No problem! Hope you find the right 40% for you!
You can also join the 40% discord server, there's loads of people there more knowledgeable than me. https://discord.gg/40percent
My vote goes for the mercutio. It's designed to be base kit compatible if you're not splitting any keys, and it's otherwise super comfy and easy to transition to. Caveat is that it's a soldered kit, but it's a very easy kit to learn on (and if the usb-c pins are intimidating, you can have it soldered on for you)
If you are interested in ortholinear, Drop just got the Planck rev. 7 in and it's on sale right now for $99. You'd still need switches and keycaps but it's hotswap and QMK ready and even comes with encoder support.
Glad to help. It was my entry into 40% and I used it as my daily driver for a good 2 years. It's a good board to play around with QMK as well.
Keep in mind that there is a bit of an adjustment period when going from row stagger to ortho. I like to tell people that depending on how you touch type, ortho does a good job of pointing out your bad habits. You find out that you probably hit sone keys with the wrong fingers but its nothing a few days of typing practice can't fix.
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SimplyJosho t1_j7yne5h wrote
Cbkbd has the Qaz PCB, and Keebio has the Levinson which is a 40% split Ortho PCB. I've tried both and they're both are very good options.