Mastering My Moonlander Keyboard: 1 Year Later

[@filip5398]

Thanks for the tips, I'll surely check your layout video, when mine arrives. I am actually blown out with the production quality of this video even though you only have 500 subs. Keep up the good work man!

[@ZazenCodes]

Very nice of you to say! I’m glad you liked it

[@monksuu]

I bought my Moonlander in May 22 and I switched to a variant of dvorak, svorak, that includes Scandinavian letters. I also switched some dvorak keys for the vowel (left) hand. I have my mouse in the center because I didn't feel like to open my right shoulder outside the right pad. Thanks for sharing your experience!

[@franksenkel2715]

"we do these things, not because they are easy; but because we thought they'd be easy"

[@ZazenCodes]

😂

[@7870JAKE]

My new favorite quote lmao😂😂

[@ThomasBudde]

So happy that I am not the only one petting their dog with the feet when they lie under the desk xD

[@joshuaberrios]

Glad I found this video and that it is most recent. My wife asked me about the keyboard I wanted for my 30th birthday and I told her this one since I am working towards being healthier and maintaining my fight strong against nerve damage and arthritis when working. I plan on keeping my Logitech MX Keys around as a backup until I’m fully transitioned to this keyboard’s mechanics and ergonomics.

[@ZazenCodes]

Nice man, I hope you like it as much as I do

[@joshuaberrios]

@@ZazenCodes I hope so too :) God Bless!

[@CrispyCircuits]

I'm waiting for mine to arrive. I ordered black, mostly because my desk is white. I got the generic keycaps because I am a heavy vim user, I use browser addons (Vimium C) to mimic vim keys and I also use tmux with vim. I also use both vi and emacs editing in the shell (ksh). The other reason is that I will be typing in English, Spanish, Classical Latin with macrons and Russian. So just English letters will be just in the way. I'm looking forward to it. I am getting by right now by having two keyboards side by side to spread my arms apart. Clunky but it helps.

[@ZazenCodes]

Woah. Juggling those languages is impressive. How come you use both vim and emacs?

[@Locke-g1n]

just placed an order after watching this video

[@Metalwolf765]

I run one in black with lubed gateron browns configured for colemak. It’s been a struggle to say the least. I went from a split 70% in QWERTY, then colemak, then the moonlander. I’m still super slow and I’m 6 months into the layout and 2 months into the moonlander. I’m pretty close to jumping ship for a glove80.

[@ZazenCodes]

I’ve not seen the glove80. Its looks real sleek but that concave design is really aggressive and I don’t think I would like it. Browns are a nice option for clicky keys. But man, I just cant wrap my head around learning colmak! Whats your reason for subjecting yourself to that? :P

[@Metalwolf765]

@@ZazenCodes I write for work and had some RSI. Colemak helps with that by changing the movement patterns and significantly improving efficiency. The homerow felt right almost immediately, but getting the top row has been/ still is a struggle. My biggest annoyance so far with the moonlander specifically is hitting 0 when I want to delete. I did a bunch of early layout edits like you, and have tried to stick to it. Right red is backspace, then enter, space, and tab respectively. Left red is escape, then delete, whole word when held, then space and left shift. That’s worked out surprisingly well, but I still miss my arrow keys. I also find it much harder to go from keyboard to mouse and back with the moonlander rather than my prized mistel barocco (I have four flavors of barocco and have been on them for work and home for more than 5 years). I was waffling between the kinesis advantage 360 and the glove80. It’s going to be the glove80 :)

[@Metalwolf765]

@@ZazenCodes I should say that the ZSA software is awesome to use compared to QMK. They really got the UX right on that front.

[@ZazenCodes]

I love all the different ways people setup their boards. I gotta say I’m surprised you use the red buttons- I mostly avoid those guys I find them awkward. You are making me want to try colemak though

[@pointeplusplus]

This is such an underrated video - lots of production value and good info! I’m a software engineer and I have some joint issues so I’ve been looking to create a more ergonomic setup. I type in Dvorak 😊. I just got into mechanical keyboards but I’ve been thinking split is the way to go. I’m torn but leaning toward the glove80 but it’s pretty expensive so it’s hard to make the leap. Do you have any thoughts about different split keyboards in comparison to the moonlander? Similarly I like using joycons instead of a standard controller. Split everything for life 🎉

[@ZazenCodes]

Glove80 is new kid on the block right? it seems great. One thing it might do better is putting the keys easier to reach. Common complaint of moonlander is its big and requires movement of your hand to reach some keys. I picked the moonlander because it was the most customizable and because I like a bigger keyboard

[@pointeplusplus]

@@ZazenCodes That’s really good to know, thanks! I’m a small person with small hands so big might be rough for me. I think it’s one of the newer ones but I haven’t been looking into it long enough to really know. Sadly I don’t think you can mod those keys at all because they are so smol but sacrifices must be made … and I was thinking about trying resin casting ⌨️

[@EdvardssonTech]

Got mine a few weeks ago, love it! Takes some time getting used to as I'm switching to colemak! Gonna have a look at your config for some inspiration! Would you mind sharing a link to your config?

[@ZazenCodes]

Godspeed with colemak! Here's a link to my setup configure.zsa.io/moonlander/layouts/bJbgg/latest/0

[@CaffeineForCode]

i found it helpful to use the zip kit to “cap off” a dozen or so keys, especially the hard to reach ones. Great video!

[@perreal]

I don't get the productivity argument. Is the keyboard really the bottleneck for you?

[@ZazenCodes]

This is an interesting question. No- its not a bottleneck. But now that I’ve got used to it I find I’m most productive on it. At first it kills productivity, its literally impossible to do real work for the first while. Its definitely not something you buy to be more productive

[@IvoHladky]

My typing speed went down by 20% for first 2 to 3 months. I get back after that time. I cannot imagine my work without the keyboard anymore. All tweaks under almost each finger (printscreen, clipboard, etc.). Less headaches thanks to better position. The keyboard is worth the price. I love it.

[@kiss-liava]

I personally bought it just for the sake of convenience. Didn't ever think about typing speed. It's about 60 words on a regular keyboard for me, and I'm happy with that

[@delasantos]

Great video! Cam ups recommend black or white?

[@ZazenCodes]

White

[@mateuszormianek6054]

Hey, I'm considering purchasing a Moonlander keyboard to alleviate wrist pain from programming. Observing your keyboard use, I noticed another potential issue: I'm unsure if it's because your hands are small or if the Moonlander is particularly large. Do you find its size to be a problem? Additionally, I'm curious about the necessity to move your hands more, especially for thumb usage. How comfortable is that? And do your wrists consistently rest on the wrist rest?

[@ZazenCodes]

It's pretty big. I like the size though. I have pretty big hands actually.. or at least.. pretty long fingers. Anything smaller for me would feel crammed. Certainly though it makes some keys not very convenient - like the top-inner keys or the bottom thumb key for example. But the top two thumb keys I use regularly and I have no trouble with them. I never really payed attention to this but I usually hover off the wrist supports and my forearms sit flat on the desk. Hope this helps, and I hope you can find relief from your wrist pain!

[@arseniikvachan]

No way, the dude has apple magic mouse (the worst mouse, literally)

[@Fluxiton]

I hope the plastic hasn't broken after a year like mine. I thought getting it repaired would be easy enough as they claim to support the right to repair. Try contacting support and asking to buy parts and you get your time wasted. Turns out that no they don't sell spare parts and won't support their £350 keyboard past the initial purchase. Not good for any professional that expects their hardware to have a service life past a year.

[@ZazenCodes]

Damn that’s rough. Sorry and thanks for sharing

[@user-io4hg2rc6f]

What is your monitor model?

[@ZazenCodes]

4K UHD Gaming Monitor - G3223Q. Its ok. I miss my old VA panel contrast though

[@bobkoss280]

I had the Moonlander and then I switched to the MoErgo Glove80. Gove80 is better.

[@ZazenCodes]

What do you like more about the glove? Also- anything you like less?

[@bobkoss280]

@@ZazenCodes The curvature is a natural fit for my hands. It has more keys - especially function keys. With the Moonlander, I had to put keys on a layer in a different spot from where my muscle memory wanted them. Cons: Price. I have a non-sliding pad on my desk so the keyboard doesn't move as I type.

[@adrianhernandez7197]

The fact that it costs 33% of a Mac mini and has basically no silicone in it is wild. Not even mentioning no function keys nor num pads, which would probably hike the price up to 550 bucks lol.

[@ConsecDesign]

1: it's silicon, not silicone 2: talking about lack of "function keys" and "numpads" means you are fundamentally misunderstanding what this keyboard is. the keyboard is fully programmable with infinite layers and has functionality like auto shift, combos, and much more, rendering the idea of a printed numpad pointless. i can program a numpad in ON WHATEVER SIDE I WANT (i like my numpad on the left). i can put function keys and special characters WHERE EVER I WANT (i cannot overstate how great it is to have only the keys you need, exactly where you need them). that is well worth the money in theory, and has been, in practice, for me since 2021.

[@julianeeee2399]

Thanks for calling me a legend