My operating principle has always been: use the best tool for the job.  Where
computer work is involved, I insist on a good keyboard.  In my case, it's the
Kinesis Advantage keyboard, which is ergonomic, comfortable, and built to last.
Read on about why I love it.  It wasn't too long ago that I eschewed all forms
of computer, preferring the great outdoors.  I still do, but increasingly I
find myself glued to the business end of a computer, whether for work or for
pleasure.  My operating principle has always been: use the best tool for the
job.  So I've spent a lot of free time trying to make sure I'm on good
hardware.  Above all, I insist on a good keyboard.  

The first was a keyboard that had piqued my interest as I grew interested in
the Dvorak keyboard layout.  As I researched keyboards that seemed to be built
and designed on the basis of good engineering, followed through on keyboards
that got good reviews on public forums, and so on, time and time again I came
across the Kinesis Advantage keyboard.  Finally I caved in and purchased one
from a favorite company I'd long used for my Dvorak key label fixes: Fentek
Industries.

Where the Advantage is concerned, a picture is worth a thousand words, so have
a look yourself.  


Let me say this:  it is comfortable.  Where hardware is concerned, more often
than not, you get what you pay for.  That was certainly the case with this
keyboard.  The Kinesis is light but feels well built, and the keys are pleasant
to the touch: they have great tactile feedback, but are light enough and travel
smoothly enough that your fingers don't feel like they are getting a workout as
you type.  This aspect of the keyboard can not be underestimated, as a full
work day on a crappy keyboard can be tiring for your fingers and wrists, not to
mention extraordinarily bad for your health. Secondly, the ergonomics of the
keyboard are fantastic: each key has a slightly different height and angle
which corresponds to the length of your fingers.  A great example is the
difference between the D and F keys on the left hand: the D is quite a bit
deeper, but you'll notice you strike that key with your left middle finger,
which is quite a bit longer.  It's fascinating and gratifying the first time
you sink your hands into the two wells to notice that each key appears to be
exactly at the tip of the finger with which you strike it.  How come no one
thought of this before?  The best part about it is that you no longer feel like
you are typing, since each finger is moving in the arc most natural for it.

The Kinesis has a number of other features that correspond with its design
goals of being an ergonomically unobtrusive and comfortable keyboard, like an
optional foot pad with programmable pedals (you could make one of them your
shift key, for example), and programmable macros.  These interest me less than
the overall feel and use of a comfortable keyboard, which, as a writer, are
essential: if my fingers can't keep up with my thoughts it's a major hassle to
type; same goes for if my fingers or wrists start to get sore: repetitive
stress injuries are not to be trifled with, and they are usually life-changing.
Naturally I splurged on the QWERTY-DVORAK switchable model, which is better
still, but that is my personal preference.

Configuration of the Kinesis Advantage Keyboard under Linux/Unix

The keyboard is USB, so overall hardware configuration is essentially
automatic: just plug it in and the Linux kernel will recognize it as a general
USB 104 key keyboard.  The instructions are straight forward for set up under
Windows or Mac computers, and on both those systems, the instructions were
adequate and straight forward, so I have nothing to add.  From there, the
instructions discuss configuration under other PCs, and are a bit less clear.
Let it be said that KDE and Gnome's keyboard configuration capability is
already more than adequate, but the additional configuration options present
additional choices to make; here are some thoughts and my guidance on the
subject.

Configuration under Gnome Ubuntu uses Gnome by default, and these days SUSE
seems to be spending more effort on its Gnome environment than its KDE
environment,  However, I find Gnome's configuration ability to be a little
lacking, particulary with regard to the cool things Linux lets you do with a
keyboard.  For starters, go to the control panel and use the 'shortcuts' applet
to assign keystroke shortcuts.


  Gnome: Key configurations
  
    
      Configuration
      Left Control
      Left Alt
      Right Win/Mac
      Right Control
    
  
  
    
      PC (=p)
      control
      alt
      mod5
      control
    
    
      Windows (=w)
      control
      alt
      multi-key
      control
    
    
      Mac (=m)
      mod4
      alt
      control
      multi-key
    
  


Under Gnome, the Windows layout is not very useful because the Windows key doesn't work the way a modifier key should.  You can assign something to the key itself (for example, the 'show the panel run application dialog' or 'show the desktop' but that's a very centrally-located key and in my opinion should be able to be used for a variety of functions, as you would expect from a so-called modifier key.  The mac environment is out for the same reason, though the assignment of mod4 to the left control key is useful and provides a lot of possibilities.  Nonetheless, under Gnome, the best thing to do is set the keyboard to the PC configuration, which gives you two control keys, one alt key, and mod5.

My configuration: PC config, so that the control and alt keys work as expected; then map important functions to Mod5, such as 'show the panel run application dialog.'


Configuration under KDE
I tend to prefer KDE because I can tweak it more to my liking.  In fact, these days, it's the only reason I use Linux at all, as its other shortcomings increasingly annoy me.  KDE provides lots more keyboard options in this regard, and best of all, allows me to tweak even the minutiae of my environment, and that's why I prefer it.  Under KDE, complete your configuration using the control center; selet the 'keyboard shortcuts' section under 'regional/accessibility.'  Also, make sure under the 'modifier keys' tab the 'Macintosh keyboard setting hasn't been invoked), as for this keyboard it is not useful for the configuration (in fact, I'm not sure I find it useful overall).


  KDE Key configurations
  
    
      Configuration
      Left control
      Left Alt
      Right Win/Mac
      Right Control
    
  
  
    
      Configuration
      Left Control
      Left Alt
      Right Win/Mac
      Right Control
    
    
      PC (=p)
      control
      alt
      alt
      control
    
    
      Windows (=w)
      control
      alt
      win
      control
    
    
      Mac (=m)
      win
      alt
      control
      win
    
  


Happily, the KDE environment does a better job of recognizing the keys as you
would expect them and you thus have two rather good configuration options, the
Win config and the PC config.

My configuration: Win configuration because it gives me an extra modifier key:
Win.  Then, I chose keyboard shortcuts that made sense for my fingers. But
under the Keyboard layout module of the control center, in the 'XKB Options'
tab, I set 'right control is compose' option.  This lets me use the right alt
key (with the Windows/Mac key cap label) to compose accented characters like
ñ and è.

A different configuration, but one I like just about as much, is to use PC
configuration, and use 'right alt is compose' so the key with the windows/mac
label becomes the compose key for special characters.

For bonus points, and because KDE provides you the option, once you've assigned
all the keyboard shortcuts you need, save them as a keyboard layout, giving it
a name like Kinesis.  It will save you time later.  

Note for Dvorak Users: Obviously, since the Dvorak switchable keyboard switches
the keys at the hardware level, you don't have to choose a dvorak keyboard
layout with your software.  That is, if you set your Kinesis keyboard to
Dvorak, you don't also have to choose it in KDE; continue with the normal US
(or whatever) layout, and happy typing.  For long prose, I tend to migrate
towards emacs, and on the Kinesis keyboard emacs requires some creative key
remapping to be functional.  See my article about how to do it.

Note for Mandriva Users: For some reason, I have never been able to get the
Kinesis' Win key to register under Mandriva, perhaps because the keyboard was
mis-identified by the installation routine, and no reconfiguration I do seems
to make a difference.  That's not the end of the world, since Control and Alt
both work fine, and so I simply chose key combinations that made sense using
those keys (Mandriva was, on the other hand, the distro that best identified my
monitor, so you win some and you lose some).