The 10 Worst PC Keyboards of All Time

Kabz found the 10 Worst PC Keyboards of all time which leads off with the Commodore 64 and takes a trip through PCjr country. Might trigger some nostalgia, or some sort of flashback wrist strain.

Comments

Is it bad??

[Matt867]

Is it bad that I own 6 out of 10 of these keyboards and am looking for the other 4 to complete my collection?

Backspace

[baeksu]

So there really was keyboards without a backspace...And I always thought it was just a bad dream, like the one with the strange man, pickup van, and false promises of candy...

It's a good thing no one patented the backspace, though. Wait a minute, I think I just came up with a business plan!

Re:Well...

[baldass_newbie]

typing on it gave me much more finger strength than I really needed (and the nickname "the claw" when typing on softer keyboards)

Now come on...that isn't really how you got the nickname.
Be honest.

Re:How about the best

[Ubergrendle]

I still use IBM keyboards at work and home due to their durability. True story -- IBM used to market the keyboards to banks (like the one I work at) as a productivity enhancer...the loud audible 'click click click' has been proven in usability studies to improve data entry by 3-5% since its another feedback response (audible) to a potential error. When I mistype on an IBM keyboard, I *know* I've mistyped.

I also like the fact that I can bludgeon someone to death with it, if worse comes to worst.

Re:Well...

[cbart387]

Believe me, having owned the Atari 400 (my first computer), at that time; I would've given my right arm for a keyboard that good! I don't know...losing an arm would balance out a better keyboard in my opinion.

Re:Well...

[jcaplan]

Ah, a fellow caps-lock hater. I customarily pop off a bunch of keys on my keyboards. It gets me a few odd looks at work, but it saves me lots of hassle. If I truly need one of those keys I can use a pencil to activate it. Here's the rest of my hate list:

Insert - I've never had a use for "write over mode." Has anyone?
Windows - Almost useless, squeezed between useful keys. Fortunately my Linux systems ignore this key.
Menu - I'll just right-click, thanks.
Num lock - Why won't this go away? Why do I need a way for my numeric keypad stop to working? Are the arrow keys hard to find?

-Jon

disagree on some points

[Tom]

I have to disagree on a number of points, that I think could've been researched better:

• The "nonstandard keys" complaint about the C64 ignores that back in 1973 when the C64 was designed, there was no standard. You can't be "nonstandard" if there isn't a standard. Even the IBM 8086 keyboards where "nonstandard" by that definition (check here and here for examples)
  
• Snide remark: The vast majority of C64 owners didn't do "real work on daddy's IBM PC" because daddy didn't own a computer at all back then. We were the first generation with computers at home, for the most part.
  
• The constant whining about the lack of backspace ignores that on many of those machines (I don't know all of them, so some might work differently) the delete key actually worked as backspace when you were at the end of a line.
  

Mostly, I don't understand why the article complains so much about old keyboards, from times when everyone, including the computer companies, was still working things out. There are perfectly crappy keyboards on the market right now. Sure, they have a "standard" layout, but after using them for 3 weeks the keys start to rub off so you can start to learn touch-typing, except that the tactile feedback is nonexistent and the keypresses unreliable. I'd consider that much worse than having key X next to key Y.

Also, can we add the article to the list of "10 worst article navigation methods"?