Trying the Realforce 101 again

Today, a friend of mine had a Goldtouch ergonomic keyboard on his desk, so I tried it out... and three seconds later my hands hurt. Why?! Am I just addicted to the MS natural in way that I can no longer overcome now? That can't be true.

Thinking back, I do remember a time when I had to get "used to" the MS Natural. There is something about it that is definitely different from normal keyboards, and perhaps it lets you get into a mode of typing that makes it hard to go back to any other kind of keyboard. Perhaps this is the physical version of vendor "lock-in", which we all know MS excels at.

In any case, I'm starting an experiment. I'm going to try to use the Realforce again as my primary keyboard. I'm going to try to use it for a week, so that I forcefully un-learn any bad habits that the MS natural might be encouraging. I figure a week should be enough time for my hands to re-learn how to type on a normal-ish keyboard. If, at the end of this week, my hands still hurt, then I will admit defeat and recognize my own keyboard lameness. And that will be the end of that.