3 ms·

The Microsoft ergonomic keyboards have been on a long, slow decline since they first came out in the mid-'90s. The original Natural/Natural Elite/Natural Pro ke

The Microsoft ergonomic keyboards have been on a long, slow decline since they first came out in the mid-'90s. The original Natural/Natural Elite/Natural Pro keyboards were fantastic, real tanks. Those eventually devolved into the Natural 4000/7000, which had the same good layout as the originals but soft, mushy keyswitches that would fail if you looked at them funny. And those eventually devolved into the modern Sculpt Ergonomic keyboard, which mated the mushy keyswitches with skinny laptop-style keycaps (ugh), and merged the function keys and media keys into a single row of keys that you have to use a switch to move from one mode to the other. If Microsoft were to bring back the original Natural keyboard today and just replace the PS/2 connector with a USB one, it'd single-handedly improve the line more than 20 years of redesigns have managed to.

cwyers 7y ago
I would buy one immediately. And hell, they brought back the Intellimouse, so it's not unprecedented.
01100011 7y ago
I eWasted all my old MS Naturals in favor of the Sculpt. Yeah, the function key switch sucks, but other than that I prefer the sculpt. I see the reduced key travel as a benefit. Extra travel does nothing but slow me down and require me to move my joints more. Sure, I like the satisfying feel of mechanical switches, but not when I'm pushing them thousands of times an hour.
ldiracdelta 7y ago
The problem with the MS Natural is that the shape of the keyboard, as compared to standard, goes away from your fingers the farther you are away from your middle finger. Kinesis Advantage does it the opposite, meaning that your fingers have to travel less to reach all the keys.
jdhawk 7y ago
The Sculpt was really close to being a worthy successor in my mind, but they totally screwed up the FN keys. They are a different size, height, and actuation. A real killer for people who actually use FN keys.

cwyers 7y ago

I would buy one immediately. And hell, they brought back the Intellimouse, so it's not unprecedented.

01100011 7y ago

I eWasted all my old MS Naturals in favor of the Sculpt. Yeah, the function key switch sucks, but other than that I prefer the sculpt. I see the reduced key travel as a benefit. Extra travel does nothing but slow me down and require me to move my joints more. Sure, I like the satisfying feel of mechanical switches, but not when I'm pushing them thousands of times an hour.

ldiracdelta 7y ago

The problem with the MS Natural is that the shape of the keyboard, as compared to standard, goes away from your fingers the farther you are away from your middle finger. Kinesis Advantage does it the opposite, meaning that your fingers have to travel less to reach all the keys.

jdhawk 7y ago

The Sculpt was really close to being a worthy successor in my mind, but they totally screwed up the FN keys. They are a different size, height, and actuation. A real killer for people who actually use FN keys.