I used to do the same. Eventually the cable of my TypeMatrix 2030 USB was damaged and I tried to fix it but I didn't know what I was doing back then. I replaced the first one with two new -- one for having at home and one for having at work.
I bought my first TypeMatrix 2030 USB in 2010 and kept using TypeMatrix 2030 USB until december of last year when I bought an ErgoDox EZ Shine with Kailh Thick Gold switches. Completely black with nothing printed on the keys. The ErgoDox EZ keyboards are ortholinear like the TypeMatrix and they have similar keys in the middle but they are split in two and they have legs so you can angle them. Also they are programmable so you can assign your own mapping. My key map is based on Dvorak of course.
The ErgoDox EZ is quite expensive but it has been worth it IMO. Very much so :)
The ErgoDox EZ is a bit more convoluted to travel with and you wouldn't be able to use it without a table but then again I had already stopped carrying my keyboard and laptop most of the time -- I now only bring them if I am going someplace and will be away from home for many days. Laptops aren't that great anyways; short battery life and the screens are too small. I mainly use a stationary computer with dual 24" monitors, 32GB of RAM, an AMD Ryzen 7 1700 CPU and an Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB graphics card.
There are two things that are really nice about having the keyboard be programmable;
1. I can use it with any computer without having to configure layout customization on the computer itself. Just set the keyboard layout of the computer to be US QWERTY if it isn't already (I live in Norway) and I can use my keyboard with the Dvorak based variant that I have defined.
2. It can send different signals based on whether you are tapping or holding a button pressed. Some people remap their caps lock to ctrl, some to esc. Typically people that use emacs will map it to ctrl and vim users will map it to esc. I use vim but I think having ctrl in that position is nice as well, so I have the button in that position configured so that it sends esc if I tap it and it sends ctrl if I press and hold.
I bought my first TypeMatrix 2030 USB in 2010 and kept using TypeMatrix 2030 USB until december of last year when I bought an ErgoDox EZ Shine with Kailh Thick Gold switches. Completely black with nothing printed on the keys. The ErgoDox EZ keyboards are ortholinear like the TypeMatrix and they have similar keys in the middle but they are split in two and they have legs so you can angle them. Also they are programmable so you can assign your own mapping. My key map is based on Dvorak of course.
The ErgoDox EZ is quite expensive but it has been worth it IMO. Very much so :)
The ErgoDox EZ is a bit more convoluted to travel with and you wouldn't be able to use it without a table but then again I had already stopped carrying my keyboard and laptop most of the time -- I now only bring them if I am going someplace and will be away from home for many days. Laptops aren't that great anyways; short battery life and the screens are too small. I mainly use a stationary computer with dual 24" monitors, 32GB of RAM, an AMD Ryzen 7 1700 CPU and an Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB graphics card.
Here is the ErgoDox EZ website: https://ergodox-ez.com/
Here is the layout I created for my keyboard using their online tool: https://configure.ergodox-ez.com/keyboard_layouts/qppwjy/edi...
There are two things that are really nice about having the keyboard be programmable;
1. I can use it with any computer without having to configure layout customization on the computer itself. Just set the keyboard layout of the computer to be US QWERTY if it isn't already (I live in Norway) and I can use my keyboard with the Dvorak based variant that I have defined.
2. It can send different signals based on whether you are tapping or holding a button pressed. Some people remap their caps lock to ctrl, some to esc. Typically people that use emacs will map it to ctrl and vim users will map it to esc. I use vim but I think having ctrl in that position is nice as well, so I have the button in that position configured so that it sends esc if I tap it and it sends ctrl if I press and hold.
Here is a photo of my room that I took just a couple of days ago: https://i.imgur.com/NcqDL9N.jpg