[…] It is in my best interest to ensure that the keyboard and the mouse I use so much are of decent quality. That’s why I’m using the Sidewinder mouse and the Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000. Both are high end items that I paid premium for, but hey – it was worth it. You can save on other things, but these two items are essential tools that I use both for work an for play. […]

@Jaba: You might be able to see the key codes these buttons send by running xev on the terminal.

You may be able to map them to do something else via .Xmodmap. I wrote about this a while ago when I discussed disabling caps lock.

The problem with the = ( ) keys is that every key send a code, and there is no key in our keyboards that has a code like = ( ). You should get the keys to give both the code of the shift key and of the number related. That’s why the tiny backspace works
Well, that’s tricky. Win program simply has to translate a hit on the key with the insert of the right character, but I don’t know how to do this in linux. I bet there’s some keyboard.conf file or similar, in which to tell the system how to map key codes and symbols. If I needed it, I would simply find that config file and edit a couple rows.
Let us know if you succeed! ^_^

FWIW, as Jaba pointed out, it works fine under Linux (OpenSUSE 11.0 for me). I was sad to see that the = and () keys over the numpad don’t work out of the box (seems like it wouldn’t be that hard to have two keys that send the same signal, not that I’m a keyboard hardware designer and thus probably don’t know what I’m talking about). I was pleased to see that the volume up/down and calculator keys (pretty much the only fancy keys I care about) work fine.

@Luke Maciak: No, standard layout. I’m currently using a Logitech UltraX, which I love. And I move my hand all over it :P I’m quite good at it too. Although I probably wouldn’t win a contest for fastest typist or something, I do type a lot faster than…well, everyone I’ve met so far. It’s all about what you’re used to, I suppose. I feel handicapped if I try to type with both hands ;)

@Jaba: The zoom slider is fairly useless in Windows too. There doesn’t seem to be a way to redefine it to do something else other than zooming. :P

@freelancer: Just left hand? Do you use some special one sided keyboard layout or do you just move your hand all over?

I always type with just my left hand (probably a side effect of playing too many FPS’ before starting to program :P), so a split keyboard wouldn’t really work for me.

Also, that first mouse link (“for home”) actually goes to the product page for the Ergonomic Keyboard ;)

Man, that comment was huge enough I think I could start a blog of myself :D :D ahahah

I’ve always been a fan of ergonomic keyboards – my first model was the first split keyboard from Microsoft (can’t remember the model name).

I’ve waited three years for the price of this beauty to decrease. No use. Some months ago, I started my thesis, so started the headaches – my work laptop is a 12″, and my game box has a 17″ crt screen that’s even worst for the eyes. Passing 10-12 hours a day on this little buddy was a pain, so I needed a better monitor.

The problem is, the only usb keyboard at my disposal to use on the laptop with the screen, was THAT old split keyboard of mine. The problem is, that’s HUGE, old (read: filthy), and really heavy. It’s a sort of keyboard behemot, even the cable is thicker than the VGA one! So I needed a new keyboard, and I’ve been knowing the model I wanted for years by now ;)

I’ve had this little black beauty for a couple months by now. Now I work from a chaise-longue sofa, with the monitor between my feet and the keyboard on the lap. PARADISE :P
The keyboard’s light, the cable is thin, and it really is a relief for the hands. If you are a 10-fingers typer, you simply find that those keys are perfectly placed under your finger tips. You need very little movement, and it’s relaxing even for shoulders and arms.
I didn’t notice the spacebar-issue until now, and I perfectly agree with your two-spacebar-buttons idea. That would be the best.
The palm rest for arrow keys on the Natural 4000 isn’t adequate, but the one thing I really missed, was the presence of track control keys – that is, next/previous song. You just have volume up/down, mute, and play/stop controls.

Well, I have the luck to work on ubuntu, and I simply bound from Shortcut preferences the last two “favorite” buttons (4 and 5) to “previous” and “next” functions. I don’t know if you can do this with the windows setting program – I didn’t install it, I use windows only for gaming -, but in linux it worked like a charm. Everything else works out of the box but for the over-function keys (well, I use function keys very often, so don’t care) (until I realized the presence of the “F Bloc” key I wasn’t able to close windows with alt+f4 – PANIC!!), the equal and parenthesis keys over the keypad (I think those should be easy to bind, but I don’t need them), and the zoom bar (men, I always wanted an analog control on my keyboard!). I’d really like to use the zoom bar to scroll pages on the browser, but out of the box ubuntu don’t even seems to recognize even it’s presence on the keyboard.

About the dimensions: well, this keyboard really IS too big… my right hand has to fly for at least 30-40cm (think of the index finger trip from J key to left mouse button) to go from keys to mouse – that isn’t smart. But I would not buy a keyboard without the reverse-T arrows (I’m a gamer ;P ), neither without the horizontal disposition for the home-end-and-company keys (other than being a programmer, and I’m writing lots of text of every kind), so the smaller Elite was out of plan.

My dream? To have a keyboard that has:
1. Arrows and home-end-company BETWEEN the two main-keys parts – that is, where the zoom is on the Natural 4000. You would have the navigation keys right in front of your eyes – and those are the ones you usually look, not the single letters, if you are a blind-typer
2. An external (usb?) numpad, that you can place at hand when you need it and away when you need the mouse
3. A key that maps the arrow keys to WASD (or better, ESDF) or IJKL keys at will, so you can have your arrow keys right on the neutral position of your hands (and lots of configurable keys next to the arrows!)
4. A small touchpad in the palm rest in central position, so that you can do little pointer’s movement without moving the wrists from the palm rest (or use the keyboard without a mouse, for example on a sofa… ;P
5. A 2.0 usb hub on the back, where the 4000 has that beautiful useless CAVE. A mouse and usb keys could really be there that regularly, so I think at least three ports are needed. And don’t forget the numpad!

This layout would permit to have a keyboard larger, with your wrists at an even better angle, with navigation controls and numpad accessible with both hands (left-handed would be relieved), and to reach the mouse you would have to move very slightly your preferred hand (the mouse would lay at the same distance you have the arrow keys now).

Anyway, until I’ll build that myself (sigh), I think the Natural 4000 is the best keyboard for me.

Sorry for the logorrhea :P hope you’ll appreciate my 2 cents

– Jaba

Nice! I’ve had good luck with Microsoft hardware believe it or not. I’ve got a Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse that’s probably close to four years old now and it’s still kicking. I’ve only changed the batteries on it three times max? I’ve also got the the Microsoft Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse 3000 and it has been pretty solid too. Both of those work flawlessly under Ubuntu. Just plug and play. I’ve also got the Microsoft LifeChat LX-3000, works great under Windows (of course) but it’s hit or miss on Ubuntu. Oh well, can’t win them all. Still the hardware it’s self is nice quality, just wish it had better Linux support.

I still contend however that this is the best keyboard ever: IBM Model M (for those who don’t want to follow the link)