Would have been easier to do (and I would have preferred) blank caps. 
not that I would buy this monstrosity anyway.
It is proudly made in the USA by the System76 crew in Denver.
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Just FYI to anyone who is still interested in this keyboard. ShortCircuit made a video on it.
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It looks like they limited the keycaps to 1u, 1.5u, and 2u in order to make them as interchangeable as possible (without going overboard, like one of the all-1u configurations). The point seems to be customizability: not with aftermarket keycaps, in the way that keyboard enthusiasts think of it, but out of the box customizability.
You can swap your ctrl and caps lock without any fuss, for example, because they’re the same size and XDA profile. The board also comes with a bunch of replacement keycaps, so you could replace your backspace with an extra esc key if you wanted to, for some reason. Like a crazy person.
I do agree that they could (should) have taken advantage of the space at the top of the board to separate the F row a little, but the focus of this design is apparently not aesthetics.
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I have no Idea whether the things they do outside the keyboard community are good or not, however, it can be clearly seen from the issues of this project, that people that do not know how to keyboard should not just jump in and start designing and selling boards.
Stay around for a while, try to learn first, then make a keyboard.
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Unpopular opinion, but I can actually see a value for this keyboard
- The footprint of the keyboard is considerably small for a 75% (30.9cm in length, while typical 60% is 29cm in length)
- The bevy of USB ports is very useful for people whose machines/terminals don’t have easily accessible USB ports
- The shrunk-down modifier keys are more reminiscent of laptop keyboards. For typing and coding purposes, the size of the alphas are much more important (being kept at 1u)
- The bottom row modifiers are a little reminiscent of the JP layout to me, could be useful, Plus the arrow blocker is a rather thoughtful consideration
- The keycaps are an enthusiasts’ nightmare, but for someone without any intention to buy aftermarket keycaps, I think this is rather appealing. Plus they’ve packaged a number of extra keycaps
- The all-metal construction of the case is still something nice
Is this board overpriced? Absolutely. But is it hot garbage, I don’t fully think so. If they’d drop the price to the $150-175 range, I think it would’ve been more popular for their target audience
Everything said, I think the target audience of this keyboard would be better off looking at the Vortex Race 3. It has all the desired features (hardware programmability over QMK, but I think the geeky target audience can figure their way around).
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I worked on this keyboard. This response may be negative in tone, but consider that it just matches the hate being thrown around here for a design that we spent a long time working on, and that if you don’t like, you could just not buy it and move on!
Most of the complaints I see center around the layout and the price.
Layout
The layout is specifically designed to minimize changes from the standard layout while introducing several impactful changes that show up on literally no other keyboards. Some mistake this for a lack of research when the exact opposite is true. We experimented heavily with common layouts, including ortholinear, split ortholinear, and staggered. We experimented with the “standard” key sizes, where the left side would line up perfectly, but would also use 1.25, 1.75, and 2.25 size keys. After a ton of prototypes, we arrived at this layout. Our first task was to reduce the number of key sizes, to maximize where keys could be swapped. This led to the left side and right side being uneven, but in a way I think looks good once you actually use the keyboard. We also split the spacebar, to allow both side to be mapped independently, and allow the caps to be swapped with anything else that has a 2U cap. We include tons of extras to ensure most keys can be put most anywhere. Keep in mind, that while enthusiasts don’t care if caps are blank, most users do. This is a keyboard we want any of our customers to be able to use.
Electrical Design
Some absolute idiot suggested we have 5 USB ports as though it was a dumb idea. We do, but one is for connecting to the PC. So we have two USB-A and two USB-C ports on each side of that central connector to the PC, it is balanced and even and sensible. To have a 4-port 10Gbps USB hub inside a keyboard, certain things have to be done with the electrical layout. Trying to make it “pretty” is a mistake. Our layout is designed to maximize the USB lane integrity, critical for any high speed design. The switches themselves operate at extremely low frequency compared. We are talking 10 GHz compared to 1 KHz, several orders of magnitude lower. So, the switch and LED lines are moved around to make substantial room for ground planes and the important USB lines. It was not auto-routed AT ALL, this was done by hand with a careful consideration for high speed design requirements.
Price
Sure, you can have a 75% for less. With a metal chassis, good caps, and good switches you are approaching the Launch price. Throw in an integrated 4-port 10Gbps USB hub, and you won’t find anything else available. Make it not integrated, and you still end up around the price we have for this keyboard. Our costs and profit margins are well researched and match those of other keyboards. If anything, we are in a position to outperform them on price in the future, as we have seen incredible demand for this product from our customers.
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Prickly much? This is like a lesson on how not to respond to critics of your products 
Wouldn’t every maker love it if anyone who though their product was hideous just kept it to themselves?
I’m glad you like your creation and that people are buying it. I maintain that it is hideous.
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This is like a lesson…
If that’s the case then I’m not sure what this is teaching. This thread was just a bunch of wild speculation about design decisions, it’s certainly nice to have someone come and give actual answers.
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You aren’t a critic, you would never buy it in the first place and are only here to have a few laughs. I’m responding with the same tone your previous comments were in. Perhaps that was going to far, but at least you know work was actually done on this keyboard, and the things you are complaining about were researched and intentional. Whether you like it or not, really doesn’t affect me much.
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It affects you enough to create an account on a platform you don’t use. I think that says enough about you… lol
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Well said bud. Who is this guy?
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@Suds I agree it is nice to hear from a designer of the thing. All designs have rationale behind them, it doesn’t make them immune from being the topic of some light hearted comedy. Ask Microsoft… or whoever invited the puck mouse for the OG iMac.
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He is probably a nice kid, all creators are sensitive about their babies. He replied directly to my comment so the forum shared his real name with me, but it is not worth the doxxing, nor do I find such behavior to be polite. As he said he is involved with System76 and had some input to the design of this keyboard.
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Hmmm. He starts off trying to rip our heads off …
but then he does the exact same thing to this guy. 
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Jeremy Soller, my name is public info. I am the Principal Engineer at System76, and “some” input is quite the understatement. I’m not a “nice kid.” Comparing this keyboard to the puck mouse is ludicrous. So far, we have yet to have complaints about the layout from anyone who got the keyboard, including reviewers who got it for free, except for the occasional “please add a numpad.” Mostly it has been, “great keyboard, but pricy.” All I want to do is oppose the myths about the design here, before they spread into other forums I actually do care about. It is easy to point out flaws in something from behind an anonymous nick, hard to try to rationalize decisions with no anonymity.
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Go away.
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Gladly
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Everyone, please act civilized.
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5 USB ports. Non-standard keycap sizes. Visually unbalanced. These are all rational criticisms and resulted in some laughs.
It is okay for people to laugh about it. It is okay for people to love it if they do.
Homer Simpson put a lot of thought into a car design once (really showing my age with this reference).
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