what's "large" and what's "cheap"?

If the internet is gone I have no need for a Linux box.

Linux isn't dependent on the internet FYI. It doesn't send telemetrics data to Microsoft for example.

If you're going to print something, just buy a book. It's much cheaper and you don't have to deal with the carcinogenic effects from the printing.

Online guides are often poorly written.

You can do it in launch.json.

Exactly, what a god-for-saken horrid solution! I'm all for JSON configuration for really low-down dirty stuff, but for something as simple as this? Eugh, no! Refactoring in Pycharm is fine as far as I can tell, never had any issues with it.

VSCode/ium is fine for single-file python or other such simple stuff, but not for big projects and was an instant deal breaker for me. I hated pycharm when I first started using it, but as I get more used to it, it's way more usable and has some nice little features, so I'll stick with it for now.

I get VSCode from a product marketing point of view and understand why it was created, but I wish it wasn't. One size fits all never works out in the long-term

case of a model M

I'm absolutely confused as to why not other manufacturer has adopted a little lip at the top of the keyboard above either the number or F keys to rest a pen. It was made in the days when scientists had their pen in one hand, log book on the desk and keyboard in the other hand. A place to rest the pen was necessary. It's 'still important today!

Of course there are going to be passages to skip as with any technical reference.

thoughts on kinesis advantage?

It sounds beautiful! It'd be really nice if there were transparent rubber keypads available that could be put over phone screens. Then you could fashion an old phone as a keyboard with infinite layers. A simple flutter app to set up the shortcuts and make them configurable and badda boom!

Exactly! The old books cover the terminal commands really well and almost everything will still apply. If you read it cover to cover, you're going to end up knowing more commands than most daily users of Linux and it'd help you with any networking / IT courses you intend to study.

Edit: The post asked about how I feel about the size. My opinion is that I wish it had 1 (ideally 2) more vertical sets of keys because that would allow me to use my thumb for button pressing too. But overall I’m happy and I think it’s my only real problem with it.

Check aliexpress. You're going to find things that excite you including a kb that's very similar

EDIT: I thought I'd go searching, some ideas:

• https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007032783471.html
• https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008256166426.html
• https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007032783471.html
• https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006814738256.html - an extra row. Sure it'll take another USB port but you could stick them together!

Why do you think you got it for free ;)

Using VSC, it's so painful to code in python. Pycharm is starting to come along nicely.