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A community member
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Jun 13, 2013
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Is there any chance at all of getting browns? I find my Kinesis Freestyle2 to be too stiff to the point of achy fingers at the end of a day of typing. I ordered the blues since they were the choice that required the least actuation force. Could someone let me know whether one of the others would be a better choice for someone who lives inside emacs all day long, i.e., most time spent programming with no gaming whatsoever?
SubGothius
27
Jun 13, 2013
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I think your best chance at browns may be to order the kit without switches (takes $44 off the price), and then try to join a separate group buy for MX switches organized on GeekHack or Deskthority, which may be able to score a limited quantity of browns.
That said, I've been using a TrulyErgonomic with browns for several months now and have found them to be too light and too subtly tactile for my liking. I suspect my sore fingers after a day of work have more to do with stressing my joints by bottoming out on keystrokes, which I still can't avoid very well with browns. This may well be your actual problem with the Freestyle, since rubber-dome keyboards inherently require bottoming-out a key to activate it; the stiffness just makes you notice how sore your shock-jarred joints are.
Blues are about as light as browns, and you may actually like them better for typing if you (and any office mates) don't mind the clatter, which provides an audible cue for key activation that may help you avoid bottoming out. Blues aren't as suitable for gaming because the clicky slider makes it hard to "flutter" a key over its activation point.
Since finishing my ErgoDox with clears and using it for the past week, I've found I can already get a pretty good typing flow going without bottoming out much at all, since the resistance increases notably once you get past the activation point, effectively cushioning the superfluous portion of the full keystroke before you hit bottom.
In summary and IMHO:
* Blacks and reds are good for primarily-gaming duty and at least adequate for typing;
* Browns are good for speed typists with a light touch and a good compromise for typing/gaming dual use;
* Blues are good for speed typists that can respond to the audible feedback, but are not great for gaming that requires a lot of rapid-tap action on any given key;
* Clears are good for quiet, long-term typing comfort, possibly at the expense of some sheer WPM speed, and at least adequate for gaming.
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