Hey people, 
I am really thinking about giving split keyboards a try. (Not the one on the picture 😆).
<ul>
<li>My primary reason would be preventing RSI. I have a little pain growing in the pinky left finger and both wrists.</li>
<li>I am a bit afraid of the learning curve for muscle memory.</li>
<li>… Especialy for the thumb cluster which is the number one feature for me.</li>
</ul>
Do you own/use/have experience with split keyboards?

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The author is considering trying split keyboards to alleviate growing pain in the left pinky finger and both wrists. They are particularly interested in the thumb cluster feature but are concerned about the muscle memory learning curve. They seek advice and experiences from people who own or use split keyboards.

Looking for advise on split keyboard

<img src="https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--LuZ-pXgM--/f_auto/v1743457166/ugc/content_7d1953dc-5645-426d-afa0-536f2ad7f2e5" alt="IMG_1899">
Hey.
I started using a split keyboard for the reasons you mentioned. I was looking for a keyboard as flat as possible, so I ended up buying a kit and assemble and program it myself.
<a href="https://josefadamcik.github.io/SofleKeyboard/build_guide_choc.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">https://josefadamcik.github.io/SofleKeyboard/build_guide_choc.html</a>
The learning curve was no fun at all, and the first couple of weeks was a pain. Now when I used it for maybe 2 years I couldn’t even think of going back to a regular keyboard. My pain is almost gone, and I barely do not have to move my fingers away from the home row thanks to the custom programming I have done(there is regular keyboards that can do that).
I can recommend you to try it out, but there will be some pain in the beginning 😀
I ended up with all keycaps as blanks, just to force myself to not cheat and look down on the keys. It worked like a charm and today I still use my blanks and never look down.

I also vouch for the ZSA Moonlander. Next I’m thinking of getting their Voyager for travel.
I’ve been doing dev work for several years now and daily typing has done it’s toll on my hands. Ignoring my hands only made things worse. As time went on, the amount of hours I could work dropped until it became unbearable to type.
Not being able to make money is a great motivator for learning new typing styles. For me I went all in with a split keyboard and even a different key layout. It was rough at first but after about 2-3 weeks of practice on typing sites, I was at about 40wpm. Slow but at least I was bypassing the areas that hurt.
Fast forward 2 years and I can still type faster on a normal keyboard with qwerty but it doesn’t really matter. I’m doing more with less. Keyboard layers are amazing. Also, I thought I was going to forget qwerty but it’s like riding a bike, it’s all muscle memory. It’s odd because if my hands are close together they type qwerty, but once they apart they default to my colemak layout.
Here is my crazy layout:
ZSA Moonlander w/ 45 degree tilting, colemak-mod-dh, 36 keys on 6 layers
<a href="https://configure.zsa.io/moonlander/layouts/RWBdx/latest/0" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">https://configure.zsa.io/moonlander/layouts/RWBdx/latest/0</a>

I got my first split keyboard August last year, for no reason other than I wanted thumb clusters. I don’t currently experience pain very often, but I’d like to be ahead of it! I went for the ZSA Moonlander, mainly because I figured having more keys is better than less when I’m learning to use a whole new paradigm of keyboard, and I had read that it’s a solid first split.
The learning curve was very, very real for me. It was like learning to type all over again. My main keyboard previously was a 60%, so I’m very familiar with using layers for things, which helped a bit. But the split ortholinear was something else.
I started on a free weekend and I forced myself to use it, and did typing training as often as I could. By Monday, I was at about 20-30wpm. Not great, but I could get work done. I quickly grew used to it. After a week or two, I was up to about 50-60. Now I’m as quick as I was on a regular keyboard (90-100wpm). It took a good month or so to be completely comfortable using it.
If you find yourself struggling, you just need to be a bit persistent. If you need to drop back to the previous daily to actually get some work done, then so be it. Don’t be disuaded. I recommend <a href="http://keybr.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">keybr.com</a>. It has key-specific exercises and it’ll identify your weaknesses. Set the on-screen keyboard visualisation to an ortholinear if that’s what you need.
Moonlander-specific note: The standard layout isn’t very practical, and is more of a ‘show piece’ for what the board can do. I’d recommend customising pretty soon after you start getting used to the board, disabling keys if you need to to prevent mis-inputs. The ZSA tool is brilliant.

I just got my Corne keyboard. The fewer keys the better. <a href="https://typeractive.xyz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">https://typeractive.xyz/</a>
<img src="https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--KQYEg_c0--/f_auto/v1743493924/ugc/content_1bdc2c41-8393-418e-a8b3-d5a06a7ea447" alt="GmN2NBtW4AAPu8B">

I don’t have one yet, but I’ve seen that the dactyl manuform is good. It is on GitHub, and kit you can buy and assemble yourself.
<a href="https://github.com/abstracthat/dactyl-manuform" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">https://github.com/abstracthat/dactyl-manuform</a>
<a href="https://www.diykeyboards.com/keyboards/keyboard-kits/product/dactyl-manuform-kit" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">https://www.diykeyboards.com/keyboards/keyboard-kits/product/dactyl-manuform-kit</a>