Slashdot Mirror
Old-School Keyboard Makes Comeback of Sorts
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.
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.
----------------------------
Esobofh - Currently drinking fresh mango juice.
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.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
(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.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
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.
The enemies of Democracy are
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.
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.
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.
Never approach a vast undertaking with a half-vast plan.
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.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
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'.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Have to say, I really like my Logitech G15 v1, it's so much better compared to the orange looking v2 that has different keys which don't type nearly as well.
Not to mention the LCD, which is great as well.
. . . well, that's at least my opinion, after three decades of touch typing. I learned to type back in my teens in the 70's on my mom's Underwood mechanical portable. It was a model that you see international corresponds and sports reporters lugging around in old movies. It had a light touch, but you got a certain feel for full motion of the stroke. It just felt right. Like when I do a full motion backhand in tennis, and I just know that I hit it right.
My high school had an IBM punch card machine, electric, of course, which I used to type out FORTRAN II programs. It had a small footprint, and the keys didn't have much motion at all. It just didn't feel right.
On the other hand, those Teletypes, for the time sharing BASIC system, with the round keys, and the crisp, light touch, and just the right amount of motion were great.
In the meantime, I have typed on all types of varmints and critters, whether I had a choice or not. I don't care about the noise, for me, it's the feel. And I believe that's because of that good old Underwood portable.
Oh, and to disappoint typewriter aficionados, I was never really impressed with the IBM Selectric.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
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.
Legalize the constitution. Think for yourself question authority.
The Dell AT-101W used Alps keyswitches. You can find lots of them on eBay.
Sent from the iPad I found in your car.
What comeback? I never stopped using buckling spring keyboards. The defective non-tactile feedback keyboards that come with most computers go straight into the recycle bin in my office.
And ugly? I think whoever wrote that left a "to me" off the end of the sentence. They do not seem ugly to me. To me they look pretty much like any other keyboard, a flat thing with lots of little rectangular keys.
If you didn't have a piece of crap "legacy free" computer, you'd be able to use their PS/2 version.
I've got an AT-type FK2000, and another AT-type FK2001. I've bought AT-PS/2 adapters because at the time I upgraded from AT to ATX computers, I couldn't find anywhere to get Focus keyboards.
So I'm now typing on the keyboard I bought with my first computer in 1993, and it's still the best keyboard I've ever used.
"City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
I learned to type on a royal manual typewriter and I still miss the action in some ways, but the IBM selectric had the greatest action of all time, this article gives me some hope for the future!
My own opinion as reinforced by comments on Slashdot whenever the subject of keyboards comes up is that anyone who hasn't learned to type on a manual typewriter, or was taught or otherwise learned to type correctly, doesn't know what what they're talking about and most likely doesn't type very well.
That said, your comment is interesting for two reasons. First, it's a reminder that while the effort required to type on manual typewriter is wholely uncessary in this day and age, it did offer the opportunity for one to actually develop good technique and strength in one's fingers and hands. Both are required for efficient and fast typing. When I see people using those so-called ergonomic keyboards, I imagine someone sitting in a bean bag chair whining about their back problems or complaining that sitting in an unpright chair is just "too hard".
Secondly, the IBM selectric did probably offer the best "action" of any keyboard. Musicians understand that term, and evaluate their instrument based on that criteria. What they don't do is complain about the time and effort required to develop strength and good technique, or the ergonomics of playing. They just play, and do so effortlessly for hours on end. On the other hand, what is an ideal "action" for one person may not be the same as for another, so it's unrealistic to expect people to agree on One True Keyboard.
Given that most keyboards today suck, I think we're all stuck making compromises. I have strong hands and fingers but prefer a very light action. If given the choice between an IBM Model M and my Thinkpad, I'd opt to use my Thinkpad. For anyone that doesn't already know how to type fast and accurately, that choice would be absurd.
When I started working at my present company, they had an old Unicomp keyboard lying around that no one else wanted to use. I was happy to give it try. I love the way it feels to my fingers and it definitely improved my typing speed and accuracy. I'm a heavy emacs user, and I appreciate that the Ctrl key is as solid and responsive today as it was months ago. This is the first keyboard I've had that could stand up to heavy coding and writing.
The noise made me feel a little self conscious at first but my neighbors are used to it, and the guy in the next cube tried mine out and ordered his own. He's as happy with his as I am with mine, but he ordered the Mac caps to switch out.
I run an Iogear USB/DVI and switch between three Linux boxes, a Mac Pro and a Windows XP box and all work great with the Unicomp as well.
[-- Trust the Monkey --]
aah... the 'click click click' that goes with posting on slashdot...
...That's *IF* I decide to be generous, and don't have it buried with me...
The day I can't connect my genuine 1980s Model M to my PC is the day I give up PCs.
Of course, this will never happen: In 300 years time, my great-great-great-great-great-great grandchildren will be squabbling with each other over who gets the great family heirloom - the indestructible and still fully functional Model M. The family Jet will collect dust and the collection of sportscars will go unnoticed as all fight singlemindedly for custody of the great Model M.
The Model M is the greatest keyboard ever, and no other keyboard could ever possibly live up to it. Simple fact, case closed. If you disagree, it means you're not qualified to make a judgement.
It's great to see that someone is still producing them - perhaps the 5 Model M's I've been hoarding as spares are superfluous...
Actually, they *are* superfluous; not because Unicomp is still making them, but because they are Utterly, totally, completely indestructible. This is a keyboard which can easily be used as a murder weapon. This is a keyboard of such impressive durability that when you throw your keyboard at the wall in a fit of rage, the wall gives way rather than the keyboard. If NASA had the sense to use Model M keyboards as heat shielding for the space shuttle, we'd still have Columbia. In the distant future, archeologists will only be able to speculate on the possible function of most of man's inventions, because they'll have trouble reverse-engineering the heavily-decayed skeletons of cars, planes, computers, and other artifacts. The Model M won't suffer this problem, because they'll just dig them out of the ancient ruins and plug them in.
An alternative theory of mine is that they won't have to speculate on the nature of the Model M, because it'll be their religion.
I have spilt coke, coffee, orange juice, cigarette ash, tomato sauce, sweat, blood, and tears into my model M. You don't even have to stop typing to turn the keyboard upside down and shake the liquid out - you just keep typing, firm in the knowledge that the coffee will dry up sooner or later, and that will happen long before it will do any kind of damage to your Model M.
Model M keyboard owners do not fear burglary by armed intruders, or even raids by SWAT teams, because they know that a thrown Model M is far more deadly than an armalite ar-10 carbine gas powered semi-automatic weapon, and far more bulletproof than that piddly body armour those soldiers wear.
As I recall, the original Type M keyboard (aka the 1391401) had a list price of about $400. For just the keyboard.
And yes, I still have mine.
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
i imagine a spring keyboard would be harder to sniff, the main sound in a rubber sheet keyboard is the key striking the bottom plate, which results in a different strike position for each key giving a different sound. with a spring keyboard the primary sound is the spring assembly in each key, so the difference in sound should be less.
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
Yeah, but it suffers from an ergonomic oversight. Unless you have delicate, sensitive fingers of a surgeon, you can't feel the home-row position. But other than that, it is decent.
The keyboard that I'm typing on now is an IBM model M from 1984. That's right; 25 years of very hard use & abuse, and it's still doing fine.
I've slaughtered lesser keyboards provided to me by employers. Now I have a model M at the office (much newer; it's only twenty years old) and doing fine.
$70 for a brand new one with a USB connection and the extra "Windows" keys is a steal.