
User banned from Das Keyboard forums for telling people of open-source drivers - Cmerlyn
https://twitter.com/sebirdman/status/1026625633953013761
======
Aardwolf
I don't understand that. You buy a keyboard for the hardware, no? It's the
switches and individual diodes and good materials that make it expensive.

What makes it more profitable selling a keyboard with proprietary drivers,
than one that their users can hack at will?

Especially given the target audience of this one.

edit: I don't even know why a keyboard would need drivers :p but if it's for
fancy colored LEDs or so, yes please make that open and hackable!

edit2: oh. cloud connected keyboard. ok.

~~~
squarefoot
"edit2: oh. cloud connected keyboard. ok."

Ouch... A keyboard with closed source and cloud connected drivers isn't
exactly something I'd want to write my passwords with, or am I missing
something?

~~~
thomasfedb
Not missing anything, sounds spooky.

------
eertami
If you're looking for a high quality cherry switched keyboard, Das was already
company you wanted to avoid - and now possibly even moreso.

Das is definitely a "brand over product" company and the market is flooded
with much better alternatives, eg Leopold, Varmilo, IKBC, Vortex, Filco, etc.

~~~
ericdykstra
I'll throw my support for Filco here. I've been using the same Filco
Majestouch Tenkeyless with Cherry Browns as my only home keyboard for 10
years, and it's as good as it was on the day I bought it. Absolutely fantastic
build quality.

~~~
dingaling
My Filco Majestouch lasted barely a year before the USB cable failed at the
keyboard end.

It's currently lying in the corner whilst I try to stomach paying £25 for a
third-party cable made with their custom internal connector.

I'd prefer if they just had a USB female socket on the keyboard and then I
could use any cable.

Why _do_ keyboards have hard-wired cables anyhow? They have plenty of space
for a socket and it would eliminate another point of failure.

~~~
michaelt

      Why do keyboards have hard-wired cables anyhow?
    

Captive cables only need enough copper to supply enough current for the device
they're built into.

Separate cables, OTOH, need enough copper for 500mA with a certain voltage
drop to be USB standard compliant. Means 24AWG or bigger for a 2m cable [1].

That's why your keyboard, mouse and webcam have skinny cables while other USB
cables are much thicker.

[1] [http://cdn2.goughlui.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/USB-
Cabl...](http://cdn2.goughlui.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/USB-Cable-
Resistance-with-Contact-Resistance.png)

------
blattimwind
It always seemed odd to me that an American company tries to use an ostensibly
German brand name to imply quality, instead of going for Made in US. Of
course, they don't make these in the US... they're made by some contractors in
China and/or Taiwan.

~~~
superflyguy
Sorry to break this to you but outside the US "made in the US" is up there
with "made in China" as an indicator of quality.

~~~
dismantlethesun
I can't speak of outside of it, but inside the US, "Made in China" isn't an
indication of quality either ways.

The cheapest flimsiest forks are made in China, but then so are Apple
computers.

Also, counter intuitively, "Made in the USA" within the USA is seen as a
generic product that is obviously trying to trade on Americanism to interest
you in buying it. Quality products usually name the specific state they are
made in (e.g. Apple labels themselves as 'designed in California').

~~~
BenjaminBini
I think by ""made in the US" is up there with "made in China" as an indicator
of quality", he meant really low quality.

~~~
dismantlethesun
I suppose so, but the statement was just the sort of snarky one-liner that
invites conversation by implying a lot of subtext.

------
PortableCode
Apparently, posting this link gets you banned:
[https://github.com/diefarbe](https://github.com/diefarbe)

~~~
Havoc
Ironically named. DieFarbe = "The Paint"

~~~
mijoharas
I read it as colour.

~~~
Havoc
Both are correct. You'd use a tin of paint/"Farbe" to paint a wall, but saying
the your favorite colour/"Farbe" is red is also correct.

------
lolc
Sounds like they're in the Modder's market:

> The Das Keyboard 5Q is a cloud connected keyboard allowing users to display
> color notifications on each key. Notifications can come from applications
> such as Twitter, Gmail, eBay, Facebook and many others. Hundreds of
> applications can be configured via IFTTT and Zapier, transforming the 5Q
> keyboard into a RGB dashboard. An open REST API is also available for
> programmers.

As with other fashion, don't expect decisions that can be explained rationally
from without.

~~~
jotm
Oh reminds me of the Optimus keyboard. It seemed like an ambitious idea a
decade ago, each key was supposed to be an individual display. Afaik, it never
made it into production.

[https://www.artlebedev.com/optimus/](https://www.artlebedev.com/optimus/) \-
the website doesn't work properly, so I'm guessing you still can't buy one?

~~~
newman8r
I own an optimus popularis. They only ever sold small quantities. Cool idea
but not worth it.

------
trzeci
Side note: I have Das Keyboard 4 Ultimate, so no labels on keys are there.
Even with an ordinary keyboard I don't look at it. Who does if it's about
writing? I don't understand concept of displaying some information via colors
on specific keys.

------
golergka
Does anybody has further info on this? For now it's only one tweet directly
from the person who was banned without any other sources.

~~~
petepete
There's nothing there yet but expect r/mechanicalkeyboards to light up shortly

~~~
Cmerlyn
It was on r/mechanicalkeyboards yesterday.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/9571bb...](https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/9571bb/das_keyboard_banning_users_from_the_5q_forums_for/)

------
ElCapitanMarkla
Just out of curiosity, what's everyone's prefered keyboard these days?

I was getting aches in my hands / wrists so I grabbed a MS Sculpt L5V-00001
last year and couldn't be happier with it. After working on a Macbook (2013
style, not the new ones) for the last few years I can't really see myself
going for something with a huge amount of key travel anymore.

~~~
roel_v
Have used Ergodox for 2 years, quite satisfied with it, but I can't get used
to not having labels. I received my Ultimate Hacker Keyboard (unfortunate
name...) last week but haven't had a chance yet to plug it in - I imagine
there will be some switching cost that I don't have time for. But it looks
very well build, and it has proper labels printed on all keys, yay.

------
slezyr
QMK - open source firmware for keyboards. Allows to move around physical keys
and add different actions for "hold", "tap" actions.

[https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/tree/master/keyboards](https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/tree/master/keyboards)

------
nkristoffersen
I bought a Das keyboard for a friend. A year later with very little use, the
keys stopped responding as expected and I was SOL with a shit product and no
support from the company. I was disappointed since it was a pricey gift, but
lesson learned.

------
Denip
They had a lot of drama with the production of the 5Q keyboard also as it was
crowdfunded. Still don't quite understand why an established keyboard company
needed to crowdfund a keyboard...

~~~
michaelt
There's really no reason a company _wouldn 't_ crowdfund, it's free capital.

Investors or a bank loan will demand creditworthiness, interest payments,
penalties for late repayment, and if you can't make the promised product or
customers don't buy it, they can bankrupt your company.

With crowdfunding you have none of those obligations. No credit check, no
interest, and you can deliver a late, low quality product, or nothing
whatsoever, and the only cost is to your reputation.

------
ddalex
I'm amazed that there are still people out there who haven't heard of the
Streisand effect yet....

~~~
poizan42
Take a look at the edit history for the Wikipedia page[0]. This one takes the
cake:

> I work at the company and the group of people that added this part just
> stole the code of the company and try to replicate the code. They give a bad
> influence of the company and what they are doing is against the law. They
> try to give a bad image of the company everywhere including wikipedia

The amount of ignorance shown in that edit comment is just impressive. I doubt
they have heard about the Streisand effect.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Das_Keyboard&acti...](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Das_Keyboard&action=history)

------
waldfee
Also see
[https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/9571bb...](https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/9571bb/das_keyboard_banning_users_from_the_5q_forums_for/)

------
ankitp92
Let's make our voice count and make them apologise, let's spam their twitter
by tweeting this link to them
[https://github.com/diefarbe](https://github.com/diefarbe)

------
skipthemeat
Any recommendations for a quiet mechanical keyword (or switch)?

~~~
slezyr
No. It's too hard to recommend anything. Different people have different
tastes.

There are Cherry Browns, Gateron Browns, Kailh Browns, Zealio (bunch of them
with different activation weight), and bunch of others. I have 2 keyboards
with browns and one with blues. I don't like browns, I want some thing with
bigger activation weight.

------
alexandernst
Streisand Effect

