I’ve always been really particular about the equipment that I use. I get pretty nit-picky about my development environment as well. Lately, I’ve spent a good amount of time making my office a place that I can feel free to be creative and inventive. Part of that was making a desk. Another part of that was changing my peripheral setup. Hence, a new Retro Peripheral Setup.
I was sort of forced to change my peripherals. I’ve switched over to using Ubuntu as my desktop. I’ve been using OSX for the last 13 years. I was using Apple’s full size bluetooth keyboard and Magic Trackpad. They’re excellent products on OSX. On Linux however, they are not.
So, I did a ton of research into what would work well on a machine running the 5.7 version of the Linux kernel. Mechanical keyboards became the clear solution for me, so picked up an excellent mechanical keyboard.. The mouse is the latest iteration of the mouse I was using over 13 years ago. It feels like coming home.
The Keyboard
I picked up the Durgod Taurus K320 TKL Mechanical Keyboard from HK Keyboards on Amazon. After an exhaustive inventory of how I actually use a keyboard, I came to the conclusion that a TKL type keyboard is the minimum layout that I can use. This one has the Cherry Black switches and PBT keycaps. It’s a little clicky, but not terribly so. Typing requires effort, but not too much.
I also got some fancy K9 PBT red keycaps from Velocifire US on Amazon. They help create the vibe I was going for.
The Mouse
Logitech’s MX Master 3 is the latest evolution of wireless mice in a long series of product innovation. They really know what they’re doing here. They’ve had the best product for almost 2 decades now. I am absolutely in love with this mouse.
The scroll wheel on this has 2 modes. One is a more tactile feel. Scrolling feels mechanical. The second mode is smooth. I like both, to be honest. A heft push of the scroll will moves screen content very fast.
Extras
I’ve been using the Cowin E7 Bluetooth headphones for a while now. They’re good sound quality and the batteries last a long time on a single charge. I picked up 17×36 deskpad that should arrive today. It’s white, helping to further the theme.
