My favorite keyboard of all time is the kinesis freestyle 2. It’s a split keyboard, but unlike other splits, it is big, so i have arrow keys and function keys, just like my other keyboards. It is also not mechanical, which i think is a plus because all the mech switches I’ve tried are loud and require more pressure or key travel.
I found the extra keys on the extreme left of the freestyle 2 to be really frustrating - I kept inadvertently hitting them and triggering all sorts of weirdness.
Apart from that I found the split-keyboard in general to be super-challenging for my brain for some reason and I generally found the whole thing to be torture. This wasn't helped by a sticky enter key (literally stuck down) - Kinesis were prepared to fix it, but I would have to pay to get it send back and forth from the US which was excessive on top of the already high price of the keyboard.
There were moments of the potential - brief fleeting moments of totally relaxed shoulders, my hands 50cm apart leaving my chest wide open and generally pretty laid back.
Ultimately though it was a bit a challenge I wasn't prepared to put up with and abandoned the split keyboard experiment after a few months.
I have similar experiences with high end keyboards like the Kinesis advantage and the HHKB2. As much as the internet likes to rave about these keyboards, they just are not for me.
Same. Because the layout is standard it's very easy to get going. An accessory that someone suggested to me that has worked out fantastically has been using yoga blocks to further tent the keyboards to an even better position and to hold them apart.
If you look closely at the pic I'm actually using those as well (along with the palm rests). The tenting legs sort of "set" into the blocks and it's very stable.
They're just standard wedge shaped yoga blocks (lots of options). I use both a mouse to the right and then I have a magic trackpad on what is actually a cell phone stand that's on my left.
Cheap way to go ergo.