Thanks just found https://github.com/algernon/Model01-sketch/blob/master/README.md which looks like a bit of a treasure trove
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I got my M01 today, having received my Ergodox on Friday.
The few days I spent with the Ergodox got me somewhat used to the columnar layout.
So based on a few hours with the M01 and a few days with the EZ, the M01 is in a different league.
Once I’ve spent a bit longer I’ll post something more detailed, but for anyone who hasn’t used a columnar layout before and is choosing between these two things, get an M01.
The best way to summarise the difference? Design. Real, thoughtful, clever design.
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Though I appreciate the Ergodox for being what I see as a “step in the right direction,” it’s always seemed to me to be more of a half-step. I’ve never used one, though, so I’ll be curious to read your thoughts.
I got an Ergodox Infinity from the first Massdrop release of it. I used it for about a year and a half before I got my first M01. I had used a Microsoft Natural Keyboard Elite for about a decade before that, and the Ergodox fit my split keyboard needs. I even have the same Matias quiet click keys on both the M01 and the Ergodox. What I learned is that I like the flexibility of having a programmable keyboard, but the Ergodox left me wanting something more. The Ergodox layout felt a bit confusing to me. The outer 4 keys on each of the thumb clusters were clumsy and hard to reach, and the extra column on the outside left me keeping things like SHIFT on my pinkies instead of moving them to the thumb. The M01 took a bit longer to get used to typing on (about a month, rather than a week with the Ergodox), but the keys and placement feel so much better. I actually have 3 of the M01s now because I like them so much (one at work on my desk, one at home on my desk, and one in the travel case that I take with me if I’m going to be doing a lot of typing out and about).
The M01 is definitely a better feeling keyboard, IMO.
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Your complaints about the Ergodox’s thumb clusters matches my own complaints regarding the Kinesis Advantage.
Nickhandel, I found your comment interesting. I trying to decide between the M01 and Ergodox EZ. Has your oppinion changed over the last 22d since you posed this? It would be greatly appreciated!
Alex, I’m still using the M01 and I still think it’s definitely much the better of the two. However, a few more weeks, I can be a bit more specific. The M01 is a slightly bigger commitment, it’s more different from a normal keyboard.
Sclupting
The sculpting of the M01 commits you to the “touch typing” stance for everything. That may seem like a weird thing to say, but there are times when I’m not intensively typing (e.g. web research, or using the AWS console), where copy/past, tabbing etc. are done with muscle memory on a normal board. You’re not thinking “hold command and hit X” - you just do the thing you know is “cut”, and I’d always use my thumb and index finger (at least, on a Mac keyboard). With the M01, I have to “approach” it as though I were starting to type, and then think “command X”, and use my ring finger.
My EZ is a “glow” with plain (not sculpted) caps, so it’s more like a regular keyboard in this respect - it’s a compromise, for sure, but there are upsides. Now, I think in another three months, when I have my Keyboardio black belt, I may be grateful for this enforced change.
Switches
I got my EZ with Kailh Thick Gold Clicky switches (I work from home) and I absolutely love them. The M01 with the Quiet Click Keys is technically brilliant, but when you’re typing it feels a bit “rattly”. I think it’s to do with the sculpted keys inevitably meaning you don’t push them straight down - and the way the QuietClick’s actuate. You have to remember to force yourself not to push them to the bottom of their travel. They don’t feel as though they’re going to work with that light touch, but when you do it’s a marvel. However, they lack the audible feedback you get from a click, which helps you learn to only push them as hard as you need to.
However, I compared my speed with the two, and guess what - I’m way faster on the M01 - peaked at 117wpm (no caps or punctuation) compared with about 105 on the EZ. For actual typing I reckon it’s got to be the best keyboard ever invented. And it is an invention, not an evolution of someone else’s design.
Key cap printing
I prefer the Ergodox approach to printing on keys - i.e. the non-“letter” keys are blank. Is it US or UK? I say it’s UK and have no OCD angst that it’s a # above the 3 not a £. I’m anally retentive and wouldn’t remap keys if it contradicts what’s printed on them. I’d find that too confusing whilst I’m learning and it would grate. I’d rather have completely blank caps for the left and right most columns on both sides, as well as the thumb clusters, so I don’t feel like I’m “hacking” it if I want to remap things. I’d probably stick 95% with the defaults, since Jesse’s design is so great and the result of months of research and testing, but why print “any” on a key? Or even “prog” for that matter? Same goes for cursor keys. It’s going to take me a very long time to get used to HJKL but my OCD stops me remapping them because it would confuse me too much. Maybe in the end I’ll be faster with the defaults. Maybe it’s a good thing I’m forced (by my own nature, plus the printing) to keep them. But I’d still rather have the option.
Configurator
EZ wins hands down. It just works, and although it’s not “live” like Chrysalis (which is a work in progress), for me that’s not a big deal, and personally I don’t like having to copy the firmware (read-only) layers and set the default to my new one. My OCD doesn’t like having those unused ones sitting there. I have a bit of programming knowledge but am no expert, and I’ll confess to being a bit frustrated by the compromises - use Chrysalis and you have to copy layers, reset the defaults, then you lose the numlock colour change without installing the colormap thing, and even then I couldn’t get it to work and reproduce the default behaviour. The only plugin I want is SpaceCadet, but of course as a plugin it’s more clunky to configure than the Chrysalis version, where every key has a switch for “do something else when held”, which is precisely what I want. As a result I still haven’t managed to set the M01 to include the minor changes I want. Despite valiant efforts in the Wiki and on GitHub it’s just not there “out-of-the-box” as it is with Ergodox, and you have to invest a lot of time figuring out how to do it, as well as choose between manually editing the sketch and going with the Chrysalis work-in-progress - and those two things are incompatible with one another and can’t be combined. I just want to make tiny tweaks to default, print a nice PDF and leave it on my third screen.
Summary
On three occasions over the past few weeks, I’ve got the Ergodox out to use instead because I love the switches so much and I kind of want it to be as good as the M01. I set it up in a way that’s really inspired by the M01’s thumb clusters. I enjoy the clicking, then realise I’m actually slower on it and it’s less comfortable, unplug it and go back to the M01. I also find I’m in no-mans-land muscle-memory wise - half the time I’m still page-downing on the M01 when I want shift, the other half I’m hitting the plastic board on the EZ with my thumb. Need to commit for a few months, and the M01 gets that committment.
I just wish it had blank keys except the actual letters (a la Ergodox), and a simple online configurator that works out of the box. OpenSource is obviously a beautiful, glorious thing, but it does mean you get lots of options and none of them really ready yet. If I were selling the M01 I’d have prioritised getting a simple GUI working that simply creates the map sketch for you, or compiles firmware ready to upload.
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Thank you Nick! It has been difficult to find a good comparison between the two and you just gave me tons of good info, so thanks!
I am switching due to my “emacs pinky” acting up a bit again and the first one I buy will be for the office so I will need silent switches anyways so it sounds like one of the main benefits for Ergodox is negated since I would have to choose the silent red switches anyways.
However the configuration will be more annoying for me since it sounds like I will be configuring the keyboard more than you. Thats one of the things I loved reading about for the Ergodox EZ. However I can see that the tooling is open source and has active development so that is a big plus. If I want something added I might contribute 
Thanks again!
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Sclupting
The sculpting of the M01 commits you to the “touch typing” stance for everything. That may seem like a weird thing to say, but there are times when I’m not intensively typing (e.g. web research, or using the AWS console), where copy/past, tabbing etc. are done with muscle memory on a normal board. You’re not thinking “hold command and hit X” - you just do the thing you know is “cut”, and I’d always use my thumb and index finger (at least, on a Mac keyboard). With the M01, I have to “approach” it as though I were starting to type, and then think “command X”, and use my ring finger.
I mapped fn + c/v/x/z to ctrl + c/v/x/z. Having that extra option helps me in causal situations. And it is not against the printing on the keys.
I really hope for you that you start modding once you get your blank keys. If you are annoyed: fix it. My typing and text editing speed increased vastly from that approach.
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Never thought of doing that - will definitely try it. Thanks!
FWIW, Chrysalis improved a lot in the past two months. We started getting somewhere at the end of November, and we’ve been making huge progress since, and are actively working toward a much better user experience, where you don’t have to care about read-only layers, or copying and whatnot. Run, edit, save, done. That’s the goal. I have a branch that does that, and this will be in the next release, too.
There’s so much more coming to Chrysalis as well… 2019 will be an interesting year. 
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To chime in here as well. While I’ve never used the Ergodox for any extended time, I did do an extensive look into it when I was waiting on my 01. I borrowed a co-worker’s Ergodox for a couple days to try it out, as well as another co-worker’s Kinesis. For me it came down to 3 things:
The thumb and palm keys: I love these things on the 01. It’s very natural to just sweep across them vs trying to move my thumb up to hit the upper 2 rows of thumb keys on both of the others. The convex sculpting of them lend very nicely to this as well. It just seems very thought out. With the palm keys, I had no idea what I was going to think of them, as most other people that look at my keyboard don’t either, however, I seriously can’t stand not having them anymore.
Physical configuration: Not talking about the keys or anything here, that’s next, I’m talking about simply the ways you can set up your keyboard on your desk. The 01 is infinitely more customizable than the Ergodox here. Just look at the threads from people here and how they are using camera stands and custom mounts to pretty much do whatever they want with their keyboards.
Key layout/configuration: Ok, I definitely get it, Ergodox has the win for the GUI programmer, right now… However, as Algernon said, Chrysalis has come a LONG way in the past two months. In fact, the next release is going to bring things a lot closer. As one of the main people contributing to the project, I will definitely say that I think 2019 is going to be a great year for progress in that area. Taking away Chrysalis though, I will still say that while I have been coding for a bit now, I had never touched C++ before this and it has been pretty easy to get going and get things set the way I wanted them for the most part here (and I my layout is pretty drastically different than the defaults). Once we get programming macros into Chrysalis I may be able to move into using it as my sole configurator. As you said, if there’s something you want to see there, we’d very much welcome and help you to make it happen in Chrysalis!
I don’t think you can go wrong with either one, but that’s my $0.02. 
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IMO Chrysalis 0.4 removes the Ergodox advantage of the online configurator. It’s now better than the EZ version (the bottom pane is much more usable than the dropdowns you get with the EZ tool), and it will obviously keep getting better still. The next ask on my list would be to merge the colour editing with the layout editing (one main screen, two tabs below, one for colours, one for key mapping). It would be nice to be able to set a default colour for the entire layer (as you can with ErgoDox) and then be able to override that default key by key.
Macro building might be nice further down the line.
One question - if I were to modify the “num” key function in the first layer, would I lose the default colour behaviour (i.e. the “num” key goes blue and the active keys in layer one go red)?
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We’re thinking about something of this sort. Most of the groundwork is already in, but we need to figure out a good way to present it, without making the UI feel crowded, overloaded or needlessly complex. This also conflicts with another idea, where we’d use colors to mark some special keys (oneshots, modifiers, macros, that kind of stuff).
In short, we agree, but designing an UX that makes sense around this is hard.
This is a good idea. Can you file a GitHub feature request about it?
'tis coming! We need to work on the macro plugin a bit, teach it to store macros in EEPROM too, and then we can build a macro editor into Chrysalis. It’s on the roadmap, likely coming sooner rather than later (but no ETA).
If you have a NumLock key on the first layer, that’ll have the blue breathing effect, no matter where you place it. If you don’t move it, but replace it, then yeah, the effect will be gone.
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We’re thinking about something of this sort. Most of the groundwork is already in, but we need to figure out a good way to present it, without making the UI feel crowded, overloaded or needlessly complex. This also conflicts with another idea, where we’d use colors to mark some special keys (oneshots, modifiers, macros, that kind of stuff).
I raised an enhancement request with some ideas on this. Merge the colour editor with the layout editor · Issue #318 · keyboardio/Chrysalis · GitHub
I changed my mind. Actually, I think a default colour determined by Key Type would be more useful than a default colour per layer. These could show semi-transparently on the key layout and could be overridden by a simple colour picker for each key as an extra row in the pane that pops up at the bottom. “hard” colour assignments could be shown as opaque colours. I also suggested using dog-ear corners to denote modifier types. IMO this is a less important enhancement than the ability to set colours.
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I type for a living and have been using various iterations of Ergodoxes for several years.
I value ergonomic the most, and Keyboardio M101 is simply the better keyboard.
There is much less finger and hand movement than the ergodox.
I’ll get a second M101 when there is a sale near the year end to use at home and to keep as spare.
My complaints about the M101 are the Matias switch is too stiff for my taste. I prefer low force linear switch that allowed me to type faster. So more switch choice would be better. Another thing is I would much prefer PBT instead of ABS keycaps.
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well, I did not know about the m01 unfortunately and I was using the Ergodox for 5 years now. But this thumb cluster definitely is a drawback. Actually the whole lowest row of keys is more or less useless.
Ok… now I also am part of the exclusive club of Model01 owners 
I was using ergodox-ez for 5 years, before I made the transition to the keyboardio, and I can compare them now a bit more detailed. Just a bit about the background:
- I got the Ergodox-EZ with Cherry-MX blue and Gateron Browns at the time. I really loved and still like the Ergodox-EZ. It was mindblowing coming from a more or less standard keyboard at the time.
- One of my Ergodoxes broke and i looked for an alternative. After a ton of research and a ton of reading i decided the Keyboardio was an option - unfortunately they were not really sold anymore so I had to find used ones
- fortunately I found 2, more or less the same configuration I had with my ergodoxes: one load clicky one, one silent tactile (I added silencing ringt to the ergodox, so it was quite similar).
now lets get a bit into detail after about 3 Days of usage:
- the loud click is really loud, definitely not good for office use! I like the clicky sound to it, but it sometimes feels a bit… stiff. And it seems the keys behave differently
- the quiet click is awesome. a lot quieter than my Gateron Browns and really nice to type on. I am actually thinking about exchanging the swiches on my loud model 01, because the typing feels really nice - but that is obviously personal taste
- compared to the Ergodox the keyboardio feels a lot more valueable. The wood makes it something that feels not like a computer accessory.
- The sculpted keycaps give the keyboardio model 01 a really unique look, especially if you decide to use Symbolic Keycaps
- I happen to got a set of white translucen keycaps with my keyboardio (thanks to @TheBaronHimself)
- the Thumb-Cluster is definitely better than the one on the ergodox, all keys can be easily reached by thumb. But I could not get my head around thumb-shifting. fortunately you can reconfigure your keyboard to whatever suits best. So my layout currently is more or less inspired by the one I had on my ergodox (shift on both sides of the keyboard)
- the best thing ever are those palm keys - those are a live changer and really some genios invention. never thought that this really is a useful thing. but it is…
Typing comparison
This is a tough one. I was used to typing on the ergodox for 5 years now, so switching away from it always includes some getting used to. But I am now typing at almost the speed I had before (unfortunately I cannot get past the 90wpm wall - but that is a different story).
Typing on the clicky keyboardio compared to the clicky and loud ergodox is somewhat harder. It feels that the actuation force is highter on the matias switches compared to the ones I have in my ergodox. But that is not necessarily a bad thing. It feels a bit “stiffer” this way, which gives it a real nice feel to it.
Typing on the quiet keyboardio compared to the “quiet” ergodox (gateron browns are not really quiet!) - here the keyboardio model 01 wins by far! the keys feel a lot better - never thought I would ever say that, but Matias has here the better switches.
So where do I like typing the most? Definitely the Mode01! The sculpted keys, the shape, all that feels better than the ergodox. but I tend towards the silent keyboardio.
Clicky or Quiet… tough call. Cannot really tell now. I will switch between keyboards and decide. When I know, I will post something here. I just switched between the keyboards while typing this post. Still cannot tell what feels better, but I think I prefer the quiet ones…
Software
Well, the software… let’s compare them from a software developers view.
As of now, both do have a graphical configurator. And I would say, none of them does have an advantage over the other (now, that ergodox added support for macros).
When I look at the opensource firmware of both keyboards, things get way more interesting. The QMK Firmware used in the ergodox is a very powerful system that enables you to play with a lot of features. But all is built in the same codebase. Which is not a problem, as you do not install all of it on your keyboard. So, when playing with the keyboard you have all at one place. That makes things both easy and complex. It keeps all in sync, but the maintainer have to approve all extensions and changes. this is additional efford.
The plugin mechanism of the keyboardio is way more flexible, when it comes to having the community add new functionality. But this brings also some complexity you need to deal with. If you change your base system, all other plugins need to follow. This is not happening always, as I see it. I tried a couple of 3rd party plugins but never got them to work. But it might also be, that I am just doing something wrong through
Both software could have better support for LED-Features. For example, have effects run on a base color .Compared to the Software of the Razer BlackWidow Chroma (despite the fact that it would not really work on OSX)which is awesome when it comes to led features, both qmk and Kaleidoscope need to add some features.
Especially making use of the colors on different layers would be awesome, like the ColorMap Plugin does, but a bit more.
conclusion
just from the looks, from the features and the feel - the keyboardio is just the better keyboard. Love it - although I only have a couple of days experience. I will post updates, as soon as I got more experience with the keyboardio.
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Model 01 after 3 months
I moved from my Ergodox EZ to Model01 about 3 months ago and I thought, it’s time for an update.
loud vs silent?
That was a journey… The loud switches had a problem with the actuation force, some keys felt stuck sometimes and the main problem was, that the force differs between keys. This actually made typing a lot harder. I tried to lubricate the switches, but it did not fix the problem.
So I switched the keys. This is working, although taking some time. It is not that hard and if you are careful, nothing will break. I did it a couple of times, and the keyboard is still working fine. here you’ll find a thread about that switching.
First I thought, if switching, why not use the red silent linear switches. And I tried… a while.
For me, this was causing more getting used to, than I would like and I did a lot of typos by accidentally hitting a key. So I switched again, back to the silent click ones. And it feels really good. No difference to the one that was directly equipped with those switches.
iterative getting used to
Yes, this is something most people do not like to read about their upcoming keyboard: You have to “learn” your keyboard, and you have to create your custom firmware. Everything else would defy the purpose.
But this will take some time, even for me coming from a similar shaped keyboard. But especially the outer keys of thumb cluster (right side keys on the left half Of the mldel01 and vice versa) needed some getting used to for me. Still not there yet, though.
I could not wrap my head around thumb shift, so I put it on a more “standard” location.
But that is exactly the beauty of it. It’s all about customisation.
Iterating to your “perfect” layout
And this getting used to will happen more often, than you might think. So you have a layout you start with. And you think, it might be useful to put a key somewhere else.
So you end up with some kind of loop:
- get used to the layout
- find out, what might be improved
- change it in firmware
- goto 1
this is never ending, but one iteration will take longer over time. You’d probably start with iteration of days, later is weeks or months.
And then you play with the other cool features, the keyboardio has.
my layout
So, my layout is a mixture of ideas. I tried the default one for a while, but I could not get used to thumb shift and I needed a German Layout with all those fancy umlauts
So, I started with the layout I had at the ergodox and adapted that to the Model01 - but as the Model01 has less keys, it was a bit hard to use.
I have the Shift-Keys on the outer most keys on both halfs, using Qukeys to also have them do + and <, so that it feels a bit like a standard keyboard.
I also have a Hyper and a Meh key, Meh on the left half, Hyper on the right. could actually be the same, because you tend to use only the opposite half of the keyboard when pressing a modifier like Hyper or Meh. So, no real benefit here. This is actually one thing I need to improve my layout on.
The thumb cluster on the left is (inner most key to outer most): Backspace, Delete, Alt, SHIFT-Special-Layer. The Special-Layer is my programmers Layer, that I use for all kinds of braces and such.
The thumb cluster on the right is (inner to outer): Space, Enter, ALT, SHIFT-Special-Layer
The CTRL-Keys are located next to the Shift-Keys also using the QUKey-Plugin, so they are also - and y. The latter one is actually causing some trouble when typing. Often I get a wrong CTRL-Modifier instead of an Y and vice versa. My typing is not consistent there.
Gaming Mode
I do have different modes on my layout, one of which is the Gaming Mode. There I changed some keys to make them more accessible on the left half of the Keyboard. So I changed the left PAlm-Key to do shift - this is awesome in Ego-Shooters!!!
The first thumb cluster key I changed to space, backspace next to it. The outer most key on the lower row is CTRL - easy to reach with the pinky.
And I added some F-Keys there. This is not final yet, but for gaming once in a while it is good enough
XOY-Mode
I was experimenting with alternative layouts also. QWERTZ is not the best layout when it comes to ergonomics. There are a bunch of alternatives, one of those is ADNW which is a variant of NEO. This layout is optimized for German and English Texts. I decided to use the XOY variant.
But as you might have guessed, it was hard for me to get to thumb shifting, “shuffling” the keys around is not easy to get used to. Acutally, I never did. But I like my keyboard to have this layout in order to practice a bit with it…
Well, I will probably never move to XOY, i am just way too slow. I type about 450 characters per minute on QWERTZ - using XOY it drops down to about 50… a long way to go. I am a developer, I am impatient.
Switching between those modes is done using the Magic-Combo Plugin: Hitting both Palm-Rest-Keys and the left most key on the lower row switches to XOY, the rigth most key to Gaming.
Can I get the layout
If you think, this layout or some of those ideas might be useful for you, just have a look here
let there be light
this is one thing that I did not like about the new versions of the Ergodox-EZ - no LEDs for the full keyboard (just for the inner alphanumeric keys). I just did not get it. If the keyboard is fully programmable and I want it that way, I can have it that way… but if I want to give my F-Keys, that might be sitting on the side of the keyboard, some Glow - you just can’t. This is really unnecessary…
But the keyboardio has it all… all keys can be lit individually and I like that a lot.
So with my current layout I switch LED effects when switching layers. So I can see easily, which layer is active right now. This helps a lot while typing. And it also looks very cool
Next stop: change LED layouts depending on the app that is running on your computer. This would make it even better. This is something I did not work on yet, but I hope I will have some time eventually.
The Software
Still, the software is a great example of software engineering and open source. Love the way the devs are part of the community (also as members here).
Although I need to mention, that it is sometimes hard to get proper information from the docs or the Wiki. Sometimes you need to ask the devs directly. Discord is the place to go then.
downsides?
Well, not all is great. Where there is light, there also is shadow. And here it’s the same. I already mentioned, that getting used to the keyboard takes time. Time, that you might not have to invest, if you had another keyboard.
Then there is the number of keys. The Ergodox EZ has a couple of keys more, which is really helpful in some occasions. Sometimes I miss those extra keys. Right now, I have a lot of keys (4) configured with QUKeys to be both a key and a modifier when held. But this works kind of, sometimes I just get the wrong action from the key. This also can be fixed, with some getting used to or just typing slower - wich is not really a solution.
I was a bit disappointed about the clicky keys. Yes, it was discussed even on keyboardios page directly. But this left a stain there. I got it solved, but not everyone is willing or skilled enough to do that.
Transportation is a bit of a problem. The keyboard is quite bulky and not easy to put in your bag. The stands do not make it easier. So a transportation case would be awesome - but its not sold anymore unfortunately. Too bad…
comparing to the Ergodox EZ
The Ergodox-EZ is a great keyboard, very customisable and has a great set of features. So you would not go wrong when buying an EZ - but why, if you can do even better.
Still, my initial verdict stands. I think, the keyboardio model 01 is just the more “premium” one of the two keyboards. The wooden enclosure and the sculpted keys make it feel a lot more valuable.
The typing experience, though it needs some getting used to, is awesome.
It took me a while, but I am at least at the same typing speed, I was before.
But I totally understand that people sell their model01 - not everyone likes the “iteration of improvement” that such a keyboard forces you to follow.
But this is the same for the Ergodox EZ - same same, but different.
so, I think I have found a good tool for the next couple of years. Is it the “Endgame”, that every keyboard nerd is after? Probably not, the endgame is a myth. There will never be a keyboard that fits all your needs and is 100% at everything. Which is, easy to explain - you cannot have ALL keys in the home-row!
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O:)
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