, though I don’t use the macro features very often at all. Also, it takes a little bit of time getting used to at the beginning because the keys on the very left, especially shift and ctrl are very small.

Yeah, it took me a little while to get used to it as well, especially because I usually CTRL+S a lot when coding, and kept doing MACRO6+S and had weird stuff happen. My keyboard was actually still under warranty so I have gotten it replaced. I love it, best keyboard I have ever had definitely.