I can't use a laptop... anyone else have this problem?

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The keyboard is too small and the keys are too thin for my hands. I grew up typing on an "old" desktop from 2003. My coordination is slower than my brain, so school assignments to be performed on a laptop were like torture for me.

My favorite keyboards are the Compaq keyboards from a few years ago. They have a good heft (don't feel like they are going to float away) and the key response is absolutely terrific.

I had several but wanted more, so about four years ago, I bought a box of them on eBay. Whoever packed them did a really terrible job -- just tossed them in a box and sent them UPS with absolutely no packing material. The result is that a number of them arrived broken.

The one on top was okay so when I later reached in for another and saw them broken, it was a couple of months later and too late to return them.

But I love these keyboards.

And they are good on laptops, too -- just plug them in and go.

(Thread moved from Autism discussion to Computers...)

I'm using a laptop in my avatar.

Not at all. I have a Mac laptop and the keys are spaced far enough apart to be comfortable.

It depends. Some 17 inch laptops simply have a full size keyboard with no numpad, instead of a cramped keyboard with a numpad. Those are nice to type on.

I know what you mean, I prefer larger keyboards to the overly compact one on the laptop I am using now. After a bit of practice I am at maybe 45-50 WPM, down from my normal 60+

I don't know what you guys are talking about. Keyboards (without the numpad) are normally only around 11 inches wide and should fit in full size on any (16:9/16:10) laptop besides netbooks or some of the smaller ultra-portables. The only thing that really gets cramped is the bottom row, because the fn and arrow keys get shoved in there.

Maybe your problem is the travel depth or the "chiclet" style keys on all of the new notebooks? I have the opposite problem, I'm using a ThinkPad with old tapered style keys and a high travel (for a notebook) and kinda miss the low "chiclet" keys from my last notebook.

I can't use a desktop because I hate mice.

Also, I was demoing an Acer AC700, one of the Google Netbooks, and it has keys that you can push down almost as far as a desktop keyboard. I want a laptop with an IBM Clicky, or at least time to fix the desktop Model M that I have.