[HN Gopher] My coworker's 36 key Corne open-source keyboard setup
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My coworker's 36 key Corne open-source keyboard setup
Author : realsharkymark
Score : 44 points
Date : 2025-12-26 15:28 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (nuon.co)
(TXT) w3m dump (nuon.co)
| realsharkymark wrote:
| I work with the author at Nuon. He initially used a Kinesis like
| some coworkers, but refined it to a minimalist setup with an
| open-source Korne keyboard, that sits on top of his Macbook
| keyboard.
|
| When I first saw it, he initially had rubber bands holding it
| down. Now it's on a secure plate with even a company-coordinated
| color scheme for the keys.
|
| Interesting how his gaming experience led to a custom layer
| setup.
| Valodim wrote:
| Your product might actually relevant for me, but browsing your
| website I gotta say it's quite the turnoff that there is
| nothing there on your company. I could not find out, within
| reasonable time, where you are incorporated.
| MorehouseJ09 wrote:
| That is quite good feedback, and I will make sure we get that
| addressed asap. Thank you.
|
| FWIW, we're incorporated in delaware, and based in the US.
| Valodim wrote:
| For anyone looking into this who doesn't want to design their own
| layout from scratch, a well maintained layout for small keyboards
| is Miryoku. Worked very well for me (in qwerty base + vim
| directional keys mode) on a keyboardio atreus
| MorehouseJ09 wrote:
| I'm building a toucan (piantor style layout) and was thinking
| about using seniply layout, but this looks much better.
| alphavibe wrote:
| Miryoku is a solid layout. Designing your own layout is
| definitely time consuming, and not something most should try
| diving into if they are new to small form factor keyboards.
| evilduck wrote:
| Can't say I agree with the sentiment. Miryoku's layout looks
| pretty arbitrary, as is any other <60% setup. I daily drive a
| Planck (4 more total keys, but very similar levels of layout
| restrictions) and my layer designs are wildly different.
|
| I would say just find or build a keyboard with support for
| Via or Vial so that you can change things on the fly when it
| feels wrong. If you're going down the small form factor
| keyboard path you're already committed to rewiring muscle
| memory, you might as well design your layout to meet your
| specific needs too. It's highly unlikely you will encounter
| someone else's Miryoku layout in the wild and need to type on
| it.
| Philpax wrote:
| For reference: https://github.com/manna-harbour/miryoku
| PerryStyle wrote:
| I'd definitely recommend Miryoku for those starting out. You're
| then free to make any modifications to suit your preferences.
|
| I ended up making the layer activations happen on the same hand
| to allow 1 handed use.
| MorehouseJ09 wrote:
| disclaimer: I'm the ceo of this company.
|
| What started as a joke a few years ago has actually turned into
| really good signal. I've found that the engineers who care enough
| to invest in keyboards like this spend a lot of time investing in
| their tooling and are extremely productive.
|
| Causation or correlation?
| rgoulter wrote:
| > the engineers who care enough to invest in keyboards like
| this (1) spend a lot of time investing in their tooling and (2)
| are extremely productive
|
| I think (1) is true. Whereas, (2) may be less so.
|
| Or at least, "smart but unproductive" is also a class. :) (And
| I'm sure there are those who have had bad experiences working
| with such people).
|
| I suppose using a keyboard like this is an expensive signal. As
| in.. it's fairly easy to buy a typical mechanical keyboard, but
| more difficult to get one of these small split keyboards. --
| But I think this is just "interested in technical excellence",
| which is somewhat different than "highly productive".
|
| ;) As for these keyboards? The most pragmatic & superior
| tooling part isn't the "36-key keyboard" so much as "each thumb
| has 2-3 keys" each. That's what allows these keyboards to
| expressively bring the full functionality of the keyboard to
| within reach of the hands on home row.
| MorehouseJ09 wrote:
| You hit the nail on the head with the 2/3 thumb key bit. That
| is what was such a game changer for me with the kinesis. all
| the sudden you have real estate to take a layering approach
| that you just can't with normal keyboards.
|
| Smart but unproductive is a class. We've all had experiences
| with those types of engineers. I think startups generally
| weed them out though. It's hard to survive at a startup
| without being productive. I probably should have put that as
| a disclaimer up front.
| lawn wrote:
| I think 3 thumb keys are too much as the thumb is slow and
| awkward to move. You can easily get by with 2 and you can get
| by with just one for normal usage.
|
| See my own keyboard layouts for inspiration:
|
| https://www.jonashietala.se/blog/2024/11/26/the_current_cybe.
| ..
|
| https://www.jonashietala.se/series/t-34/
| egypturnash wrote:
| > using a keyboard like this is an expensive signal
|
| You can get premade keyboards in this layout for about $150.
| The Kinesis 360 mentioned earlier in the article is $400-500.
|
| Decide for yourself how pricey "learning these things exist"
| and "making a custom DIY one is in terms of both resources
| and time.
| rjh29 wrote:
| Some people like to over-optimise everything. Window manager,
| vim config, unix tool choice, split keyboard, DVORAK layout,
| mechanical keyboards, coffee brewing, Obsidian note-
| taking/Zettelkasten, mice (the rabbit hole for mice goes as
| deep as keyboards)
|
| This is often more about enjoying the process of optimising
| than wanting to be productive overall. Some may spend a lot of
| time reading Hacker News to "keep up with new tools" and
| clipping their productivity bonsai tree at the deteriment of
| actually getting work done. They may be the type to spend weeks
| optimising a command that is run once a year. They may obsess
| over pointless details that don't matter.
| darod wrote:
| Curious have any of you tried the Charachorder? It's supposed to
| be the fastest "keyboard" to type on.
| alphavibe wrote:
| I havn't tried it but its way up on my list to try. Another one
| thats really out there is the svalboard. I really dig that the
| trackball is just under your hand.
| eviks wrote:
| the principles aren't sound
|
| > To promote balanced usage, ... equal distribution eliminates
| the strain of overextending the right fingers
|
| What overextension? You don't even type them frequently enough
| for your index/middle finger on the home row to notice anything,
| and "cognitive overhead" is lower if they're paired together.
|
| And neither is this strategy
|
| > we reach up for numbers,..This strategic approach ensures that
| my layout and daily typing tasks never overwhelm my cognitive
| load.
|
| The default numbers are so inconveniently placed that you don't
| really get much proficiency in using them, so you'll not lose
| much if you switch from some great numpad layout back to
| horizontal line just like using regular numpad has no effect on
| your ability to use the horizontal row And numpad can't overwhelm
| anything since is extremely common
|
| This is just bad strategy, using superficial logic to hurt
| ergonomics.
|
| The familiarity with more rarely used symbols might add overhead
| if broken, but maybe if symbols are mapped to the same numbers it
| won't be much? (this is at least plausible unlike with the
| numbers themselves)
| Analemma_ wrote:
| I love almost everything about the current revolution in
| keyboards (the mech switches, ergonomic layouts, and open-
| source designs), but I do think this arms race towards fewer
| and fewer keys is just getting ridiculous. Yes, you can use
| chords and layers, but at some point I think the cognitive
| overhead is outpacing whatever size and ergonomic advantages
| there could be, especially if you're a programmer and
| frequently need to type symbols from the weirder parts of the
| keyboard. Maybe people doing a lot of pure writing find them
| more useful, idk.
| bluecalm wrote:
| I often read about all those RSI problems and then how pinky
| fingers have a lot of duties. I find it strange. I type at decent
| speed and I barely use my pinky fingers at all. I press Caps-
| Lock, Tab, Shift and Enter with them as well as | and }. Pinkies
| are small and weak, why use them so much? That's surely neither
| ergonomic nor the fastest way to type. It also means I don't like
| the idea of a split keyboard. I reach across quite often. I've
| never recorded myself to be 100% sure about all the keys but I am
| regularly reaching for b and y with both hands depending on the
| word. This way "typo" is just two quick "progressing" taps - "ty"
| with the left hand and "po" with the right. Of course "po" is way
| more comfortable with a ring-middle finger instead of a
| pinky/ring finger.
|
| The whole idea of assigning keys to fingers doesn't sound too
| smart to me. Why would you type "ce" with the same finger? It's
| neither fast nor ergonomic. Why do it to yourself?
|
| >Home row mods live in the base layer. In my opinion, home row
| mods are nearly essential to make a layout this small work well.
| The idea is simple: your home row keys act as normal keys when
| tapped, but double as modifiers when held.
|
| I feel this is underexplored idea. After remapping my CapsLock to
| tap=Esc, hold=ctrl it went from the least used key on my keyboard
| to the most used one. I really like the idea of also doing it
| with home row keys, that must be very convenient after getting
| used to. That also seems completely free as you never (I think)
| hold those keys during normal computer use.
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