# US International keyboard layout

5 Hacker News commenters recommended US International keyboard layout and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Lets you write code and many natural languages on a QWERTY keyboard, with dead keys for accents. Main caveat: it can clash with keyboard shortcuts.

## Why people recommend it

- Works for code and natural languages (1 comments): "It's the only relatively sane option that allows me to write both code and all the natural languages" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46416615))
- Consistent key-plus-letter combinations (1 comments): "all combinations are sensible (i.e. key for the symbol + key for the letter)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46417347))
- Favored as a Linux layout (1 comments): "My favorite Linux layout was US International + AltGr dead keys." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46303921))
- Suggested for writing non-English languages (1 comments): "United States – International might be what you're looking for." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50018238))

## What people warn about

- Clashes with keyboard shortcuts (1 comments): "horrible from a keyboard shortcut point of view. I personally had to disable the feature" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46419531))
- Settings seen as poorly designed (1 comments): "The US international keyboard settings suck." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48709975))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Dvorak keyboard layout](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dvorak-keyboard-layout.md): 11 recommend
- [Colemak keyboard layout](https://hackerapproved.com/p/colemak-keyboard-layout.md): 7 recommend
- [EurKEY keyboard layout](https://hackerapproved.com/p/eurkey-keyboard-layout.md): 7 recommend
- [Clearflow keyboard layout](https://hackerapproved.com/p/clearflow-keyboard-layout.md): 6 recommend
- [Engram keyboard layout](https://hackerapproved.com/p/engram-keyboard-layout.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "US International keyboard layout", https://hackerapproved.com/p/us-international-keyboard-layout/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).