I hear this recommendation a lot. You can do that, but much better is to get a keyboard with a proper thumb cluster like a kinesis[1], maltron[2], dactyl[3], ...
Much better to put such a common key on the thumb than stress out a pinky. I have a kinesis, and have esc mapped to the 'end' key there; similar positioning is possible on other keyboards. The keyboards I linked are also much more ergonomic than most flat keyboards—important, if you rely on your hands and wrists for your livelihood. Bit expensive, but well worth it.
Several years ago I finally developed RSI. It took nearly a year of different setups and exercises to figure out what would work. The cause of RSI for me was a well known ergo keyboard. I had been using it for nearly a year before the pain/numbness started in my hands. I went back to standard slab keyboards, and every time I use a ergo keyboard the issues flare up again.
So, while I like the style of those keyboards, I can't justify spending that much if I am likely to develop RSI again.
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I'm one of those weirdo's that has remapped caps to Lctrl/esc, tab to hyper/tab, \| to alt/\|, return to Rctl/enter. It's comfortable. (Ralt is now Compose/Dead Greek and Rctrl is Caps Lock)
I would love more buttons to the left of the keyboard. I currently use a 10-keyless but would love a cluster of 10-15 keys to the left of my left hand. and possibly 6 keys under the thumb area. And a real dedicated hyper key. Maybe another row of F-Keys too...
For me it was enough to just remap my right Alt to Ctrl. No need for expensive hardware which I can't bring with me everywhere. The ThinkPad keyboard is good enough.
I hear this recommendation a lot. You can do that, but much better is to get a keyboard with a proper thumb cluster like a kinesis[1], maltron[2], dactyl[3], ...
Much better to put such a common key on the thumb than stress out a pinky. I have a kinesis, and have esc mapped to the 'end' key there; similar positioning is possible on other keyboards. The keyboards I linked are also much more ergonomic than most flat keyboards—important, if you rely on your hands and wrists for your livelihood. Bit expensive, but well worth it.
1. https://kinesis-ergo.com/shop/advantage2/
2. https://www.maltron.com/
3. https://github.com/adereth/dactyl-keyboard