Akito on Nostr: Funny that you ask, because I wanted to post about it already, anyway. Many years ...

Funny that you ask, because I wanted to post about it already, anyway.

Many years ago, I was a happy owner of a smartphone with an actual physical keyboard. Was the best thing ever. Not a #Blackberry, btw.

Since then, it was apparently "cool" to not ever offer physical keyboards again, but do everything via touch, even if touch was still unreliable back then.

Nowadays, touch has become pretty sophisticated & reliable, but I still don't like how imprecise it is.

I tried a lot of #FLOSS keyboards from #F-Droid, but they are all pretty extremely shitty & I still cannot understand how people are using them. It's too hard to type on them & their predictions are laughable at best.

For example, their touch detection, especially when long pressing keys for symbols, is so off & difficult to tweak.

The worst thing about those keyboards is that they all SUCK ASS when it comes to the usage of different languages. I type in 3 to 5 different languages & if those #Keyboard's even understand the concept of a non-English language, you always have to explicitly switch to that language, rather than being able to type most languages on the same layout & have simultaneous predictions for several languages, all in one.

These are some of the reasons I got used to using a specific proprietary keyboard over too many years, which I block with my #Firewall, so it cannot call home, at all.
Its predictions are amazing & even allows writing some words you are not sure of, because the predictions will lead the way to the correct spelling etc. Unlike your usual #FOSS keyboard, where you are using some stone age thing.

However, even this keyboard isn't ideal, because it's still not great to type on & easy to mistype.
Predictions & #AutoCorrect actually make things worse when you use custom words, because it wants to correct a word that is already fine, but just unknown.
Obviously, it being extremely proprietary, made by a #TooBigToFail #BigTech corporation is also a huuge no-no.

Now, the best part & the moral of the story.

Recently, I found a #FLOSS keyboard app on #F-Droid which finally gives hope. Is it finally an #OpenSource keyboard on #Android, which does not suck ass?

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.dessalines.thumbkey/

It is explicitly designed to be super fast & easy to type on & so far, I can only confirm that claim.

The only downside for many users is the learning curve. This post was partially written with this & partially with the old one, because I'm still pretty slow with this one & need to practice more.

The other problem is language support. It is designed & optimised for English, nothing more, nothing less.

However, so far it seems to be very great & once you type often enough, all this will get into your muscle memory & you will be able to type without any mistouches whatsoever & you will forget something like predictions exist, because it's so simple & easy to just manually type out all words.

It also may remind you of good old #CellPhone's, which you could wash in your washing machine & they would still work afterwards.

#FreeSoftware #Freedom #GPL #GitHub #TechSupport #Technology #FreeAlternative #Amethyst #ThumbKey #Smartphone #Phone #FuckGoogle #FuckMicrosoft #Degoogle #Privacy #Security #Spyware #Infringement #FuckUSA