CharlotteShma writes "Some old writer once said that in order to keep going, he needed to hear the scratch of the pen on the page. Some self-proclaimed keyboard aficionados would make the same argument for computer keyboards. Is it possible that the old 'clicky' keyboards are making a comeback? Now that we've replaced the old buckling springs with rubber domes, our keyboards are only getting quieter and quieter. According to the people at Unicomp Inc., all keyboards made since the early 1990s are, frankly, no good. They still use and produce vintage IBM Model M keyboards in their small factory in Lexington, Kentucky. The IBM Model M keyboards are ugly, built like tanks, and, most importantly, have a spring under each key which clicks when you press it." Not sure what's ugly about them — most other keyboards are ugly, when you shut your eyes.
You young whippersnappers and your Selectrics! When I was your age, my 'laptop' was a 40-pound Remington on which I could only type 45 words per minute without jamming the hammers. My 42 nano-baud 'modem' was an envelope and a stamp which the mailman walked uphill through eight feet of snow to deliver.
But boy oh boy, that keyboard had sound! You always knew when everyone in the office was typing up a storm; you had to shout a conversation, which cut down on unnecessary chit-chat. And you couldn't be a lightweight either. Five days a week on a Remington gave us all forearms like Popeye and a grip that would make a longshoreman wince.
So get yer new-fangled Selectric offa my lawn, kiddies!
I have a Model M on my office desk, and one here at home -- S/N 3111818, dated Jul 87.
They're nice to type on -- I type much more faster and more accurately on one than on any other type of keyboard -- and they're also handy if someone breaks into your house. They deflect bullets up to a.38, and you can commit homicide with one, if necessary.
I was over at a friend's house and he had one of these newfangled keyboards, and I gotta say I was impressed. Much nicer to have that info there than cluttering up screen real estate.
Newfangled? I used to have an Apricot computer (which shipped with Windows 1.04) which had a small LCD (40 columns, 2 lines) on the keyboard and ran a calculator, a notes program, and a few other things. The notes program, as I recall, allowed you to store notes in the keyboard and then send them as a stream of characters to the currently-running program. I can't remember the exact specs of the computer, but I'm fairly sure it was an 8086 with no hard drive and probably no more than 640KB of RAM. Certainly not what you'd call 'modern'.
Just take some of those cardboard trays that hold 144 eggs and glue them to the ceiling (covered in felt). That will work as a sound insulator and your mother will be able to sleep much more soundly.
>>>don't know whether it's the audible feedback, or the mechanical feedback,
The only noise I need is my television in the background. I don't need mechanical feedback but simply watch the text flow across the screen. Perhaps it's because I grew up with a Commodore 128 and Amiga 500 with their relatively-quiet keyboards, and therefore I don't feel the need for noise.
In fact, noise is annoying - reminds me of my old manual typewriter. Ick.
I have my Unicomp and I love it. There's nothing that gives you the same feedback in the fingertips as you type as a nice clicky board. My wife, on the other hand, hates it because - the bedroom is next to my office, and she can hear me at all hours of the night typing away. But... totally worth it.
As a bonus, I honestly feel that I get less cramping and fatigue when I'm typing happily on this rather than the crap you get most times today. Not sure if there's anything to back that up with, but I graduated from a Microsoft ergo keyboard to this and I'm far happier now.
I have a Unicomp as well. There is nothing like it. They also make a quiet version, which has the same curved keyboard typing area and all the keys in the right places, but doesn't make the ka-klang when typing. This is good for when you don't have an office or have kids next door at home.
My typing WPM goes way up on the ka-klang style Type M clones because the feedback is exacting, there is a pressure-release feel when the button is actuated and a sound for feedback.
I'm not saying cheap Chicony style or freebie Dell style are horrible, but the ka-klanging boards and that layout for keys seem optimal and if you happen to have very large hands, the pitch between keys is ideal for a lot more than the dainty handed typers.
For the longest time I was loyal to IBM for Thinkpads largely due to the adherence to a proper properly pitched keyboard with proper tactile feedback.
Also, IBM made a "compacted" Type M. It was black, has all the nice features but has a much smaller footprint. I think I have the FRU somewhere.
IBM Black compact 104 clickey with curvature: FRU 37L0814 FCC ID: E8HKB-5323 MODEL: KB-3923
Dell also gave for some time with the Dell 1550 machines and machines from that era a ka-klanger keyboard that was excellent. Its much larger like the Type M, its black and it ka-klangs.
Anyway.. there is definately something about feeling, but it's only really about what you are used to. I prefer a fujitsu 8725, a modern cheap-ass keyboard to more exensive ones, simply because I am used to it.
I was wondering that too. What do you have to do for that kind of advertising? Actually, it was NRP who did it first, but still, either they dumb lucked into a lot of advertising, or they paid some decent money to advertise that they make ancient keyboards.
They've been making keyboards quieter because they used to be very loud and hard on your fingers. Then again, I learned to type on a mechanical typewriter, so for the first several years that I used PC's, I pounded on the keys, and went through a keyboard about every 6 months. If I start typing really fast (I'm usually somewhere just above 100wpm), I start pounding like I'm on the mechanical typewriter again. People usually laugh at me, and then I have to stop and ask why they're laughing.
Lately, I've been nice to my keyboards. The lettering wears off before the keyboard fails. Who needs lettering anyways? I've thrown a few away because the alignment marks on "F" and "J" have worn off. It's hard to touch type with a mouse, when you have to look to realign.:)
I'm sorry, but that argument makes no sense. That's like saying why would someone complain about spending $69 dollars on a cup of starbucks (I know, what are you doing at starbucks, you should be at dunkin donuts). Just because it's not out of monetary range for most people does not mean that it isn't overpriced as hell.
it's not over priced at all. that $5 keyboard is wired up as a sheet of plastic with conductive paint running circuits and contacts and a rubber sheet with conductive rubber pads to complete the contacts when pressed, plus a cheap plastic key and a frame.
a unicomp model M has over 100 individual spring switches and every key is actually a separate key and removable key cap. the board inside is an actual circuit board and the chassis design keeps spilled liquid off the board and allows it to run out the bottom through channels.
so it's more like complaining that a cup of gourmet coffee is $8 when you could scoop parasite infested water from a drainage ditch for free.
Good to here. I was trained as a touch typist, and quiet keyboards have screwed with my accuracy. I know I had an ancient IBM keyboard with the heavier, clicking keys and after a few attempts, I managed to get upwards of about 70wpm (in high school, I topped 80 a few times). On the newer keyboards I think I get stuck around 60wpm, mainly because errors count against you, and old-fashioned typing is as much about *hearing* mistakes as feeling them.
I think QWERTY screwed up our typing more than lack of clicking. You and I type about the same (70wpm) but the errors you and I experience would probably be reduced had we learned a layout made with our fingers and language in mind, such as Dvorak [wikipedia.org].
But it's not his fault. The evil capitalist bastards put the bastard keys in the wrong place to ensure the net bastard present value of their evil future profit bastard streams. The evil bastardingly evil doing bastards!
The keyboard I use weighs nearly five pounds. It has a great action and I can type for hours without tiring. When it eventually quits working I have several more waiting to replace it.
No, you can't have one . . . . . . . for any price.
By a coincidence, I just received a new keyboard from them on Monday. It feels much like the IBM Model M I'm typing this on now, but the keys feel 'looser' - there is a little more back and forth wobble on the new Customizer keyboard from Unicomp than there is on my Model M. Too soon to tell yet whether I will find it distracting or not; the new keyboard is on my game machine at home and I don't use it as often as my I use my work machines.
A mechanism to absorb the energy exerted on the keystroke.
Without that the energy ends up being dissipated in the muscles, tendons, and (especially) joints of the hand.
This is one of the factors leading to repetitive stress injuries and perhaps also accelerates arthritis.
I'd like to see a keyboard design that "catches" the key after it's pressed far enough to be detected as a "press" and consumes the energy.
If it does it by making a sound (especially if the sound has a one-to-one correspondence with the detection of the keystroke) it also provides feedback. All the better for typing accuracy.
Ah, in that case, you probably want a Topre Realforce. It uses a rubber dome for cushioning the blow when bottoming out.
But, ideally, you won't bottom out at all. A good mechanical keyboard will give you at least tactile feedback at the point of actuation, allowing you to begin releasing the key right then.
But the tactile feedback of buckling springs is absolutely perfect. Also the nigh-invulnerability, the beverage-spill-drainage holes on later models, the resistance to stickage even after spills, the removable/cleanable keycaps, the correctly shaped enter key, lack of extraneous doo-dads, pretty much everything about them./hugs my Model M. Seriously, I really just did, because I love it so much. I also have one at home that I love. And they don't even mind, because Model Ms are secure in themselves and not prone to jealousy.
I have a Das Keyboard [daskeyboard.com], based on the original Model-M design. Definitely recommended if you're sick of typing into a soggy sponge.
There is something incredibly satisfying about solving a particularly complex problem, and hitting "enter" for a crunchy click. No other keyboard satisfies my lust for tactility the way this one does.
Cherry, actually, and the Cherry design is nothing like the Alps design.
But, the Das III has some nasty, nasty quality issues. Myself, I use a ($50 new) Ione Scorpius M10, which has the exact same switches as the Das II and III. It has nasty quality issues, too, but they're not as bad as the ones on the Das III, and apparently not as frequent. And the board is $80 cheaper.
I am still using an IBM model M keyboard made in 1985. It doesn't have the Windows key, which is one more reason for me to like it.
You cannot beat the touch of a model M, and the tactile feedback helps me limit the number of fat-finger typos.
One downside of a model M is that the clicky noise might annoy coworkers in open space offices. But I have few complains. Complains are generally going like this:
Cow orker: "Eric, your keyboard is sure loud". Me; "Yup." Cow orker: 'Err..." Me: "Heavy too. All metal. Feel this." Cow orker: "Wow. At least three pounds". Me: "Almost five, actually. And reliable, too. You can wield it as a baseball bat, whack someone's head, clean up the brain bits from the bottom, and it's still good for years of service." Cow orker: (Gulps, retreat hurriedly.)
In the 90s, I got used to typing on an NMB mechanical keyboard. Back then, clicky was taken for granted, and "quiet" keyboards were the unusual ones. And then one day, it finally broke and started typing gibberish...
Over the course of many years, I went through a bunch of the sucky membrane keyboards, always buying the least-bad one I could find, but my typing speed and accuracy were never as good as when I was on my old NMB. I just recently came across one, and snagged it, and it's really eye opening how much more pleasant it is to type on this one. The sound is satisfying, a light click instead of the Model M "chunk", but it's the touch that really matters. There's a subtle resistance, and then falling away just as the key makes contact, and then a hesitation and snap loose when it breaks.
I never did get into the Model M (now Unicomp) craze. They're too loud, and the spring pressure is way too high. The NMB mechanism is very light, but very tactile. My fingers feel like they're just brushing over the keys, instead off banging on them.
The only thing I don't like about this one is that the \ is in the wrong place, to the left of the backspace instead of under it. I'd be in heaven if I could find a keyboard with similar touch and an IBM-standard layout. Anyone know of one? Das Keyboard III is looking like a likely contender, but I'm reluctant to drop that kind of money without being able to test drive it first.
Remapping won't fix this. This is the kind of deformed keyboard where the enter key is an L shape extending to where the \ should be, and the backspace is only a standard width key, instead of a double-wide.
Unless your remapping software is way cooler than mine is...:)
I'd been looking for an adapter to use an old IBM keyboard with my Mac. I'd never liked "squishy" keyboards, or ones with short key travel, and Apple keyboards seem to get squishier and shorter as time goes by. Then I found the Unicomp. My fingers are happy now.
The only downside is that you need to do a little prefs-setting and key swapping to put the option and command keys in the right place, but that's no big deal.
It's a geek badge of honor. I own a few and I love them like my children (okay not really, maybe like my pets) but part of that comes from the effort I put in to scrounge them and clean them up myself. I do like the feel of typing on a Model M but what I love is the feeling of gravitas (figuratively and literally, it's really heavy).
Vintage hardware is neat but most of it is of no practical use today. Is there any other part of a 20-year-old computer that you could still use for day-to-day tasks? A Model M lets you feel old-school without actually having to live in the bad old days of floppy disks and 300 baud modems.
I type on my wife's Mac keyboard and it's fine. I type on a rubber dome keyboard at work and it does the job too. Maybe I would feel differently if my job required pumping out hundreds of thousands of words very quickly, but for most people (and, I suspect, most Model M owners) that's not the case.
Nostalgia is fun. It's okay to have a "throwback" keyboard if that's what you want. Not every technological choice we make has to be justified by greater efficiency or superior ergonomics. Relax and feel the Model M love.
Different strokes for different folks. I love my IBM model M keyboard, and the thing is still going strong though its using an adapter to fit. I like the feel, I like the sound, I like knowing I can pick up my keyboard and whack a sales guy if they really do go one step too far one day - and actually do some damage that'd justify the assault charge.
Obviously the model M is gone, but the keyboard isn't. And judging by the other posts, the keyboard is missed.
I have to agree with you. I still have one at work... collecting dust. It got too annoying even for a seldom used legacy system and was replaced. Huge, clunky, noisy.
Some people enjoy the sound of vinyl and tubes over CDs and transistors. Some people enjoy the sound of a metal hammer on a mechanical typewriter. More power to them, but I think the hype over this antique is more than a little overblown. You would think God himself typed the 10 commandments on one.
I do NOT want to have sounds in my environment if it is not neccesairy. I simply hate the standard behavior of IE to produce audible feedback each time I click a link.
Good thing Windows doesn't make a clicking sound every time you press a key. This is more like the physical click of a mouse button.
I don't think most folks want the click for the sake of the click. Mostly we want the feel given by buckling spring switches. If I were deaf, I'd still prefer my Model M to spongy quiet keyboards.
Nice (Score:5, Insightful)
Not sure what's ugly about them most other keyboards are ugly, when you shut your eyes.
WTF kind of sentence is that?
Re:Nice (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Nice (Score:5, Funny)
This is /. There isn't even Ugly Sex for some of us. Sigh.
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Re:Nice (Score:5, Funny)
Some?
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Re:Nice (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Nice (Score:5, Funny)
You young whippersnappers and your Selectrics! When I was your age, my 'laptop' was a 40-pound Remington on which I could only type 45 words per minute without jamming the hammers. My 42 nano-baud 'modem' was an envelope and a stamp which the mailman walked uphill through eight feet of snow to deliver.
But boy oh boy, that keyboard had sound! You always knew when everyone in the office was typing up a storm; you had to shout a conversation, which cut down on unnecessary chit-chat. And you couldn't be a lightweight either. Five days a week on a Remington gave us all forearms like Popeye and a grip that would make a longshoreman wince.
So get yer new-fangled Selectric offa my lawn, kiddies!
Parent
Yeah, yeah... (Score:4, Funny)
Five miles. In the snow. Uphill. Both ways.
I have a Model M on my office desk, and one here at home -- S/N 3111818, dated Jul 87.
They're nice to type on -- I type much more faster and more accurately on one than on any other type of keyboard -- and they're also handy if someone breaks into your house. They deflect bullets up to a .38, and you can commit homicide with one, if necessary.
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I dunno about audible feedback.... (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I dunno about audible feedback.... (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re:I dunno about audible feedback.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Something with a good solid thunk when I hit a key makes an incredible difference to my typing.
But not good when you have to type while others sleep. Some of us need the quiet keyboards or have them bashed over our heads at 2am.
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Re:I dunno about audible feedback.... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:I dunno about audible feedback.... (Score:5, Insightful)
>>>don't know whether it's the audible feedback, or the mechanical feedback,
The only noise I need is my television in the background. I don't need mechanical feedback but simply watch the text flow across the screen. Perhaps it's because I grew up with a Commodore 128 and Amiga 500 with their relatively-quiet keyboards, and therefore I don't feel the need for noise.
In fact, noise is annoying - reminds me of my old manual typewriter. Ick.
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Don't fall for it! (Score:3, Funny)
Responsive (Score:5, Informative)
I have my Unicomp and I love it. There's nothing that gives you the same feedback in the fingertips as you type as a nice clicky board. My wife, on the other hand, hates it because - the bedroom is next to my office, and she can hear me at all hours of the night typing away. But... totally worth it.
As a bonus, I honestly feel that I get less cramping and fatigue when I'm typing happily on this rather than the crap you get most times today. Not sure if there's anything to back that up with, but I graduated from a Microsoft ergo keyboard to this and I'm far happier now.
Re:Responsive (Score:4, Interesting)
I have a Unicomp as well. There is nothing like it. They also make a quiet version, which has the same curved keyboard typing area and all the keys in the right places, but doesn't make the ka-klang when typing. This is good for when you don't have an office or have kids next door at home.
My typing WPM goes way up on the ka-klang style Type M clones because the feedback is exacting, there is a pressure-release feel when the button is actuated and a sound for feedback.
I'm not saying cheap Chicony style or freebie Dell style are horrible, but the ka-klanging boards and that layout for keys seem optimal and if you happen to have very large hands, the pitch between keys is ideal for a lot more than the dainty handed typers.
For the longest time I was loyal to IBM for Thinkpads largely due to the adherence to a proper properly pitched keyboard with proper tactile feedback.
Also, IBM made a "compacted" Type M. It was black, has all the nice features but has a much smaller footprint. I think I have the FRU somewhere.
IBM Black compact 104 clickey with curvature: FRU 37L0814 FCC ID: E8HKB-5323 MODEL: KB-3923
Dell also gave for some time with the Dell 1550 machines and machines from that era a ka-klanger keyboard that was excellent. Its much larger like the Type M, its black and it ka-klangs.
Parent
Odd that we're seeing this again (Score:5, Interesting)
Is this company sponsoring slashdot?
Anyway.. there is definately something about feeling, but it's only really about what you are used to. I prefer a fujitsu 8725, a modern cheap-ass keyboard to more exensive ones, simply because I am used to it.
Re:Odd that we're seeing this again (Score:5, Interesting)
I was wondering that too. What do you have to do for that kind of advertising? Actually, it was NRP who did it first, but still, either they dumb lucked into a lot of advertising, or they paid some decent money to advertise that they make ancient keyboards.
They've been making keyboards quieter because they used to be very loud and hard on your fingers. Then again, I learned to type on a mechanical typewriter, so for the first several years that I used PC's, I pounded on the keys, and went through a keyboard about every 6 months. If I start typing really fast (I'm usually somewhere just above 100wpm), I start pounding like I'm on the mechanical typewriter again. People usually laugh at me, and then I have to stop and ask why they're laughing.
Lately, I've been nice to my keyboards. The lettering wears off before the keyboard fails. Who needs lettering anyways? I've thrown a few away because the alignment marks on "F" and "J" have worn off. It's hard to touch type with a mouse, when you have to look to realign. :)
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Re:Odd that we're seeing this again (Score:4, Funny)
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
When you buy a brand new keyboard for less than $5, then yes $69 is expensive.
Re:Odd that we're seeing this again (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Odd that we're seeing this again (Score:5, Insightful)
a unicomp model M has over 100 individual spring switches and every key is actually a separate key and removable key cap. the board inside is an actual circuit board and the chassis design keeps spilled liquid off the board and allows it to run out the bottom through channels.
so it's more like complaining that a cup of gourmet coffee is $8 when you could scoop parasite infested water from a drainage ditch for free.
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, it is to me...That's ten days worth of food.
Yes (Score:4, Interesting)
Good to here. I was trained as a touch typist, and quiet keyboards have screwed with my accuracy. I know I had an ancient IBM keyboard with the heavier, clicking keys and after a few attempts, I managed to get upwards of about 70wpm (in high school, I topped 80 a few times). On the newer keyboards I think I get stuck around 60wpm, mainly because errors count against you, and old-fashioned typing is as much about *hearing* mistakes as feeling them.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Yes (Score:4, Interesting)
Bzzzz. Dvorak is NO faster than Qwerty.
Really. Go ahead and show us a non-biased study to prove me wrong. You won't find any.
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Re:Yes (Score:4, Funny)
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I have several of the old ones (Score:3, Funny)
No, you can't have one . . . . . . . for any price.
they are pretty good (Score:3, Informative)
By a coincidence, I just received a new keyboard from them on Monday. It feels much like the IBM Model M I'm typing this on now, but the keys feel 'looser' - there is a little more back and forth wobble on the new Customizer keyboard from Unicomp than there is on my Model M. Too soon to tell yet whether I will find it distracting or not; the new keyboard is on my game machine at home and I don't use it as often as my I use my work machines.
Comeback? They never went away (Score:4, Informative)
This news is about 12 years old. They have been in Lexington, KY using the same old equipment that IBM used to make the Model M keyboards.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Quality, or neophobia (Score:5, Insightful)
Frankly this sounds more like neophobia and/or nostalgia than a legitimate concern about keyboard quality.
On thing mechanical typewriters had (Score:5, Interesting)
(and some older keyboards had as well):
A mechanism to absorb the energy exerted on the keystroke.
Without that the energy ends up being dissipated in the muscles, tendons, and (especially) joints of the hand.
This is one of the factors leading to repetitive stress injuries and perhaps also accelerates arthritis.
I'd like to see a keyboard design that "catches" the key after it's pressed far enough to be detected as a "press" and consumes the energy.
If it does it by making a sound (especially if the sound has a one-to-one correspondence with the detection of the keystroke) it also provides feedback. All the better for typing accuracy.
Re:On thing mechanical typewriters had (Score:4, Informative)
Ah, in that case, you probably want a Topre Realforce. It uses a rubber dome for cushioning the blow when bottoming out.
But, ideally, you won't bottom out at all. A good mechanical keyboard will give you at least tactile feedback at the point of actuation, allowing you to begin releasing the key right then.
Parent
I could live without the audio... (Score:4, Interesting)
But the tactile feedback of buckling springs is absolutely perfect. Also the nigh-invulnerability, the beverage-spill-drainage holes on later models, the resistance to stickage even after spills, the removable/cleanable keycaps, the correctly shaped enter key, lack of extraneous doo-dads, pretty much everything about them. /hugs my Model M. Seriously, I really just did, because I love it so much. I also have one at home that I love. And they don't even mind, because Model Ms are secure in themselves and not prone to jealousy.
Das Keyboard (Score:5, Informative)
I have a Das Keyboard [daskeyboard.com], based on the original Model-M design. Definitely recommended if you're sick of typing into a soggy sponge.
There is something incredibly satisfying about solving a particularly complex problem, and hitting "enter" for a crunchy click. No other keyboard satisfies my lust for tactility the way this one does.
Re:Das Keyboard (Score:4, Informative)
Cherry, actually, and the Cherry design is nothing like the Alps design.
But, the Das III has some nasty, nasty quality issues. Myself, I use a ($50 new) Ione Scorpius M10, which has the exact same switches as the Das II and III. It has nasty quality issues, too, but they're not as bad as the ones on the Das III, and apparently not as frequent. And the board is $80 cheaper.
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My model M rules (Score:5, Funny)
I am still using an IBM model M keyboard made in 1985. It doesn't have the Windows key, which is one more reason for me to like it.
You cannot beat the touch of a model M, and the tactile feedback helps me limit the number of fat-finger typos.
One downside of a model M is that the clicky noise might annoy coworkers in open space offices. But I have few complains. Complains are generally going like this:
Cow orker: "Eric, your keyboard is sure loud".
Me; "Yup."
Cow orker: 'Err..."
Me: "Heavy too. All metal. Feel this."
Cow orker: "Wow. At least three pounds".
Me: "Almost five, actually. And reliable, too. You can wield it as a baseball bat, whack someone's head, clean up the brain bits from the bottom, and it's still good for years of service."
Cow orker: (Gulps, retreat hurriedly.)
See why I love it?
Admitted keyboard snob here (Score:5, Interesting)
In the 90s, I got used to typing on an NMB mechanical keyboard. Back then, clicky was taken for granted, and "quiet" keyboards were the unusual ones. And then one day, it finally broke and started typing gibberish...
Over the course of many years, I went through a bunch of the sucky membrane keyboards, always buying the least-bad one I could find, but my typing speed and accuracy were never as good as when I was on my old NMB. I just recently came across one, and snagged it, and it's really eye opening how much more pleasant it is to type on this one. The sound is satisfying, a light click instead of the Model M "chunk", but it's the touch that really matters. There's a subtle resistance, and then falling away just as the key makes contact, and then a hesitation and snap loose when it breaks.
I never did get into the Model M (now Unicomp) craze. They're too loud, and the spring pressure is way too high. The NMB mechanism is very light, but very tactile. My fingers feel like they're just brushing over the keys, instead off banging on them.
The only thing I don't like about this one is that the \ is in the wrong place, to the left of the backspace instead of under it. I'd be in heaven if I could find a keyboard with similar touch and an IBM-standard layout. Anyone know of one? Das Keyboard III is looking like a likely contender, but I'm reluctant to drop that kind of money without being able to test drive it first.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Remapping won't fix this. This is the kind of deformed keyboard where the enter key is an L shape extending to where the \ should be, and the backspace is only a standard width key, instead of a double-wide.
Unless your remapping software is way cooler than mine is... :)
Best. Keyboard. Ever. (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd been looking for an adapter to use an old IBM keyboard with my Mac. I'd never liked "squishy" keyboards, or ones with short key travel, and Apple keyboards seem to get squishier and shorter as time goes by. Then I found the Unicomp. My fingers are happy now.
The only downside is that you need to do a little prefs-setting and key swapping to put the option and command keys in the right place, but that's no big deal.
Get one. It's 70 bucks well spent.
The Model M is much more than a keyboard (Score:5, Interesting)
It's a geek badge of honor. I own a few and I love them like my children (okay not really, maybe like my pets) but part of that comes from the effort I put in to scrounge them and clean them up myself. I do like the feel of typing on a Model M but what I love is the feeling of gravitas (figuratively and literally, it's really heavy).
Vintage hardware is neat but most of it is of no practical use today. Is there any other part of a 20-year-old computer that you could still use for day-to-day tasks? A Model M lets you feel old-school without actually having to live in the bad old days of floppy disks and 300 baud modems.
I type on my wife's Mac keyboard and it's fine. I type on a rubber dome keyboard at work and it does the job too. Maybe I would feel differently if my job required pumping out hundreds of thousands of words very quickly, but for most people (and, I suspect, most Model M owners) that's not the case.
Nostalgia is fun. It's okay to have a "throwback" keyboard if that's what you want. Not every technological choice we make has to be justified by greater efficiency or superior ergonomics. Relax and feel the Model M love.
Model M = LART tool (Score:5, Funny)
Re:An audible keyboard is like audible links (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:An audible keyboard is like audible links (Score:5, Funny)
Obviously the model M is gone, but the keyboard isn't. And judging by the other posts, the keyboard is missed.
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Re:An audible keyboard is like audible links (Score:5, Funny)
Actually I've heard that after those M keyboards get the blood of salesmen they actually make you type faster.
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I have to agree with you. I still have one at work... collecting dust. It got too annoying even for a seldom used legacy system and was replaced. Huge, clunky, noisy.
Some people enjoy the sound of vinyl and tubes over CDs and transistors. Some people enjoy the sound of a metal hammer on a mechanical typewriter. More power to them, but I think the hype over this antique is more than a little overblown. You would think God himself typed the 10 commandments on one.
Re:An audible keyboard is like audible links (Score:4, Interesting)
I do NOT want to have sounds in my environment if it is not neccesairy. I simply hate the standard behavior of IE to produce audible feedback each time I click a link.
Good thing Windows doesn't make a clicking sound every time you press a key. This is more like the physical click of a mouse button.
I don't think most folks want the click for the sake of the click. Mostly we want the feel given by buckling spring switches. If I were deaf, I'd still prefer my Model M to spongy quiet keyboards.
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Re: (Score:3, Informative)
"I found the Matias Tactile for my Mac a few years ago, and was willing to shell out the $100 for it. Have never regretted it, either."
Tactile feedback improves performance and accuracy. There is good reason aircraft controls and switches are designed to provide it.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
It's certainly better than the keyboards in Naked Lunch...