I’m looking at it and wondering about the alignment of the keys. Has anybody ever used a keyboard like this? It feels like the “straight up and down” thing would cause issues with touch typists’ muscle memory - or is that what the vertical staggering is intended to deal with?
I’ve owned an Ergodox EZ, the precursor to this keyboard, for the last three years. It’s a fantastic keyboard if you deal with RSI-like issues while typing. The design lets you position it wider, closer together, tented, or otherwise to put your hands in a different position to relieve strain.
On the ortholinear layout, it takes a little while to get used to at first, but after that you don’t even think about it. I have no issues switching between this and other “normal” keyboards. It took three weeks to feel comfortable using it.
It makes more sense in regard to where you reach with your fingers. I find myself going shorter distances for the keys, which means I don’t strain as much.
That all being said, this will not solve RSI issues for you. It will give you options to ease strain, which helps different muscle groups recover. Posture and taking breaks will help more than this keyboard will. But if you’re looking for a nice typing experience that can aid in strain relief, the Ergodox is nice. I’d imagine the Moonlander will be as well.
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I have a Kinesis Advantage2 QD, which is also ortholinear. It didn’t work so well for me, but was probably more due to my size (hands and shoulder width). That is, I wanted my hands farther apart, and I kept stumbling on keys that I had to ‘reach under’ to press. I wasn’t making progress in learning it after a fair amount of time, so now it’s another keyboard paperweight in a box.
I also have two Keyboardio Model 01s that are ortholinear, and that worked well for me for a time. I think I tired of not having dedicated arrow keys, and bought my iMac Pro and just decided to use the included keyboard.
I’m using a Matias Ergo Pro now, which is working well, but also thinking about giving the Keyboardio another shot, and dedicating my own keys for arrows, maybe PgUp/PgDn, etc. too.
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@MacSparky How is the battery life with the Craft keyboard? I’m trying to decide between the Craft and the MX Keys, and some of the Amazon reviews for the Craft mention 3-4 days without backlight. Wondering if that’s been your experience, too.
About once a week. I keep my iPad in under the iMac so I have a usb-c cable generally available. The Apple Keyboard seemed like it ran forever in comparison.
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Still waiting for mine to ship. 
Ah! Didn’t know you ordered one.
I ordered mine August 13th, one day after the cutoff for the previous cycle.
When did you order? ETA?
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I ordered September 12.
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We have touchdown!
So far I really like it, especially the Cherry MX Blue switches.
I’ve created a configuration that is Dvorak, with other customizations. One thing that I’m finding really useful is color-coding keys that go together functionally. In the photo you can see three pairs keys with the same colors on the two halves, these are open and close parens, brackets, and braces, from bottom to top. I have similar groupings on the other layers for function keys and the like.
My girlfriend just said it looks like oven mitts, and now I can’t unsee that 
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that one was clear form the beginning 
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On the scale from 0 to 10 for “looks”, that thing gets a -1. 
I tried ergonomic keyboards a while ago but went back to normal (but decent) ones.
I’ve been using an ergodox with a custom dvorak layout and cherry clear switches that I soldered myself about 7 years ago. I’ve ended up with this setup, a magic trackpad in the middle, the streamdeck 32 and a mx master 3 mouse.
If I had to choose I would get another ergodox instead of the moonlander which is mostly the same with more “hype” and marketing.
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I just added a single o-ring to each key. I think I like it even better. The o-ring reduces the ‘clack’ when the keycap bottoms out against the switch. It reduces the travel slightly, and is supposed to be better ergonomically, as it cushions the bottom of the travel. You still get the nice ‘snick’ sound that the switches make.
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Got a shipping notice on my Moonlander today.
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It arrived today. This is definitely going to take some getting used to. I’m going to have to tweak the default layout (it just doesn’t fit some of the ways I use my keyboard).
Yes, one of the things I like about it.
I still might will do some tweaking, but this is my current configuration:
e.g. I’ll probably make my current Backspace and Enter keys function as Option keys when held down.
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Now that’s pretty daring. I think I’m sticking with a qwerty-type layout. I do like the way you’ve mirrored the braces, brackets, and parentheses on either side, though. I may have to steal that.
One thing that bothers me about the default layout is how it spreads the modifier keys around the keyboard, especially since macOS keyboard shortcuts so often involve multiple modifiers. How do you like the way you have yours set up?
It seems to work well. Cmd is left thumb, Cmd+Opt is two thumbs, Cmd+Opt+Shift is two thumbs and a pinky, same for Cmd+Opt+Ctrl. If it’s more than a couple of modifiers, I tend to not remember the shortcuts anyway.
The only current issue (and the reason for remapping Backspace and Enter as stated above) is that I sometimes have to reach over with my left hand to the right half so I can Option-click on something.
Oh, and I’d like to tweak the location of my equals key.
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