Not All Linears Are The Same!
Figure 1: Not even all of these (mostly) KTT-made linears are the same! After all of my years of collecting, reviewing, and obsessing over switches, I can say with certainty that linear switches are the most misunderstood of all of the switch types. No, I’m not talking about mechanically either, as all of the claims of them “just going straight up and down” are somewhat kind of true. (Not too much though, don’t get that excited.) The part that is often misunderstood, though, is usually in what is being implied when people say that these switches just go straight up and down – “All linears might as well be the same.” If the title of this article didn’t make that obvious enough to you, I find that sort of idea to be completely and utterly wrong. The people who make these implications wouldn’t say that a Cherry MX Black is the same as a Novelkeys Cream switch? They also certainly wouldn’t ever claim that every Gateron-made linear is the same as every fancy TTC one out there...
May 29, 2024
That being said, I absolutely loved their designs, so revamped novelties like that could happen again later. Personally I'd be more than thrilled and supportive if someone wanted to do a full novelty kit like Engicoder did with Rad Hard for Nuclear Data by Sam/Matt30. I'd even provide the fonts and graphics I've gathered to work with. While some designers may flip out if anyone comes close to their colors even, I love the idea of the community adding onto this set if someone is inspired enough to do so. I did it for the community in the first place after all!
As far as forum kits specifically go, I just wasn't really feeling it this go around, so I didn't make new ones. I know people love them, hell they were the best looking novelties on the last one (all Engicoder there!), but sometimes I feel like they can lead to or promote even more of a schism between the forums, in a very small way of course.
Every year that passes I learn to appreciate all of the forums more and more, and would really rather come up with a cool way to represent the enthusiast community as a whole rather than as small sects. Now feel free to commence laughing because I obviously thought way too hard about the novelty keys this time around =P