Looking for my dream keyboard

[charles052]

Would the one remaining person on Earth who uses the number pad just die already? I would love for manufacturers to lop that useless five inches off the right side of the keyboard so that I can snuggle my mouse closer, and thus reduce a lot of extraneous side-to-side movement of my right arm.

(Oshun, no jokes about right hands, please. KTHXBAI)

Sorry, but I'm not planning on going anywhere. I do so love my number pad!

[Teunis]

My GF has a compact Cherry keyboard and loves it.
http://www.cherrykeyboards.nl/FileFromDb.ashx?Id=51
It has proper metallic contacts with good feedback, I would call it noisy
The place we bought it said it was mainly sold to police for on the road use.

No good for the OP as it has no backlight but maybe for Steve who doesn't do numbers and can get his mouse close.

[Buddlespit]

I used the gnome15 project to connect all of my logitech gear that have buttons on them for gaming. Headset, mouse and keyboard are all mapped thru gnome15

[mhumm2]

Wow! Thank you one and all. Since i'm so particular about the feel of the keys, I think the only way to select the "right" keyboard is to got to Best Buy in Pensacola and try every one. Everyone that is illuminated (through the keys) and is not heavily software driven. Thanks the pic of the mod Steve. It's nice, but I prefer the light to come through the keys instead of siloetting the keys.

Buttlespit, I'm amazed your were able to assign the extra keys with Kubuntu. I would love to know how you did that exactly. Also, what do you use the LCD panel for and how did you get that to work. I was under the impression that those functions rely on the M$ CD Rom using Windoze. Again, great job and thanks to everyone for all the input. Steve, you may want to try some ice on that right arm and wrist of yours <grin>.

[jpenguin]

I have this keyboard, love it!

http://zareason.com/shop/Lighted-Tux-Keyboard.html

[woodsmoke]

oshunluver

actually for a "hunt and peck" person alphabetical has been shown to work better.

woodsmoke

[woodsmoke]

Would the one remaining person on Earth who uses the number pad just die already?

ekkktually...I use it regularly to enter grades.

so with the one remaining person and moi, that makes two! lol

woodsmoke

[Buddlespit]

It's missing only a warp drive throttle

G16=Slower
G17=Faster
G18= Holy ****!!

[SteveRiley]

It's missing only a warp drive throttle

[oshunluvr]

That keyboard is a beast. It's bigger than my laptop! lol...

[Buddlespit]

That's one nice looking keyboard! Makes a laptop guy like me a tad envious!!

My doesn't look quite like that. Mine is about 7yrs old and, well, used

[Snowhog]

I use an "old" Logitech G-15 gaming keyboard with the Gnome15 daemon for my keys (also works with my Logitech G-35 usb headset). My keys are backlit blue, I can adjust the backlight brightness and it has a small lcd.

That's one nice looking keyboard! Makes a laptop guy like me a tad envious!!

[oshunluvr]

My former career was Air Traffic. When I left the En Route environment and went to Approach Control, the RADAR processing system we used was ARTS IIIe. Due to the lack of (supposedly) space on the RADAR display console, the builders of the equipment (either Univac or Bouroughs) decided to compress the keyboard.

The picture. although poor, shows the result. Using standard sized keys, the whole thing was no more than 11 inches across. The genius behind this idea also decided that since the keys were no longer staggered like a typewriter, they need not be in the same order. Thus, the orange colored set in the lower left portion is the alpha keys and they are in ALPHABETICAL order!

That's right - All of us coming from years of the QWERTY keyboards (starting in grade school typing class) looked down and saw ABCDEF! The darker green keys on the right are the num-pad, the two bright green rows are function keys and the 4 in the corner were punctuation.

The engineer that did this has a special place in hell all his own.

BTW: @Steve, I've been meaning to ask; Why is your right bicep so much larger than your left? Is it from playing with your "horn?"

Dang it - I couldn't help myself. Just lay out the bait and I'll swallow the whole darn hook! :evil:

[Buddlespit]

I use an "old" Logitech G-15 gaming keyboard with the Gnome15 daemon for my keys (also works with my Logitech G-35 usb headset). My keys are backlit blue, I can adjust the backlight brightness and it has a small lcd.

[HalationEffect]

Would the one remaining person on Earth who uses the number pad just die already? I would love for manufacturers to lop that useless five inches off the right side of the keyboard so that I can snuggle my mouse closer, and thus reduce a lot of extraneous side-to-side movement of my right arm.

When I was shopping around for a new keyboard last year, I saw a fair few that didn't have number pads... not that I would buy one so lacking, as I use my number pad pretty frequently.

Alas, I didn't see anything that met all of the OP's requirements though.

(Edit) If you really want a keyboard that will leave a lot of room for your mouse, try this one.