+1
Just thought I’d see if there is a “QMK/programmable firmware-level” progress update?
Poke poke. 
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QMK should NOT be the go-to. Yes. I think we all would love to have some customization of the keyboard at a hardware level. QMK is NOT the answer - it’s bloated and the reason it’s so prevalent in ‘custom’ keyboards is because they use general-purpose microcontrollers or SoCs with lots of memory and high clocks.
Maybe @nrp can chime in - do you mind sharing what microcontroller is used in the keyboard?
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Having been using the laptop for a few days now, I definitely find the keys I use the most are up/down and page up/page down, which are the same two half-sized keys.
The way its built, you would need to provide a whole new cover kit to make it work (unless you’re willing to sacrifice some existing keys). I don’t expect to see that big of a change any time soon since they’ve standardized all the keyboards with the one cover kit. (And zero regrets about buying! This is me dreaming of my ideal customizations.) But if such a thing does release, I’m definitely buying.
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I would also love this option. The layout in the picture is very close to the layout on my old 13.3" Sony Vaio SZ330, and I thought it worked really well.
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How about swapping out the Windows Start button? I’d like to place a logo of the oeprating system (PopOS, or Ubuntu), or just even logo of the Framework itself.
Or is a sticker the way to go?
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Even ss a Windows user, I’d be happy to see a generic “os” keycap. The Framework logo would be my goto option.
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Not sure if this is the case still, but back in the day in order to pre-load windows and get the OEM price you had to have the windows key on the laptop. If you remove it you couldn’t pre-load the OS or use OEM copies.
For emphasis: I have no way of confirming if this is still the case. It was 10 years ago.
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@Ultionis It still is the case, Microsoft requires OEMs to use the Windows logo on the Windows/Super key.
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I’ve got a GPD Pocket 2 with such an optical pointing device (in the top-right corner over the keyboard) and I love it. It’s not quite as convenient as a mouse, but because of the position I never hit it by accident and mess up my work.
That would probably ruin it for me, though, since I’d be likely to bump it by accident when typing, as I do with trackpads under the keyboard. Also, I think the necessary repeated swiping over it would be difficult/clumsy/uncomfortable with keys around it (and you might accidentally type when you were trying to move, as well as accidentally move when you were trying to type). So I’d prefer something above the keyboard.
Please please please put up a kickstarter or preorder for a keyboard with full size arrow keys, dedicated home/end/page keys, and the menu key. The only price for this is the smaller right shift. I will sell my soul for one of these on a new laptop. I will certainly put my money on a preorder so that you can judge if it’s worth making.
Yoga 2 Pro had one of these. Losing the menu key is such a pain. Losing dedicated home/end is just as bad.
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Well, with minimal tweaks it is possible to get full sized arrow keys even on an existing layout.
It could look something like this (pardon my mad skillz in paint):
Of course we still lack dedicated home/end/pg keys but oh well. The only downside of such a layout is that it betrays our intuition on the position of the right shift key.
Still, such a layout already exists in the wild. For example, Lenovo V310 has similar design. And it took me quite a while to stop hitting up when I actually wanted right shift. But that’s a reasonable price to pay for proper (and much more frequent!) arrow keys.
Edit: On a second thought, technically it’s possible to leave the very same top cover that we already have and tweak only the keyboard part. It would require filling some extra space left from the original long shift key and that would not look as clean and aligned as dedicated cutouts, but it’s still doable. That way it would require keys to be slightly bigger and have placeholder parts much like it’s currently done with Enter and | \ keys that laid out differently depending on the standard, but that occupy the same cutout:
vs
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Like @Korvin pointed out, including the full page navigation probably isn’t possible, since we’re limited by the cuts already in the top cover. Maybe someone could build an awesome extension card that sticks out on the right side of the laptop (but I’m not holding my breath!)
I am holding off on buying any of the cool keyboards in hopes they’ll release one with full-sized arrow keys. We’ll see on that.
Is there any sort of keyboard standardization? Is it possible to buy a keyboard designed for a different laptop and drop it in here? I wouldn’t even know what terminology to use.
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If you’re looking for an extension then maybe it would be more convenient for you just to buy a USB keypad.
For example something like this:
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That is a neat keyboard extension.
Now I have a quandary, my daughter’s MacBook Air is Space Gray, and the FW is more Silver, one, or two?
Can we have a spreadsheet (or similar) posted (so as to be easy to find) which lists language-specific keyboards and which are not available and which will be or may be or may not be, or whatever?
I am interested in a Russian keyboard and would like to see the status of that. I do not mind reading some of the amazing commentary in the posts like this one, but it would just be nice to say “has anything been updated for the status of a keyboard for language X?”, “Nope”, “Ok, moving on.”
much thanx
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To @feesh @Victor_Tay @dcdruck @J111 @thearctican and all the other QMK/ZMK keyboard enthusiasts out here: There is a way for you to do the same things you’re used to with QMK/ZMK in user space, without touching the firmware: kmonad. Check it out!
Kind Regards,
Maxim
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A feature that I would like to see on the keyboard would be a small LED light to indicate that the Function Lock is engaged (similar to the CAPS Lock) indicator. I think it would be best on the “fn” key. Not sure if it would be possible to add this feature to new keyboards going forward without updating the mother board, but it would be a nice to have.
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Yes, I agree - I always thought it was standard to have that! How else are you supposed to know what’s going to happen when you press a function key!?
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this only applies to keyboards that toggle the fn key. Framework keyboards, and all others I’ve seen for that matter, don’t toggle the key. Therefore, the way you would know is if your finger was pushing the key down at that point in time.
I always thought a non-toggleable fn key was standard.
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