Razer BlackWidow, Other Products On Linux?

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Razer BlackWidow, Other Products On Linux?

The Razer BlackWidow is an incredibly well constructed mechanical keyboard, but how well does it work under Linux? Has the Razer product support at Linux improved at all recently?..

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTAzNzA

[simcop2387]

I've got one of these also, I've seen it in xev that the macro buttons on the left should work fine for doing shortcuts as long as they're bound to a key name with xmodmap. I've not done this yet but I've done it with some other non-standard "media keyboards". As far as the media keys on this keyboard goes they are accessible via the "fn" button but they worked out of the box for me.

[GreatEmerald]

I have an Arctosa keyboard, and yes, media keys (play/stop/next/volume) work fine out of the box, although the Razer key doesn't do anything (what was it supposed to do on Windows, anyway?). And there are no more extra keys here.

Also, funny how they call it the BlackWidow... Their keyboards are all named after spiders, but they already had Lycosa, which is the Latin term for Black Widow :P Someone obviously didn't do the research.

[Azpegath]

I have a TypeMatrix 2030 (USB) and it works well under Linux. Gnome/Xorg even has layout files for both USB and PS/2 versions. All of the media keys works as well! I'd like to see a review of it here soon Michael =)
But you have to give it two weeks of adjustment time before writing the review, it's quite a painful transition period... The keyboard even forces you to touch-type correctly.

[bug77]

I have switched to slim keyboards a while ago. I will not look back at full-height keys again.

[Azpegath]

I have switched to slim keyboards a while ago. I will not look back at full-height keys again.

I concur. .

[rohcQaH]

My speedlink-mouse has the advantage of being programmable in hardware. I can configure the mouse as I like with a windows-tool, and from then on the shortcuts will work anywhere (windows, linux, bios, different computer..), since the mouse directly sends the configured keystrokes when pressing a button. Combined with the ability to switch profiles directly on the mouse, that's pretty handy (or it would be pretty handy, if I actually had a need for macro-workarounds in linux).

Aren't there any keyboards with similar features? It may be a bit more expensive to implement, but it should be easy to market to gamers that like visiting LAN-parties or playing at different computers.

[dlang]

I tried this keyboard as well and returned it.

the ability to do on-the-fly macros would have been very nice, but lacking that, this is just a good, but plain, keyboard. I can get good, plain keyboards from http://pckeyboards.stores.yahoo.net/ plus they have options that include a trackball as well.

[Sylarr]

I have switched to slim keyboards a while ago. I will not look back at full-height keys again.

I have thought the same after switching to slim keyboards (Logitech UltraX). That was until I bought a (Filco) mechanical keyboard, now I am never going back to rubber dome keyboards.

Worth a try if you ever get a chance!

[89c51]

I have a TypeMatrix 2030 (USB) and it works well under Linux. Gnome/Xorg even has layout files for both USB and PS/2 versions. All of the media keys works as well! I'd like to see a review of it here soon Michael =)
But you have to give it two weeks of adjustment time before writing the review, it's quite a painful transition period... The keyboard even forces you to touch-type correctly.

it looks interesting


could you write a few things more about it? ie quality advantages over normal ones etc