Just bought my first "strange" keyboard from Keychron (it is pre-built, and programmable with VIA).
I hope I can hardwire there all my (actually implemented with) .Xmodmap tricks, and make them available on both Windows and Linux.
This kind of article just shows me what I will become in a few years if that first experience indeed succeeds.
I just got a K3 (non-pro) last Friday and I'm mostly liking it. For years I used an Apple Magic Keyboard Pro (or whatever the wired full size keyboard like it is) and really liked it, but wanted something narrower and without the 10-key so I could move the mouse closer to the centerline of my body.
So far it's been good, but there's a couple things that are taking some getting used to:
1) The spacer bar is wider than on either the Apple keyboard or any of my HP laptops. I hit space with my pointer fingers, sometimes right sometimes left, and I keep accidentally hitting the Command key along with space, and popping up Spotlight on top of whatever I'm doing.
2) The delete key is in a funny position. I almost wish it was where the backlight key is. I guess if I'd gotten the Pro keyboard I could remap it.
3) The lack of eject key means I've lost my Ctrl-Shift-Eject shortcut for immediately blanking the screen. Not huge, but I liked being able to do this on demand.
Otherwise, it only took a few days to get accustomed to the greater key travel and I think I like it. Although I have half a mind to return it and get the Pro now, just to fix the Delete key... And maybe I can make the backlight key be some combo, and I can restore eject?
1) Now that you mention it, the space bar is kind of wide. I use my thumbs for it though, so I didn't even notice because I hit it pretty much in the middle.
2) Yea, I'll have to see if I can develop an intuition for the delete key. I don't use it super much. In general I am positively surprised how many of the keys I hit pretty consistently without looking, given that it does have a different layout for all the top right stuff. I also realized how much I relied on the spacing between different key groups, e.g. between ESC and F1, or ESC and ~, to find stuff. Now those gaps are gone and I am having to use a different mental mapping, haha. But it's been better than excepted, tbh. I also didn't even realize there was a backlight key up there. Nice, thx!
3) I've mapped this to meta-shift-ESC. Should be easy enough to find a different key combo?
Question for you: do your key caps have translucent letters so the backlight can shine through? The pro does not, which makes the backlight kind of.. useless? Because I can't see the letters on the keys anyway :D
For #3, how did you change that mapping in macOS? That'd definitely work for me... And I can probably get used to delete, although it'd be neat to have it at the top of the row above Home.
And yes, the keycaps do seem to be translucent to some degree. I almost say too much because when the light is on bright it's like the sides of the caps themselves glow, but the letters do as well.
I bought mine from the Keychron store on Amazon, and when I got it I noticed a greasy fingerprint on the bottom of the box, but all seemed good. I'm now realizing that it's missing both the keycap and switch puller, and the keycaps on my (white) model match the colors that the RGB should have.
I'm wondering if maybe I should return it and order the pro directly from Keychron? I guess I could sort out pretty much everything that way...
Oh, I'm on Arch ackshually :D
But I'm sure you can add another keyboard shortcut on OSX? Isn't there a setting for shortcuts that lets you define that sort of thing? It's been a while that I've used a Mac.
Interesting re. mismatch. I got mine from Keychron directly, they ship very fast. 4 days or so from China.
The keycaps on my Pro aren't translucent at all, so the LED lighting is useless in the dark. It's quite silly. But oh well, at this point I know where most of the keys are.
I think it should definitely come with a key puller and extra caps, almost sounds like they sent you a previously sold one that was sent back or something.
I'm thinking I got one that way from Amazon, yeah... I think I'll look into a return, although that keycap thing you mention gives me pause because I really like using the keyboard on dim, with lightly lit up letters.
This kind of article just shows me what I will become in a few years if that first experience indeed succeeds.