New Models of IBM Model F Keyboard Mark II Incoming (theregister.com) 46
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: What's even harder-core than the IBM Model M? The Model F, the keyboard that launched alongside the IBM PC in 1981. After a 2017 relaunch, new models with the original layout are here. The project, which back in 2017 relaunched a modern keyboard inspired by a compact space-saver version of IBM's classic Model F, is launching its second generation of brand-new premium input devices, and this time, various layouts will be available. [...]
Enter the New Model F Keyboards project. "Ellipse" launched it in 2017 and attracted over $300,000 worth of orders, even at $399 each. Aside from the not-inconsiderable price, what put the author off was the layout. Space-saving and reduced-footprint keyboards are very popular among serious keyboard collectors, and the project chose two space-saver layouts from IBM's 4704 terminal, dubbed the Kishsaver after the collector who described it. The F77 layout has a numeric keypad, but no function keys; the even smaller F62 layout omits the keypad, or as the cool kids call it, it's a TKL layout, which we are informed stands for tenkeyless, presumably because it has 15 fewer keys.
Which is why the FOSS desk's bank account would tremble in fear if it were not an inanimate table in a database somewhere, because the Model F project has announced a new range, including full-size and compact 104-key layouts and most appealing to this large and heavy-handed vulture, a replica of the 122-key IBM Battleship, one of which we've been hunting for over a decade. The project occasionally has refurbished original IBM units. Now, though, a brand-new one is a $420 option. If that isn't exclusive enough, your correspondent also working on a model with beam springs, the mechanism from 1970s IBM business products. The first model of the brand new beam spring units is a mere $579.
Enter the New Model F Keyboards project. "Ellipse" launched it in 2017 and attracted over $300,000 worth of orders, even at $399 each. Aside from the not-inconsiderable price, what put the author off was the layout. Space-saving and reduced-footprint keyboards are very popular among serious keyboard collectors, and the project chose two space-saver layouts from IBM's 4704 terminal, dubbed the Kishsaver after the collector who described it. The F77 layout has a numeric keypad, but no function keys; the even smaller F62 layout omits the keypad, or as the cool kids call it, it's a TKL layout, which we are informed stands for tenkeyless, presumably because it has 15 fewer keys.
Which is why the FOSS desk's bank account would tremble in fear if it were not an inanimate table in a database somewhere, because the Model F project has announced a new range, including full-size and compact 104-key layouts and most appealing to this large and heavy-handed vulture, a replica of the 122-key IBM Battleship, one of which we've been hunting for over a decade. The project occasionally has refurbished original IBM units. Now, though, a brand-new one is a $420 option. If that isn't exclusive enough, your correspondent also working on a model with beam springs, the mechanism from 1970s IBM business products. The first model of the brand new beam spring units is a mere $579.
Re:As a vintage computing enthusiast (Score:4, Insightful)
So you're getting mad that a manufacturer has chosen to introduce a brand new keyboard using the same design as the originals?
I'm typing this on an M13 right now. A PS/2 keyboard with a built-in trackpoint. I bought this keyboard for $5 at a thrift store probably twenty years ago, and it was nowhere near any sort of IBM Personal System/2 computer.
And as far as vintage terminals go, having a DEC VT220 and several Wyse-55s myself, very, very few people give a damn, and those keyboards were more likely separated from their terminals when the companies that retired those systems packaged them up for disposal, throwing the terminals onto one pallet and the keyboards onto another, because the two don't physically stack well together and neither the company nor its low-paid staff actually doing the disposal cared. They just piled them up however they best stacked, and sent them on their merry way.
Just because something is valuable to you now doesn't mean that it was always valuable, or that it will always be valuable. At one point these terminals and these keyboards were just more e-waste to be disposed of.
I'm glad that someone has picked up where Unicomp dropped the ball. I was very interested to buy a tenkeyless Model M from them, but almost as soon as they announced sales and made a big marketing push getting them into hands of reviewers, they pulled the category from their website. Their marketing materials on the same site still refer to it but it's been close to two years now. I had used vintage tenkeyless PS/2 Model Ms back when they were new in the nineties, they were nice. But good luck buying one now.
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Antiques are valuable because they are rare. If they are not, then they are just old.
The old terminal today is mostly useless, however a VT220 keyboard on the other hand is still handy with a lot of software that was originally coded on VAX and those extra buttons with it's names are quite useful.
Re:As a vintage computing enthusiast (Score:4, Interesting)
Antiques are not necessarily valuable just because they are rare.
I have friends that are part of a car club dedicated to American Motors products. No matter how nicely restored, AMXs and Javelins aren't worth anything, and those were some of AMC's most valuable cars. Gremlins, Pacers, Hornets, Concords, Spirits, Ambassadors, Matadors, not really worth anything regardless of how nice or how much effort and money has been poured into them.
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Don't confuse "things are valuable because they are rare" with "things that are rare are valuable".
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Antiques are valuable because they are rare. If they are not, then they are just old.
No, antiques are valuable because they are *desirable*. There's a big difference between being desirable and just being rare. To be desirable there is often a requirement of uniqueness in design or history for an item.
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Scarcity is a driver for something to be desirable. If anyone could pick up a VT220 Terminal then its desirability will be lessen. Especially as most of us do not need the Terminal. However because it is hard to find, it would make it a more valuable spot in a vintage computer collection.
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There are entire junkyards full of old cars that are being parted out. The vintage car junkyard is a real thing.
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Been thinking about getting a Unicomp for a few years now, but reviews seem to suggest that they don't feel the same as the originals. Well, there were many models of original too, so maybe it's more accurate to say that it doesn't feel like certain original models.
Sadly nobody stocks them in the UK or Japan so I can't try one out. Might give them a try anyway one day.
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I've bought a couple of them...and LOVE them!!
In fact, typing this on one of them now!!
Ugh...just looked I really need to do a deep cleaning on this thing....but sure is a pleasure to type on!!
HTH
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Thanks. I gather that the new ones are easier to clean too.
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The Keyboard Company in the UK stocks Unicomp keyboards.
See: https://www.keyboardco.com/cat... [keyboardco.com]
As for feeling, I have a 1991 Model M SSK and a 2016 Unicomp Classic. They don't feel or sound exactly the same, but the Unicomp is still unmistakably a Model M. If you were to type blindly on a number of IBM, Lexmark and Unicomp Model Ms of various vintages, I don't think you could pick out the Unicomp.
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Thanks. Unfortunately they don't carry Japanese layout ones so I'll have to order from the US. That said, even in the US you can only get a 106 key Japanese layout, which lacks the Windows keys. They are occasionally useful. I guess I could remap them when not in Japanese mode.
What's not to like (Score:2)
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I've done the "superfloss" mod on my Model M at work, it's not really any louder than anything from Cherry that coworkers use. Plus it doesn't have stupid backlighting or blue LEDs either, which is a plus.
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Well, of course people hate on the noise. I was watching one of the videos testing one of the units out, and I decided that if I sat next to someone typing on one of these, it would take me under thirty minutes before I went insane and broke that keyboard over the nearest solid object. I'm sure those keyboards are incredibly satisfying to type on, but damn, that noise! But if we're working from home now, problem solved, and everyone can be happy.
I totally get how people can get hooked on a particular key
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Well, of course people hate on the noise. I was watching one of the videos testing one of the units out, and I decided that if I sat next to someone typing on one of these, it would take me under thirty minutes before I went insane and broke that keyboard over the nearest solid object. I'm sure those keyboards are incredibly satisfying to type on, but damn, that noise! But if we're working from home now, problem solved, and everyone can be happy.
I totally get how people can get hooked on a particular keyboard, though. I've been using the same style for a few decades now. Nothing else really feels right to me. If I thought they were being discontinued, I'd probably buy a handful of them to make sure they last me the rest of my life.
You should have heard the data pool (what we called the floor of data entry people back in the stone age) when those keyboards were "the" keyboard. I never put a decibel reader on them, but I know it'd make your ears ring if you spent the day among them. Thirty or so people all going clackety clackety clackety for hours at a time? It truly was the sound of madness.
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and I decided that if I sat next to someone typing on one of these, it would take me under thirty minutes before I went insane and broke the nearest solid object with that keyboard.
Fixed that for you.
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The MAIN problem I have with the model F is the lack of LED for caps lock.
I have the compact model F -- no ideal why I'd want to recreate the loss of deskspace. I kept the narrow keypad on mine. I would have liked 4 columns instead of 3 but I've been adapting to using the Fn key on the split shift. The ability to configure the keyboard firmware is GREAT since the default isn't to my liking.
I don't think it's so horribly loud. I had the Unicomp Model M previously full extrended and now I'm torn about buyin
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The beam spring keyboard mentioned in the summary is a standard layout, with LEDs. It looks like the same is true for the new versions of the model Fs. It's the older reproductions, which hewed more closely to the originals, which had the funny layouts and no LEDs. They both have steal chassis and no plastic rivets, the plastic rivets were introduced with the model M.
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modelfkeyboards.com now sells their version of a model M keyboard ; it's a model F but with the general appearance of the model M Unicomp makes. modelfkeyboards.com also now sells a beamspring too; most their keyboards are new variations; I'm on the mailing list, since 2018. Unicomp isn't doing anything new.
I own both and I prefer the model F but the layout of the model M; my model M has problems after I tried to save it with a bolt mod (rivets broke forcing a bolt mod.)
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these keyboards are no louder than a typewriter. I keep telling everyone around me, including my wife, but they act like they haven't heard the sound of a typewriter in decades.
No fat enter key (Score:3)
Ages ago I ended up with an Acer keyboard somehow, despite not having an Acer. The keyboard had a "fat" enter key, and no Windows key. Otherwise, it was like other keyboards with function keys, a numeric keypad, etc. I don't know if it's actually buckling springs, but it's got a very satisfying kerchunk and I got used to it. Then something like 15 years ago I found some that were in good shape from a place with stuff like that and bought one online.
I pretty much wore those out so I'm sitting here with a small enter key, and not only a Windows key but some other proprietary meta key wedged in between alt and ctrl, and I have no desire to use those gimicks. It's not a high priority, but if disposable income were in better supply I'd probably scout out some more of those old Acers. The AT to PS2 to USB chain of converters was kind of crazy though. It's nice to see them coming out with stuff like this in (presumably) modern USB or Bluetooth.
One really satisfying aspect of those old keyboards was that without all the clutter, you could reliably do the 3-finger salute with one hand, and *forcefully*. LOL, I used to bang on it like I was trying to resuscitate the system. Nostalgia of course. It's much better now that PCs, even Windows, almost never go down compared to 1990s stuff.
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Closest thing to clickie Alps switches that are currently being made are Clickiez [zealpc.net]. They're expensive, but not compared to the keyboards in the summary. You could get some of those and pop them into any hotswap keyboard.
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The Windows keys can be repurposed if your OS supports remapping. On Windows you need a third party app like KbdEdit.
I use a Japanese keyboard, and when in English mode I have the Kana key set up as an additional modifier that lets me directly type special characters like Pi, arrows, the degree symbol, copyright symbol, division sign, not equals sign, greater/less than or equal to signs, omega (for ohms), plus/minus sign, footnote markers, and so forth.
You can do it with the otherwise fairly useless Windows
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If you want a keyboard with a fat enter key (basically they move the backslash/pipe key to another spot, usually beside a shift key), then get a keyboard using a non-US QWERTY layout. Asian English keyboards almost always have a fat enter key, for example but are US layout in basically every other way (unlike say, UK English which will have a UKP instead of $ on the 4 key).
It's just how the non-US English keys are laid out. I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft was the main reason for the US layout being wha
Till death do us part (Score:3)
Great to type on, but needs LED backlights (Score:4, Interesting)
Not for bling, but to be able to see the keys in a darkened room.
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2. Touch typists don’t look at the keyboard. Learn how to use your tools properly.
WordPerfect (Score:4, Insightful)
WordPerfect was designed for those function keys on the left. People got pissed when the Fkeys got moved to the top, as they couldn't one-hand all those function key formatting combos.
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All sorts of software was, including every software development tool and editor. Moving the F keys to the top was one of the great tragedies to occur in computing.
Despite the article suggesting otherwise, this layout is nowhere. to be found. It was the AT layout, not the mechanism, that mattered.
A "New Model" of "The Mark II" (Score:1)
Inflation-Adjusted Price? (Score:2)
IBM gear was never cheap.
Are these any more expensive than the originals in real-Dollar terms?
WTB: 142-key mechanical keyboard kit (Score:1)
I miss my old Ortek MCK-142Pro. It was a masterpiece until it literally fell apart.
Someone could stand out from the crowd and make a lot of money by building and selling a mechanical keyboard kit that matches that form factor.
OK dumb question (Score:3)
Look, I'm a capitalist; I get it, charge as much as the market will bear* but does this really have to be $399?
For a KEYBOARD?
Is there some tech/material in this that is particularly pricey or complicated to get today? Or is this JUST bespoke pricing because they can?
I'd love to have a keyboard like this, but I'm never in my life paying more than $100 for a kb, and even that price would make me wince pretty hard.
*actually, ideally, at the optimal point on the price demand curve which is NOT the 'highest price people will pay'
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I guess it's part "it's expensive to make" and also "because this is a replica of an iconic product and keyboard enthusiasts are crazy enough to pay this".
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Northgate (Score:2)