Moonlander Impressions Part 1
The Setup
Some Context
I received my Moonlander on August 24th and began using it immediately, with my Apple keyboard for Touch ID purposes nearby. It was excruciating at first, and I found myself using the Apple keyboard a lot the first few days. I had to spend most of that first weekend customizing the layout configuration to find something that allowed me to learn the keyboard without getting overly frustrated. I customized my layout to be close to a standard keyboard, with the obvious significant difference being the keys assigned to the thumb area. I put the command key, ctrl key, hyper key, space, ESC, Enter, and delete keys in this area. I made sure to keep keys on the same hand that would previously have hit the key and made sure I didn’t make it easy to hit enter instead of space accidentally. This new layout significantly increased my ability to use the keyboard, getting used to the columnar format of the keyboard. After about a week of working with this layout, I began to increase the tenting of the keyboard even though ZSA suggested not tenting for the first month.
Thoughts so far?
The Moonlander is the type of keyboard you will have to learn to love. It isn’t a keyboard you are just going to pick up and immediately bond with. I recommend starting with a config that reduces mistakes more than anything, as it will make the learning experience less frustrating. For instance, having the space bar and enter key close to each other could cause a lot of challenges. If you are not a touch typist, you may find this keyboard extremely frustrating, but sticking with it will force you to become a better typer.
I spent about two weeks with the Moonlander before going on a 2-week vacation, and returning to it was easy. However, I also didn’t do a bunch of typing on a standard keyboard during that vacation. I believe that would have erased any of the muscle memory I had built up before the break.
I still have to think a lot more than I am used to while typing, but I expect this to disappear as I get used to the keyboard. I don’t think I will change my layout anytime soon, but time will tell.