I didn't go quite as inexpensive for my daily driver keyboard, but my employer at the time gave us a hearty home office budget which I took full advantage of. 

I have the Kinesis Freestyle Pro (https://kinesis-ergo.com/freestyle-pro-getting-started/#layout) that appears no longer available. I chose Cherry Mx Quiet Red switches.  They have a softer feel than the really clicky switches but provide enough tactile feedback for decent touch typing. 

Having a split and tented keyboard has fine wonders for my posture. As a broad dude, using smaller KBs caused my arms to come in across my body, which also lead to me hunching. Now my arms are aligned with my shoulders and basically perpendicular to my body, so no more hunching. 

Another benefit has been that my touch typing has improved and I can no longer cross the streams by typing t or y with the "wrong" fingers.  

6 years of use and I cannot stand to use my laptop kb and tend to travel with it as a result. 

If I had infinite money though, I'd go for an Ultimate Hacking Keyboard (https://uhk.io/)with the trackball attachment. 

I'd also like to try out one of the columnar layouts but can't really justify buying another kb. 

To bring this back, thanks for pointing out these affordable options. I'm sure they make for great keyboards especially for showing younger folks what typing can feel like instead of screens or crappy laptop keys. 

-jason

On Sat, Jun 13, 2026, 15:17 Evan Leibovitch via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
Hi all,

I don't know if this is of interest to anyone but myself, but I thought it might be worth mentioning. Since the keyboard is something we interact with all the time -- more than any individual piece of software -- it seems that having the most comfortable and useful one is worthy of some effort.

For the longest time it seems that you had to go to one of two extremes
  • Mushy, low-travel keys that are a seeming necessity in laptops but also seem to predominate among the low-value, plasticky stock that ships with most desktops. Relatively light, built mostly out of thin plastic. Quite inexpensive and easy to find, for all I know Dollarama may have one. (Even if they do, don't get it.)

  • Loud, clacky, spring-resistant, built like tanks -- the kind I grew up with (evolved from the IBM Model M that is still being produced today) that became the early mainstay of gamers and power users. They were big, heavy and expensive, but very reliable -- the Cooler Master QuickFire unit that I've been using is old enough to have shipped with a PS/2 adapter. Mostly found in computer retailers and expensive (>$125).
But over the last year or two I've been seeing a whole new crop of keyboards that challenge the feel, build quality and even layouts of the tried and true; certainly they change the value proposal. I've bought two and switched to one as my daily driver.

These new keyboards have many common characteristics:
  • Decent build quality
  • Less than C$100, sometimes way less
  • Online from Amazon or Aliexpress, sometimes need to go to Amazon US
  • Can do wired, dongle AND bluetooth
  • Have LEDs under the keys
  • Hot-swappable switches and keycaps
  • Programmable, often using the VIA standard
  • Offer reduced formats (lower footprint if you don't need the keypad).
  • Brands you've never heard of, often goofy names, that only do keyboards
  • A "creamy" feel/sound that's somewhere between squishy and clacky
There is also a thriving marketplace of custom switches and keycaps because of good standards to which most makers adhere. ("Cherry", which used to be the benchmark for switches, isn't even in anyone's top 10 list these days.)

I'm very happy with the two keyboards I've bought:
  • ElecFox Linky87 - Bought from Amazon US, CAD$77 including shipping to Canada and HST. It's the perfect layout for me, giving me new desktop space. Sounds and feels wonderful. I bought the black version which is not to all tastes because the key labels are on the side of the keys and use the LEDs to shine through.

  • The Kisnt KN85 - Also bought from Amazon US last year for about the same price. This seems to be the darling of the reviewers; it's certainly well made, and the sound and feel are excellent. But the software is non-standard and awful , and the layout is an odd one that I've never quite felt comfortable with. It's on Amazon Canada but last the price there was ridiculous, cheaper to buy at Amazon US and pay the shipping
I invite anyone reading this that might be interested to have a look at one or two of the Youtube channels that obsess with the subject, HipyoTech and SwitchAndClick are the two I follow.

I'd be interested to know about anyone else's journey through this realm, and/or if anyone thinks it would be a good topic for future GTALUG talk.

Cheers for making it this far.

- Evan
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