I'm using UHK for almost a year and can share with my experience.
It really depends on a keyboard - if it is similar to regular one or not. The UHK is pretty similar to regular keyboard - keys are staggered (not ortholinear), there are no additional thumb keys which are also not available on a regular laptop keyboard. After a year with UHK I'm still able to jump between laptop and UHK when needed. Somehow muscle memory "detects" when my hands are on UHK and I start using additional shortcuts which are not available on laptop.
Meanwhile if you'd pick something like Dactyl https://github.com/adereth/dactyl-keyboard, I believe it would be more difficult to jump arround.
P.S. After a year my typing speed on split keyboard is higher compared to laptop.
In Split Keyboard for Professionalsadereth
dactyl-keyboard
OpenSCAD2016–2025
adereth / dactyl-keyboard
dactyl-keyboard
Parameterized ergonomic keyboard
22Distinct people
25Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
3.2KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
Parameterized ergonomic keyboard
GitHub
Where it is used
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What people are saying
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Also in these discussions
- abstracthat/dactyl-manuform · linked in 2 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 10:49:33 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
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HN mentions by year25 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2016-02-26 22:32:27 UTC to 2025-01-03 13:00:27 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 7 | 0 | 7 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
From the project README
An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.
Read the project’s introduction
The Dactyl Keyboard
The Dactyl is a parameterized, split-hand, concave, columnar, ergonomic keyboard.
There's a talk about the motivation and design of the Dactyl that helps provide context for this repo:
Assembly
Generating a Design
Setting up the Clojure environment
Install the Clojure runtime
Install the Leiningen project manager
Install OpenSCAD
Generating the design
Run lein repl
Load the file (load-file "src/dactyl_keyboard/dactyl.clj")
This will regenerate the things/*.scad files
Use OpenSCAD to open a .scad file.
Make changes to design, repeat load-file, OpenSCAD will watch for changes and rerender.
When done, use OpenSCAD to export STL files
Tips
Some other ways to evaluate the clojure design file
Example designing with clojure
Printing
Pregenerated STL files are available in the things/ directory.
Wiring
Masks for the flexible PCBs I used are available for the left and right side.
A very rough guide for the brave is here - It will be improved over time (TODO)!
License
Copyright © 2015 Matthew Adereth
The source code for generating the models (everything excluding the things/ and resources/ directories is distributed under the GNU AFFERO GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 3. The generated models and PCB designs are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License Version 4.0.
Read the full README on GitHubWhat Hacker News says
5 sources> Remap your "capslock" key to "escape."
I hear this recommendation a lot. You can do that, but much better is to get a keyboard with a proper thumb cluster like a kinesis[1], maltron[2], dactyl[3], ...
Much better to put such a common key on the thumb than stress out a pinky. I have a kinesis, and have esc mapped to the 'end' key there; similar positioning is possible on other keyboards. The keyboards I linked are also much more ergonomic than most flat keyboards—important, if you rely on your hands and wrists for your livelihood. Bit expensive, but well worth it.
1. https://kinesis-ergo.com/shop/advantage2/
2. https://www.maltron.com/
3. https://github.com/adereth/dactyl-keyboard
In Learn Vim (the Smart Way): a book to learn the good parts of VimThe most famous one is the dactyl[0]. I'm guessing you mean a portable kinesis advantage. There are some other kinesis keyboards which are portable.
[0] https://github.com/adereth/dactyl-keyboard
In Workman Keyboard Layout (2010)The design is based upon keyboard like that.
See the Dactyl and Dactyl Manuform.
Adding the joysticks shouldn't be as difficult as designing the whole thing from scratch.
https://github.com/adereth/dactyl-keyboard
https://github.com/abstracthat/dactyl-manuform
In Sherbet: An Ergonomic Gaming KeypadThis is cool. Those who find it interesting might also enjoy Matt Adereth’s Dactyl [0] project. Similar idea, it’s a parameterised geometry 3d printable ergodox/kinesis style ortho board on steroids. I imagine the two would play quite nicely together.
[0] https://github.com/adereth/dactyl-keyboard
In KeyV2: A Parametric Mechanical Keycap Library