You may not know the Model F by name, but you know it by sound – the musical thwacking of flippers slapping away. The sound of the ’80s office. The IBM Model F greeting the world in 1981 with a good ten pounds of die-cast zinc and keys that crash down on buckling metal springs as they descend. It’s a sensation today’s clickiest keyboards chase, but will never catch. And now it’s coming back.
I used several of these growing up, and I’ve come to understand I’m the only one who didn’t – and doesn’t – like mechanical keyboards one bit – I find them tiring and way too loud. I want the thinnest possible keyboard with the shortest possible travel while still having a decent, satisfying, but very quiet click. I find Apple’s Magic Keyboard is the exact right keyboard for me, but I also know I’ll be one of the very few, especially on a site like OSNews.
I have tried numerous mechanical keyboards. But i always return to my 1984 model M.
Have you tried F? I’m not sure which one I prefer myself. Probably M. F is a bit louder still and a bit more stiff.
Co-workers already complain about my clicky Matais.
Sadly, its not the battleship. That would probably cost too much to do. I guess just having capacitive buckling springs is good enough.
Edit: Also, Thom is odd. Can’t understand anyone who likes modern apple alps-less keyboards. I’d suggest that he find an olden Apple Extended II keyboard, and discover the feeling of perfection. Just because you don’t like model M or Cherry, doesn’t mean you hate all mechanical.
Edited 2017-07-18 18:10 UTC
I prefer modern short stroke over Apples old keyboards. They were good, sure. But so where the old Wang keyboards using a rubber dome combined with a foam dampened (metal?) contact plate (as long the foam kept together anyway). But they are still to hard to activate, have too long stroke etc.
While I may change my tune when becoming so old that I need more feedback to detect that a key is down (sadly the sense of touch decreases when aging) until then scissor keyboards is what I choose.
Mechanical keyboard is best in the same way that a 1954 Chevy Belair is the best.
In no way other than nostalgia.
No, its better in the same way that steaks tasted better 30 + years ago. Lower volume manufacturing, more attention to craft and careful consideration of feel. As the description of the F, testifies to keyboards used to be very expensive. The move to membrane and scissor switch brought costs way down. They weren’t engineered to be good, just good enough.
If you look at the history of keyboards it makes sense.
Why skimp on a keyboard when the terminal its hooked to is thousands of dollars?
Why spend more than you absolutely need to if the computer its hooked up to has a profit margin of $10.00 ?
There are tons of keyboards that are not bundled with computers that are available to purchase and your argument does not apply. Obviously the keyboard they throw in with your $200 Asus is going to be garbage. Not the point.
Uhm, yes it does? Not sure how saying it doesn’t apply magically makes it not apply.
When an item is included in a purchase with a high margin, there is less pressure to cut corners on it. If its a stand alone product, then consumers are going to be more price conscious and seek the lower price. Just checkout the crappy crappy Cherry knock offs on amazon.
Now you’re changing the argument. You’re saying the included keyboards used to be better than they are now. Sure, I agree. Keyboards included with budget computers are so bad they are unusable.
That’s not the topic though, we are discussing mechanical vs modern keyboard design. Not a mechanical keyboard vs a $1 bundled thing that came in the box.
Edited 2017-07-18 23:20 UTC
If i’m not mistaken, the model F and model M’s were bundled with IBM PC’s. Come on, lets compare Apples to Apples.
That’s an example of the fallacy of False Dichotomy. There’s more than one type/model of mechanical keyboard – and new mechanical keyboards are actually still being made & sold today (not just replicas of keyboards from the 80s). You do realize that, right?
But feel free to substantiate your claim – assuming that it’s not just the sort of contrarian anti-anti-populism you hear from people who, say, defend the Star Wars prequels by claiming that people prefer the originals only because of childhood fondness for them. A good start would be to pick a specific model of mechanical keyboard, or at least a specific switch, and compare it with a specific non-mechanical keyboard and/or switch – and point out all of the ways that the non-mechanical keyboard is superior, or at least equal to, the mechanical one.
So we should compare to no-stroke keyboards? They are junk viewed as keyboards but have their uses as they can be made almost indestructible and are good enough for typing a few characters. No feedback in the key itself means optical (from a display) or a beeper mechanism is needed. For those without sight and hearing they are completely useless.
Yeah I know, here’s the proper though long response:
As I wrote earlier my favorite keyboards are using scissor mechanisms (that is the guiding element in the key) with rubber dome springs (ordinary metal spiral springs would work too but is more expensive so not normally used) with a normal switch as the key hit detector.
When people talk about mechanical keyboards they don’t understand there is _no_ valid definition that differentiates “mechanical” keyboard switches from the above description of a scissor low-stroke mechanism. Not even defining mechanical keys as using separate, replaceable switch elements! Must the mechanism be long-stroke? Nope – there have been short stroke variants. A certain type of guiding element? Nope, there are multiple variants. A certain type of spring mechanism? No, some have used rubber domes, some rubber domes+spiral spring. Switch mechanism? Most use normal switching, some have used optical(!) or capacitive sensing. But surely the feedback mechanism is common!? No, buckling spring, hammer etc. Not even the noise level that some think is a sign of genuine “mechanical” workmanship is a given as there have been variants that are very silent.
So what’s left are the characteristics of the switches that you yourself say varies. Stroke length is generally long (but see above) but otherwise? Activation force varies as does feedback type and strength.
Using “mechanical” as a way to describe a certain kind of keyboard is like using “aura” to describe a design – bullshit.
There are a lot of people that swear that DVORAK layout made them healthy (well their hands/wrists at least), better at typing etc. Anyone that actually tries to measure any improvement will soon realize the only improvement comes from learning to type on a keyboard anew – the same kind of improvement would be the result of simply using a standard QWERTY layout but learning to touch-type correctly.
I haven’t seen any evidence suggesting the mechanical craze is in any way different. Self-suggestion is a powerful drug.
I have used a _lot_ of different “mechanical” keyboards in the past. I type faster on my “cheap” scissor-type chicklet keyboard and have no problem feeling when the key is pressed, no problem needing to press too hard for a key to register properly etc. I don’t need sound feedback now and I didn’t in the past (even hacked together an utility to silence the Wang PC keyboard beeper – required a lot of reverse engineering to get that silence). If most people liked “mechanical” keyboards wouldn’t computer manufacturers use them as a standard component? Or in cases where a normal “mechanical” switch is too large (notebook computer) tweak the scissor/spring/switch mechanism to feel more like their larger brothers? Because ignoring the stroke length most features of mechanical switches can be emulated.
I don’t do this often, but I agree with Thom. I find chiclet keyboards much better than the old mechanical. My typing speed more than doubled on a chiclet keyboard and I am always stumbling around when I use a mechanical.
I find myself in between. My current keyboard is a “cheap” Velocifire mechanical with knockoffs of Cherry MX Brown switches. Most mechanicals are too loud and have too much travel for my taste but this one is just about right, and has n-key rollover. I like a good chiclet keyboard too; in fact I have a wired version of Apple’s newer aluminum board and it’s great, but I’m spoiled by my Velocifire’s backlit keys.
However, nothing will ever top the best keyboard I’ve ever put my digits on: The Apple PowerBook G3 “Pismo”. Nothing before or since has been as nice to type on.
Indeed, I also prefer modern keyboards over the mechanical ones.
Reasons for why I’d never go back to a mechanical keyboard:
1) You need to press a lot harder on them. Last time I tried one of them I wow’ed at just how quickly I could feel that my hands needed a break.
2) Typing speed is slower because the keys are taller and you have to press harder.
3) The noise. This is not a plus for me. I like the sound of more quite keyboards a lot better.
4) The layout of the Model M is a little bit too classic for my taste. It annoys me that I can’t as easily reach keys with both hands as I can with more compact layouts.
I’ve hated a fair share of both mechanical and non-mechanical keyboards, but my favourite ones are usually mechanical.
Non-standard layouts are always worse IMO since you can’t transfer your muscle memory to your next keyboard.
That one I agree with, there are also arguable ergonomic benefits to more compact layouts. But again, there are mechanical keyboards available with compact layouts – including REALLY compact “60%” layouts on boards like the ErgoDox. Personally, I find those layouts a little too extreme (anything that requires an Fn key/layer for things as common as the number or function keys is a non-starter for me), but they are available for those who want that.
It’s also worth noting that the article is about a replica of the Model F, rather than the Model M – and it appears to be using some kind of hybrid between the old AT layout & a modern “Tenkeyless” layout:
http://pop.h-cdn.co/assets/17/27/980×417/gallery-1499277959-keyboar…
Personally, I’d be more interested if they used a more standard tenkeyless layout (just a regular layout without the numpad chopped off – like the ANSI mods folks have done with vintage AT Model F keyboards), but that still looks easier to get used to than the old AT or XT layouts.
As much as I’d like to have the option of Model F buckling springs, that layout is too authentic, so I’ll stick with the “cost-reduced spring+membrane” design introduced by the Model M and inherited by the “Old Classic 104” Unicomp board I tracked down on eBay.
https://www.pckeyboard.com/mm5/graphics/ProductNews7-25-13.pdf
(The only thing about my muscle memory that I’m willing to re-train is how hard to press the keys, so my old Cherry MX Blue board and my current Unicomp board both have the exact same 104-key layout as the stack of PS/2 membrane keyboards in my closet… and I use both Windows keys for one-handed custom keybinds.)
Edited 2017-07-18 19:51 UTC
I have a Das Keyboard Professional 4. It is a lot of money but working on it is so nice…
I never tried an IBM would love to try one; I would never buy one untested.
Very good point. I’ve rescued a Model M but refrained from using it in the office. It sounds like a machine gun if you type fast enough. Altough that is quite satisfactory to yourself I don’t think any co-workers will like it.
So I went for the DAS keyboard, which is a good compromise for me (mechanical but not too loud).
There is no way of going back to these dinosaurs for me.
(written on a Apple Magic Keyboard)
Apple’s keyboards have the right amount of travel, and the right clicky sensation when pressing the keys. Nothing else is quite right.
I’m sad that they have cancelled the full sized wired version though…
It’s back: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MQ052LL/A/magic-keyboard-with-num…
The old full-width version actually wasn’t the Magic Keyboard; it was the low-travel USB keyboard — I’m typing on one now, and I grabbed two from PC World just as they went off sale. I much prefer this to the ultra-low-travel Magic keyboard that replaced it (initially in narrow, but as someone else has pointed out, a full-width version has been released as well). I also greatly prefer it to the mushy long-travel USB keyboard from the early iMac era that it replaced. I quite like having USB ports on my keyboard; I use it to recharge my trackpad (or I just leave it plugged in).
Just to let you know that you aren’t alone.
1) Apple makes keyboards that both you and I like. And it is the only keyboards they make.
2) I like these keyboards too. Even though I must support Windows, etc., as part of my job, half my computers being Apple and half not, ALL of my keyboards are Apple keyboards. I like them so much that I bought Apple keyboards to replace the HP keyboards that come with our HP computers. You get what you pay for. I’m guessing HP didn’t pay more than $3 per keyboard and it feels like it.
Ugh, those squishy, spongy HP keyboards make my hands tired after just a few minutes. I’m a fairly accurate touch typist but I’m always making mistakes on those monstrosities. Dell OEM keyboards aren’t much better; they are almost as spongy and wear out even faster than the HPs.
What do you like about it?
I always thought it was a fanboy stockholm syndrome. What makes the Apple magic keyboard not the complete junk it appears to be on the surface?
It hits all the right check boxes for me.
1) quiet
2) perfect (yet still quiet) tactile feedback
3) perfect travel distance
4) ergonomic! because I’d like to be able to feed myself when I retire from being a programmer
Good thing i scanned the comments before writing, as i would pretty much have written a duplicate of your comment 🙂
I love it too, probably the only thing bearing the Microsoft name that i actually like other than a few of their developer frameworks.
I used to love the Model M, the F layout felt antiquated very early on, but these days it is way too noisy and takes too much effort to type on. With the noise level though, imagine sharing an office with someone using one of these…
For me the chiclet keyboards like the Apple keyboards are okayish on laptops for occasional use, but give me one full time and i would kill myself, or someone, or something, within a few days. Someone should make a law against these, preferably at the same time introducing a law against calculators with squishy rubber buttons (or wobbly hard plastic buttons, i am looking at you TI)
I got an Apple chicklet keyboard when they first came out, because they looked cool. One month into using it (I’m a programmer and do a lot of typing), my wrists started hurting bad!
That is (to me) the most evil keyboard ever created.
I suppose it’s ok if you just want to compose a quick email, hit “send”, and then throw the keyboard in the trash.. or if you just hate having hands for some reason.
The second time I remember thinking to myself “this is freaking evil” was when all the PC laptop manufacturers got together and all decided that it was a great idea to add a numerical keypad to laptops. Shifting the keyboard, spacebar, and touch pad to the left side of the laptop.
My problem with sore wrists also started when i started programming. I haven’t had any problems since i got my first Logitech Cordless Desktop Pro waaay back when the mouse had a ball in it and you could kill someone with the receiver. Wow, i think it must have been back in the 90s…. I am getting old. I actually still use the keyboard on our secondary computer, but the non-optical mouse was retired many years ago.
While i do find the apple keyboards utterly evil, they pale in comparison with the flat apple mouse… When my arm is relaxed, the angle of my wrist and hand fits just right with the logitech style ergonomic mice, and not at all with the symmetric flat types like apples mouse.
I don’t mind them pushing the keyboard and trackpad a bit to the left on laptops, i just wish they didnt waste the space adding a numeric keyboard. I would much rather have proper space for arrow keys and the block with insert, delete, home, etc. With actual spacing between them and the other keys so the layout matches a desktop keyboard.
Speaking about Apple being evil, on my Macbook Pro 17″ last generation, the corners of the indentation on the front of the base that lets you open the lid, they are so damn sharp that after 30 minutes of use, the skin on my wrists are getting irritated by brushing against them. I hope they have fixed this in later models, but that is REALLY annoying, and they could just have rounded the damn corners – like they did with all the other corners on the thing….
If you got painful wrists, usually it is not your keyboard fault. you probably just got a bad posture, with a keyboard either too far from you, your chair/table couple not at the right height, your arm not at the right angle.
Mechanical keyboards may solve painful fingers, but not painful wrists.
http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/AHTutorials/tutorialimages/idealtypin… <<< this is the posture you should aim for.
I always assumed it was an ill-considered way to keep the lower half of the laptop from looking too empty as a result of switching to widescreen LCDs.
(Another decision I’ve never been a fan of. My desktop PC uses a spread of three 1280×1024 LCDs and I’m about to swap the centre one out for a 1920×1080 panel (which I got for free) because there are too many indie games which were designed to run in a widescreen resolution and the only option for a 1280×1024 configuration is “widescreen, windowed, too small”.)
I have to agree the Microsoft Natural 4000 is the best keyboard I have used. The original one I purchased is starting to wear and there is less travel with the keys. I was so glad to still be able to purchase a replacement years later. What concerns me is the lack of good ergonomic keyboards with deep curves for more natural hand placement. This keyboard is really great, so two thumbs up.
P.S. I would be interested in seeing a mechanical version of the Microsoft Natural 4000. That might be fun to use.
I have 10 spare Dell keyboards from the early 2000s that work for me. When one breaks, I just chuck it and buy another.
Personally I prefer using my Amiga 1200 keyboard which lets fact it was never designed as anything professional.
Keyboard fetishists always make me laugh. Most keyboards more than £15 are really no better.
The only keyboard I would like to use but is far too expensive is the bloomberg keyboards. These are very expensive (even second hand) and have lots of short cuts for trading bloomberg trading software but they are absolutely fantastic to type on.
https://data.bloomberglp.com/professional/sites/10/1996PCKeyboard_Cl…
Cheap keyboards (especially thin) are not durable and have keys that can stuck and produce rasping sounds. Manufacturers of these keyboards must pay people to work on their crap.
My choice for work: Leopold FC660C with Topre switches. Well-made, silent and has excellent feel.
I have a commodore A1200 not the ESCOM one. Though I don’t think there is a difference other than the floppy drive (I’ve had to replace mine as the drive is dead but I run most games from WHDLoad
Never seen this happen. Cheaper keyboard just have a spongey feel to them. As I said I use cheap as chips dell keyboards I get off ebay for a few quid, they are good enough.
Edited 2017-07-19 08:09 UTC
I forgot to mention. Keyboards on Amigas are always a mixed bag because there was several different version of keycaps and switches depending on model and revision.
I grew up with a Model M, but never saw a Model F in real life as far as I can remember. Would be interesting to try one of these.
ThinkPads (at least T420/T520/X220/… and older) have a pretty good tactile keyboard (for a laptop at least) with a nice layout – full Home/End/PgUp/PgDn cluster, F keys, …
But ABS keycaps can get shiny pretty quick
But, Cherry MX blues have even better feeling when typing, but too noisy for office environment. Even Cherry MX browns (with o-rings and PBT keycaps) can be loud in quiet office.
I have a dream that one day I’ll create full programmable mechanical keyboard with ThinkPad layout, something like this:
http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/gists/aefc971edabdf3307f748…
That’s pretty neat. Split that in two pieces with a hinge mechanism similar to the Model M-15, and give it a good switch (AKA not Cherry MX or its clones), and that’s pretty much my ideal keyboard.
Interesting idea.
What is a good keyboard switch in your opinion?
I have also played with aligned keys but in (more or less) standard layout:
http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/gists/fc1ee7a3ceb8db2313843…
http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/gists/a22b7e65a038c19b44716…
That are older revisions without F11 and F12 keys, but
that idea was abandoned (for now) because it would hard (or at least even more expensive) to find keycaps of the proper size for aligned keyboard.
If you want a split keyboard, maybe this will be interesting project to you:
https://ultimatehackingkeyboard.com
Now you’ve done it, a theme very personal to me.
Here’s one for people still deciding to venture in the mechanical keyboard space.
Here we go ….
My experiences with mechanical keyboards are diametrically opposite to some here.
Once I experienced a “mechanical” keyboard I could never go back. My first mechanical keyboard was the Unicomp “Model M” clone. I used it for about 4 years before losing a few keys. If I had known about the “nut and bolt” fix I would not have thrown it away but fixed it and still be using it today. The “fix” addresses cost cutting issues related to the manufacture of the Model M (not Model F) keyboard. I think I came across a Fujitsu (?) branded Model-M looking non-buckling-spring “quality” keyboard where they had a factory implemented “nut and bolt” type system sandwiching the internal plate/membrane layers together. So, it helps to know about the construction of the keyboard and deciding if it’s “quality” or not.
Anyway, I loved the sound/feel of that Unicomp keyboard and actually made my typing experience more efficient/fun. When that Unicomp was gone and prior to purchasing my next mechanical keyboard, it was very difficult to go back to my former “lower quality” keyboards including HP rubber dome keyboard, Apple chiclet keyboard, Microsoft natural/wavy rubber dome keyboard. These classes of keyboard have no “feel” and no typing/finger related ergonomics; this was realized after extensive use of the former mechanical keyboard. For example, lacking of a real mechanism that offers feedback to the fingers about “optimum” key-press (bottoming key-presses being common).
I would argue that key-travel depth is important and should exist (to me, Apple chiclet-like keyboards are foolish). Take the extreme case, imagine typing all the time (say software development) on a glass panel (e.g. mobile phone effect); not good for your fingers, no opportunity for your finger actions to optimize for the key-presses.
After realizing the “mechanical keyboard” effect was real, i.e. could not go back to non-mechanical keyboard after using a mechanical keyboard for quite a while, the search was on for a new mechanical keyboard.
I wanted to replicate the “Model M” type experience (w.r.t sound and key-press) but using “Cherry MX” switches since I wanted to get experience with this alternate switch technology. Model M’s have “heavy” keys which was fine for me. Testing a blue switch mechanical keyboard, in computer shop, felt too light. The data on green MX switches implied a heavier switch but back then, about three years ago, green MX switches were rare in computer stores and gaming/computing setups and so was difficult to find a model for testing. Anyway, I took the punt and ordered a green Cherry MX switch CoolerMaster Quickfire stealth keyboard.
During initial typing experience it was obvious the green MX switches were heavier than the blue cherry MX switches and I preferred the greens over the blues; both in sound and key-press load. However, the greens were lighter than the Model-M and I missed that Model-M type key-press feeling. I also preferred the sound of the Model-M, but the sound from this green MX switch stainless steel back-plate keyboard is still okay for me.
After more than two years on the green switches, and in terms of keyboard switches, cherry MX green switches would be the go-to switches for me (blues are too light). Regarding non-switch technology, I would still be interested in having a Model M/F type buckling spring mechanical keyboard in my arsenal of mechanical keyboards. I remember reading about a person in Australian agricultural industry who was using mechanical keyboards for his computing setup in country area with computing environment being a very dusty one. His model M’s were working fine even when alot of dust penetrated into the interior of the keyboards. The same could not be said for a cherry MX keyboard (I believe it was a blue cherry MX switch DAS keyboard). The DAS is a good keyboard but an overly dusty environment was not meant to be handled by a conventional switch type (Cherry, Alps, etc.). The buckling spring system appears to handle overly dusty environments. Hence one of my reasons for respect of the Model F/M type bucking spring in addition to the keyboard experience they offer.
A few things I noticed with people using my mechanical keyboards include:
– Bottoming-out key-presses even with relatively high keypress-load being the “norm” due to their experiences with rubber-dome keyboards. I would remind people about letting their fingers feel the keys and then would notice the bottoming-out effect to lessen and also the “key-stomping”-like effect lessen. This is made possible when the key has a decent amount of travel and a quality/heavy spring mechanism to offer feedback to the finger; very obvious with those Model-M/F-type buckling springs and also the heavier cherry MX switches.
– Many people keep their forearms relatively stagnant and implicitly rely on twisting of their hand about a twist axis passing through their wrists; this is ergonomically non-optimal. A bit of lateral forearm motion helps with the typing experience.
I miss the stereotypical clicky-clacky audio effect of the Model F/M keyboards but I have acclimatized to the clicky sound of the Cherry MX green switch keyboard (differs from higher-pitch cherry MX blue sound, I prefer the sound of the greens). Being a lone software developer consultant I do not share an office with other people and so any “noise” from the keyboard was never going to upset anybody nearby.
FYI, I do many hours of coding per day and it’s obvious to me the mechanical keyboard experience is real.
Siblings/friends who do much less typing than me realize the differences with a mechanical keyboard, especially after explaining my experiences/psychology with mechanical keyboards. It’s another matter developing the respect for the mechanical keyboard effect and spending about $100 for a quality mechanical keyboard.
For most casual internet/office/etc. users they implicitly accept the cheap/low-quality/mass-produced keyboards that the manufacturers have fooled us into thinking for too many years that these keyboards are a “quality” attachment to the computer.
OTOH, if excessive typing translates to money (e.g. software development, sys admin, gaming, etc.) then in my book a mechanical keyboard is the way to go.
I chuckle abit when I read people complaining about “heavy” keys on a mechanical keyboard. I prefer heavier keys. The “heavy” green MX switches are lighter than the Model F/M buckling spring keys and still I prefer the heavier buckling springs. I would be interested in a heavier clicky/clacky green MX switch if it ever existed. Still, with these heavy switches my keyboard typing experience is “fluid” and “sane” (virtually no bottoming out of keys).
One analogy is with tennis racquets. In the 1970’s/1980’s my friends and I grew up swinging the much heavier wooden tennis racquets (say about 14 ounces) which was the “norm”. Later, during recent decades many casual tennis players flock to the lighter 9-to-10 ounce carbon fibre tennis racquets while my friends and I use our own custom-modified weight/balance/etc, versions of the standard “players” (pro/hefty) type carbon fibre frame (modified by ourselves). My friends and I have acclimatized to the heavier player-like frames and find it difficult to use the lighter frames. The modified frames are just more natural to us and much more healthy as they dampen the load of the incoming hi-speed (high-momentum) tennis ball during multiple sets of tennis play.
Likewise, the mechanical keyboard is more natural to me and I do not feel “tired” when doing long hours of coding.
Mainstream tennis racquets got cheaper, lighter and less efficient but all along the way there was always available quality player/hefty/pro tennis frames.
Similarly with mechanical keyboards.
im surprised to find so many other apple keyboard fans i thought i was in a minority.
I love my apple keyboard as others have said that it’s well spaced, nice tactile response and surprisingly hardy too, ive had one ive used at work for the last four years and it’s still fine with no broken keys, it gets a lot of use. My own personal iMac ive had since 2011 and it’s original keyboard is still going strong, again it’s had a lot of use.
One of the other big reasons i love the keyboard is that it’s also got the same feeling as my MacBook Air and other apple laptops, which means going from home (imac) to work (WinPC + Apple Keyboard) to mobile (MBA) is easy as the keyboards are all the same. It sounds trivial but when youre pounding the keys theres nothing worse than having to ‘recalibrate’ your hands for a new machine.
As for the IBM keyboard is used these a lot at college, i dont know if they were exactly the model m or the ones being advertised but they were mechanical IBM keyboards and ive never typed as quickly as i have with them, the perfect balance of keyboard spacing and response i loved them.
Edited 2017-07-19 07:32 UTC
I started late with mechanical keyboards but I got hooked soon (specially with IBMs). My first “official” one was a cheap Acer/Benq with ALPS clones (decent, nothing extraordinary and very clicky) in mid 2000s.
I salvaged a IBM Model M in 2010 and it was a real eye opener 🙂
I have tried quite some switches, both modern and vintage. I use a lot MX Cherry boards because they are easy to find and they fit the bill nicely, but buckling spring is still my favourite (with a soft spot for clicky Space Invaders, kind of an “obscure” switch)
I do have an original Model F (I got it for 15€!) and I have to say the feeling is even more refined, “mechanial” and “right” than the Model M. The thing not that right about original Model F is the layout, not very handy for modern ages.
Edited 2017-07-19 09:00 UTC
Title: The best keyboard ever is back
All comments: There is no 1 best keyboard, there is only keyboard x/y/z that I like the best
Which is exactly the point. Keyboard taste differs and saying mechanical/classical keyboards are superior is clearly not true for all of us.
Edited 2017-07-19 16:00 UTC
I must have typed thousands of letters, lecture notes and whatnot on my little Olivetti portable typewriter.
The nice thing was that you “know” that you’ve typed the wrong key a microsecond after you’ve touched it – plenty of time to take your finger off the key before it strikes the platen and go for the correct key.
I like a keyboard that fights back! Screw the noise – as a kid I went to sleep with the sound of my father’s typewriter in the background.
So yeah – I might just splurge for the model F . . .
The Cutter
Oh god you have terrible taste in keyboard. How can you even mention an Apple input device in the same sentence as good keyboards or mice?
As usual when anybody mentions mechanical keyboards I feel the compulsion to point out that very few keyboards aren’t mechanical.
I prefer silent, medium-stroke keyboards with compact layout – most of those kinds use a scissor mechanism. Don’t like the Apple keyboards, while technically good they just feel completely wrong.
Have never understood people that brag about how their keyboards are the modern (“mechanical”) equivalent of teletype keyboards – hard to activate, super-long stroke monstrosities with an activation sound only a woodpecker could love.
I also grew up during the mechanical keyboard days, and have no desire to return to them. Especially after working for many years in a cubical environment hearing my coworkers pounding on keyboards all day.
I am old enough to actually remember what a sigh of relief it was to progress from a keyboard like the ZX81 over the ZX Spectrum to a ‘real’ keyboard as on the C64.
I worked a lot on the Model M and and enjoyed it at the time. When I first saw that Apple suggested we go back to something that reminded me of the ZX Spectrum days I found it a very strange idea. – Until I tried it for a while. Now I agree with you.
I so much wish Apple would to a genuine tenkeyless version, something like the Ozone Strike Battle. But, of course, that will stay a phantasy…
To me, what makes Model F vastly superior to the M is that it is spill resistant. My gf utterly destroyed a unicomp spacesaver with a glass of orange juice. The membrane is damn fragile, and while it can somehow be repaired with conductive ink on a real Model M, unicomp keyboards are just 200€ pieces of garbage.
So yeah, model F design is just simple and efficient and repairable.
It’s okay Thom. It’s like cars. We can’t all drive Prius’s.
I’m a basher and adore rattling away at over 110wpm on long-reach model-M’s and F’s and more modern unicomp’s.
Honestly.. I despise the slim apple rubbish and hate choosing laptops these days because they just don’t have enough travel. I used a slim apple keyboard and managed to wear it out and kill it within a month.
One of my mates has massive dabs and can’t even use them so an external keyboard that’s a model-M is where it’s at.
You say Potatoe ..I say tomato
We all like different things.
Well, I prefer my Model M keyboards … they have LEDs!
😉
$300+ for a remake ‘retro’ keyboard? Ridiculous.
But maybe not as ridiculous as those horrible Apple keyboards, which are also grossly overpriced.
I sincerely hate Apple Magic keyboards (but not nearly as much as hate their touch-sensitive mice – useless). Flimsy, thin, no tactile or audible feedback, and lacking number pads.
But going back to vintage keyboards isn’t the answer either. So obnoxious.
I’ve found a happy medium with KeyTonic keyboards. Good springy keys with excellent tactile feedback, not too loud or ‘clacky’, very reasonable prices ($20-$30), and they last forever. They’re a big step up from most OEM keyboards nowadays in quality and usability. Remember in the past when Dell actually came with decent keyboards? These KeyTronics seem identical to those older Dell QuietKey keyboards.
Early 1990 our student lab got new HP PA-RISC 7100 99MHz workstations. When you sat down and used that rubber keyboard it was the worst thing ever.
Two weeks later, and when you use another keyboard you can’t understand why it is so crap compared to that HP keyboard – really an aquired taste, but I fell in love with it.
I have since gotten a similar keyboard, but it has hard plastic keys and isn’t anything like it at all in feel.
Anyone know where you can get one of these rubber keyboards?
This keyboard is a model PC104, that is geared solely for the USA. It is missing one key.
I live in a bilinugal country, and we default to using a keyboard PC105
PC104 and PC105 are descriptions of the models, and not the character sets.
The PC105 has an extra key between what is the Z key and the left shift key. Its what we use to write English/French (US or British, or Australian or Canadian English)
Actually, the PC104 layout is missing a key that is normally where I mentioned.
Lenova sells the PC105 keyboard layout in Quebec. Samsung laptops have that extra key too.
I have really tried to like clicky keyboards (own an Apple Extended Keyboard II and a Realforce 87U Tenkeyless) but I can’t make myself do it. The travel is too far, and the keys are too far elevated from the desk. Perhaps if I could somehow embed the keyboard in the desk, it might be better…
Anyway, I like my Apple Wireless Keyboard with my MacBook, but it doesn’t work so well with Windows (mainly annoyances with special keys/characters and having to switch cmd/alt keys).
Anyone who has tried Microsoft Surface Keyboard or the newer, Microsoft Modern Keyboard with Fingerprint ID (that can be connected with either USB or bluetooth)? I have high hopes for the latter, and plan to buy one, once it comes with international layouts. Anyone here who has tried it?