If you’re a real Emacs aficionado then you probably think that the ideal—indeed, the only acceptable—keyboard for Emacs is the Space Cadet Keybord. I’m sympathetic to that view and would love to have such a keyboard available to use. Sadly, that’s not likely to happen so we’re reduced to choosing from one of the actually available keyboards.
They’re all basically the same but there is enough difference to allow one to start with a keyboard that can be customized. Over at the Emacs subreddit, drojd specifies their ideal Emacs keyboard layout. I agree that it’s pretty nice and, indeed, it’s pretty close to what I use on my Mac keyboards.
The main problem1 for us Emacs users is finding a reasonable mapping for HYPER and SUPER. I’ve been through several iterations for these mappings. The problem, for me, is that macOS keeps appropriating the keys I use for those modifiers. Doubtless, other operating systems have similar problems. My current configuration has worked for several years so I’m hopeful that I won’t have to learn new bindings anytime soon.
When I look at the diagram in drojd’s diagram what strikes me is that it’s really only HYPER and SUPER that need to be specified. To be sure, I’d like a Space Cadet keyboard but any modern keyboard will do as long as you can make reasonable mappings for HYPER and SUPER.
One can—just barely—get by without HYPER and SUPER but why would you want to? My main use for them is not for whatever their defaults bindings are but to expand the number of available bindings for my own commands.
Footnotes:
Well, after getting Ctrl into a reasonable position but virtually every Emacs user already remaps Caps Lock to Ctrl.