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The Kinesis changed my life, pure and simple. Before this keyboard I tried many alternatives, including the MS Natural keyboard, and none of them releived me of the constant pain in my hands. At one point in my career it got so bad that the pain at night prevented me from sleeping -- even if I spent a day or two away from the computer.

After trying the Kinesis, not only do I feel that my typing is faster (and ABSOLUTELY more comfortable), my pain is all but gone -- and this includes stretches of days with 20 hours of typing per day.

It's impossible for me to heap enough superlatives at this product. To say that it saved my career as a computer scientist is not overstating it. I can recommend it whole-heartedly, and urge anyone who has pain to at least give it a shot.

I'm in no way associated with Kineses (other than being a very satisfied customer) but I am so impressed with their keyboards that I actually offered to invest in the company (at the time they weren't soliciting outside investors).

Here is where I bought my keyboard (see the picture of it on the home page): DMB Ergonomics

And here is some additional information that might be helpful:
Alternative Keyboards

Typing Injury FAQ

DMB Ergonomics carries Kinesis, Fox Bay and Contour ergonomics keyboards, keyboard arms, trays, supports and contour mise.

They carry QWERTY/DVORAK QD® SWITCHABLE , which allows to switch from DVORAK to QWERTY on the same keyboard and the best thing is it not something that the OS needs to support it's all done on the keyboard.

There is also programmable keyboards -- Like the Proffessional which has "Programmable Key Layout - anyone can easily set keys to suit individual needs" and has on-board memmory for 24 macros holding up to 142 Characters each.

The Professional QD for PC (Qwerty/Dvorak convertible) costs $355.50, which the simplier Professional for PC costs $319.50.

It's not a matter of if you can switch to a different layout. It's a matter of (1) do you want to spend so much on a keyboard? and (2) do you really want to have to take your keyboard with you(to work, ...)?

There is more information at the kinesis website on there keyboards.

Chad

DMB Ergonomics carries Kinesis, Fox Bay and Contour ergonomics keyboards, keyboard arms, trays, supports and contour mise.

They carry QWERTY/DVORAK QD® SWITCHABLE , which allows to switch from DVORAK to QWERTY on the same keyboard and the best thing is it not something that the OS needs to support it's all done on the keyboard.

There is also programmable keyboards -- Like the Proffessional which has "Programmable Key Layout - anyone can easily set keys to suit individual needs" and has on-board memmory for 24 macros holding up to 142 Characters each.

The Professional QD for PC (Qwerty/Dvorak convertible) costs $355.50, which the simplier Professional for PC costs $319.50.

It's not a matter of if you can switch to a different layout. It's a matter of (1) do you want to spend so much on a keyboard? and (2) do you really want to have to take your keyboard with you(to work, ...)?

There is more information at the kinesis website on there keyboards.

Chad

Agreed - good ideas, poor designs. I tell ya, I'd go for a wireless keyboard if Kinesis had them. I swear by that keyboard! And I hate to advertise for a product of which I have no affiliation, but its much better than the M$ ergo - the throws are much shorter, but you get to typing about 30% faster. For about 250 bucks, its a lot for a keyboard, but think of it like caffeine in your body since you can type faster.

www.buymeaferrari.com

• Oh one other note, David Bialick sells these for the best price when I bought mine, and the service is also excellent. His site is http://www.dmb-ergonomics.com/.

• Kinesis Essential:
  • $202.50 @ DMB
  • $180 @ Office Organix
• Kinesis Professional:
  • $319.50 @ DMB
  • $253.95 @ Office Organix
• [etc]

• Oh one other note, David Bialick sells these for the best price when I bought mine, and the service is also excellent. His site is http://www.dmb-ergonomics.com/.

• Kinesis Essential:
  • $202.50 @ DMB
  • $180 @ Office Organix
• Kinesis Professional:
  • $319.50 @ DMB
  • $253.95 @ Office Organix
• [etc]

I also use a Kinesis keyboard, and I am incredibly happy with it.
It has the following (for me) huge advantages:
- your thumbs are no longer wasted, with two fantastic thumbpads, including enter, space, backspace, delete, control (emacs heaven), alt, home, end, pgup and pgdown. This has a really great side effect: absolutely no more long and painful pinky-stretches to get to enter and backspace. Remember that your thumbs are your strongest and most agile digits, and it's a crying shame to waste them both on a space bar.
- the keyboard is separated into two wells, making it so you no longer have to turn your wrist outwards in order to type.
- The wells are shaped _exactly_ like your hand at rest. Let your hand droop in front of you - look at your fingers. The keys are exactly at that depth vis a vis each other.
- The pro is entirely programmable, so if you'd rather use a modern layout like the maltron keyboard, you can. You can see this layout here: maltron layout, but don't buy the maltron keyboard from teleprint, cause I have one and it sucks compared to my kinesis, in size, look and feel.
- The keys are laid out straight up and down, which is a natural movement for your fingers, unlike the diagonal movement a normal keyboard forces you to take.
- (totally anecdotal) My wrists and hands have stopped hurting since I bought this thing. I have never been so happy with a computer product, ever. Well, well worth the price.
- Oh one other note, David Bialick sells these for the best price when I bought mine, and the service is also excellent. His site is http://www.dmb-ergonomics.com/. I am not associated with him.
Cheers,
Paul

Does anyone have any experience with the Kinesis keyboards? I currently use one of the old style Microsoft ergo keyboards, but the control key is killing me and the ESC key is too far away. Emacs likes the CTRL and ESC keys and I need them closer to home. I find myself constantly pivoting my left hand to do common actions like C-x C-f... that's not good.

Anyone want to comment on the Kinesis keyboards?

Some very interesting keyboard designs here: http://www.dmb-ergonomics.com/

Let me second the Kinesis keyboard recommendation. This works by dramatically limiting your wrist movement. The keys are placed into seperate wells places shoulder width apart. Keys are pressed curling and extending individual fingers. If you'll look at your hand, you'll notice that the middle finger is longest, the two adjacent fingers are about equally long, and the pinky is shortest. This determines the depth of the individual rows. Likewise, because your pinky is set back 0.5 cm towards your wrist, the Kinesis keyboard moves this row by 0.5 cm.

For more information about Kinesis, check their web site or one of their resellers. DataHand makes an even more extreme keyboard.

I examined several keyboards before selecting Kinesis. I see the split keyboards as 'halfway' measures and skipped the DataHand because I periodically need to work on non-ergonomic keyboards. By the end of the first day, I was typing at just over 60% speed and reached full speed after a week or so.