this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2025
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[–] Albbi@lemmy.ca 50 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (4 children)

I used to have this really awesome early 2000's transparent blue plastic keyboard with all the newest media keys. The only problem was that it had 4 windows keys on it! One on either side of the spacebar. The right side of the spacebar was Alt, Windows, Context menu, CTRL. That was a bit weird but it was alright. The next placements were crazy though. Someone figured there was space for more keys right below the Delete, End and Page Down keys but I guess they couldn't really figure out what would be best for there so they put a 3rd Windows key, a 2nd Context Menu and then a 4th Windows key right there. This was pretty close to the arrow keys and if anyone remembers gaming in the early 2000's, pressing the windows key accidentlly would often just crash your game completely. If you could get back into it, it could take quite a while for it to respond again. So if you were playing something like Warcraft 2 multiplayer, that button was a fucking nightmare.

Ugh, I loved the colour of that keyboard so much I put up with all those windows keys.

edit: I can't believe I found it! I've tried searching for this keyboard a few times, but finally found proof on this site!

[–] I_am_10_squirrels@beehaw.org 14 points 3 days ago

Wow, that is pretty but also atrocious

[–] Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca 8 points 3 days ago

Wow, Win98 logo and media buttons? Truely between eras.

I actually like the context key above the arrow keys, another method of effectively right-click is nice. Those Win keys are crazy though, that's the perfect place for extra function keys. Imagine having f13 & f14 that you can bind to anything without worry!

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Do you know why the 3 key has an n? I have a hunch:

This is clearly a tactical keyboard for use in military, aviation or maritime navigation systems! /s

[–] bstix@feddit.dk 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Now I gotta know the tactical reason for the 2 key to also have the 2 symbol?

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I did't know much about the German keyboard layout but I know the Czech one, which is derived from it (we both use QWERTZ) and was able to look up most of what I didn't know.

So, the keyboard has 4 layers: default, Shift, AltGr, AltGr+Shift (the fourth one is not standard but is recognized by xkb; in Czech I use it for custom character mappings, in German it is standardized but Linux-only).

  • Default layer prints lowercase letters a-z and äöüß, numbers and the symbols in the lower-left of each key.
  • Shift layer prints uppercase letters A-Z and ÄÖÜ and symbols at the top left of each key.
    • Caps Lock only affects letters.
  • AltGr layer prints lower-right symbols, most of which are only populated in a later version of the layout.
  • AltGr+Shift (Linux only) prints upper-right symbols.

As you can see, AltGr+2 produces ², and AltGr+3 produces ³. I think the full-size "2" and "n" are misprints. My old Czech keyboard has some errors too.

By the way, Czech is more chaotic:

  • we have lots more diacritics so the number row only prints numbers on its Shift layer (most people therefore use the numpad only)
  • to print rare diacritics (ó, ď, ť, ň, and German ä, ö, ü), one has to first press the corresponding modifier key (´, ˇ, ˚, ¨) like on typewriters
    • an alternative for common capital diacritics (á, é, ě, í, ú, ů, ý, ž, š, č, ř) is to briefly turn on Caps Lock (advantage over typewriters)
    • pressing the ˚ key twice prints the degree sign (°) twice (Windows) or once (Linux)
  • there is a bloody dedicated § key but we need to press AltGr+7 twice, then backspace (or Alt+96) for a grave (`), which is part of ASCII and used in Markdown
  • physical keyboards almost always reserve the right side of the keys for the English-US layout (very confusing for novices) so one has to type in the AltGr layer blind (except for ); it contains useful symbols ([]{}<>|\€$@#^&×÷`) as well as useless ones (Đđ – these are Slovene, why not the Slovak Ôô?), leading people to prefer Windows-only left-Alt+numpad codes (such as Alt+64 for @) that use the obsolete OEM-1252 codepage (the Unicode extension has to be enabled via registry and Alt+letters hex codes get passed to programs anyway, often defocusing the input element). I only found a Slovak one on Wikimedia Commons
  • some lazy manufacturers combine the Czech/English and Slovak/English layouts, which are similar except ľ, ť and ô, leading to 5 (!) symbols per key, 3 of which are irrelevant unless you switch layouts
  • Gboard for Android offers QWERTY for Czech, which looks normal (hold for diacritics, potentially swipe for ě and ů) and the unpopular QWERTZ-PC, which has all the physical keyboard's quirks, but its "Czech QWERTZ" is based off German QWERTZ, containing ú and ů but not the other diacritics for some reason. All other keyboard apps with Czech language layout get this right (hold for diacritics, potentially swipe for ě and ů)!
[–] fading_person@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Whoa, it's beautiful. I'd be still using it with some usb adapter.

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The "n" is probably a misprint, AltGr+2 prints "²" and AltGr+3 prints "³" in the German layout; it can be customized to actually print "n" in xkb though.

I mean, if the redundant Windows keys produce different codes, it could be worth a lot to macro enthusiasts. The model exists with an English QWERTY layout too:

The picture seems to be from 1998 so you'll likely need a passive DIN to mini-DIN adapter as well.

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 days ago

It reminds me of the Macally iKey