Comment by einpoklum
3 hours ago
Just made a top-level comment about the same thing.
A big part of the core functionality of a laptop, as opposed to a PC, is is that of a typewriter:
* Notes in class
* Minutes in a meeting
* Entries in a journal or travelogue
* Writing the next great novel
etc.
Why have manufacturers simply taken that away from us, in favor of a terrible excuse with ridiculous tactile feedback?
I actually like short travel very light linear switches, mechanical or not.
I don’t like row stagger and non-split keyboards, for ergonomic reasons. That’s definitely a niche preference, but if anyone would cater to it you’d expect it to be Framework or similar.
You're right that Framework is exactly where I would expect flexibility on this: I mean, just looking at their landing page - you see a laptop without the keyboard and ports. Framework offers 176 (!) kinds of "keyboards":
https://frame.work/marketplace/keyboards
but not one decent keyboard. Why?
(Answer: it's basically just keyboard covers, and the many options are due to variations of colors and languages. But I would take a hot pink / toxic green keyboard with ancient tibetan labels if the keys were non-chicklet, with decent travel, sizes, and feedback. 7 rows if possible.)