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Mechanical 'Clicky' Keyboards Still Have Followers (Video)
For a good number of years, the sound of the old IBM or other mechanical keyboard clacking away was the sound of programmers (or writers) at work on their computers. Then, according to Edgar Matias, president and cofounder of the Matias Corporation, computer companies started using membrane switches and other cheaper ways to make keyboards, which made a lot of people mutter curse words under their breath as they beat their fingers against keys that had to go all the way to the bottom of their travel to work, unlike the good old mechanical keyboards we once knew and loved.
Enter Edgar Matias, who started out making the half keyboard, which is like a chorded keyboard except that you can use your QWERTY typing skills with little modification -- assuming you or your boss has $595 (!) to lay out on a keyboard. But after that Edgar started making QWERTY and Dvorak keyboards for semi-competitive prices. FYI: No Slashdot person got a free keyboard (or extra money) for making this video, but I have a Matias keyboard, and in my opinion it's far better than the cheapie it replaced. A lot of other people seem to want "real" keyboards, too, which they buy from Matias or from other companies such as Unicomp, which makes keyboards just like the classic, heavily-loved IBM Model M. Again, I've owned a Unicomp keyboard (that I bought; it was not a giveaway) and it was excellent. Both companies put out quality products that are far easier on your hands and wrists than the $10 or $20 keyboards sold by big box electronics retailers.
Enter Edgar Matias, who started out making the half keyboard, which is like a chorded keyboard except that you can use your QWERTY typing skills with little modification -- assuming you or your boss has $595 (!) to lay out on a keyboard. But after that Edgar started making QWERTY and Dvorak keyboards for semi-competitive prices. FYI: No Slashdot person got a free keyboard (or extra money) for making this video, but I have a Matias keyboard, and in my opinion it's far better than the cheapie it replaced. A lot of other people seem to want "real" keyboards, too, which they buy from Matias or from other companies such as Unicomp, which makes keyboards just like the classic, heavily-loved IBM Model M. Again, I've owned a Unicomp keyboard (that I bought; it was not a giveaway) and it was excellent. Both companies put out quality products that are far easier on your hands and wrists than the $10 or $20 keyboards sold by big box electronics retailers.
The most common mechanical keyboards are gaming boards using Cherry switches, which are usually a little under $100. They've been in common use for at least six or seven years, and work for 'normal' use in a pinch.
My Model M turned 25 last month, and is still going strong :D
I'm writing this from a das with Cherry MX Blue keys. And I'm only a hobbyist programmer.
I hate the sound of clicky keyboards.
Where's the keyboard driver that can do this?
I'm right handed, and I think a half-keyboard for the right hand would make much more sense. I only saw references to the left-hand one in the given link. I've found a number of good reasons to mouse on the "wrong" hand.
On another, more general note, mechanical does not have to mean clicky. I can't stand any extra noise, but I still like the feel of good mechanical keyboards, so something like Brown switches are a good compromise.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
You can't walk through the aisle of a Fry's or Best Buy without passing an array of mechanical keyboards. They're pretty much the de facto standard for gaming.
"still" have followers? They're mass market implements.
I bought myself an all black Unicomp with blank keycaps as a celebration once I reached my 90 days at my first IT job. It's fantastic, and it's so cool that it's actually made in the USA.
It's a bit loud though, but my coworkers don't seem to mind.
Mfg. date: 7/31/92
I have about 5 more in reserve, should be enough to last me until I can't type no mo'.
clickity clickity clickity!
No Trackpoint
Find a largish Terminal F board, sacrifice a black M13 for its labeled black keycaps, get a unicomp trackstick controller, and then you have this.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
I'm typing this on a vintage 1984 Model M Spacesaver keyboard (missing the numeric keypad to save desk space). Only IBM put decades of research into their keyboard ergonomics and they still type as well today as they did 30+ years ago.
Because that's all it is.
It's the keyswitch FEEL. Clicky or non-clicky, you want a mechanical keyswitch. There are many options now for people who want a non-clicky keyboard with good feel - check for a keyboard with Cherry MX Brown switches.
I'm all for clicky keyboards, but when your keyboard is priced at nearly $600 you can guarantee it's going to fail. No qwerty keyboard on the planet is worth $600.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
Manufacture Date November 1, 1994.
Saved it from an old employer that was throwing it out for one o' dem new fangled Dell quietkeyboards.
Used it daily up until about 6 months ago when my company switched to macs for development. (Still have the windows box running in case I need to do some maintenance on legacy stuff but once that's gone it'll replace my old VT keyboard (that I also saved from an old employer) that I use at home.
The problem I have with current keyboards is not just the short travel and lack of clickyness, but the tiny height of the keys.
Instead of the tall keys with space between them for fingernail clearance, there are these thin squares maybe an eighth of an inch above a solid surface. If I don't keep all my fingernails cut short, when they go past the side of the key they hit the panel and the key doesn't "strike". Letters get dropped. (So I get to pick between typing well and playing the guitar. I pity those who must keyboard for a living but want long nails to maintain their social life.) The short travel means there's little margin for finger variation, so some letters, where my fingers don't depress the keys as far, normally, don't strike, while others, where I support the weight of my hands, do strike when they shouldn't, or strike multiply.
After over a year I haven't been able to adjust. You may have noticed that my spelling has gone to hell as a result: I have to do a lot more correction and sometimes miss fixing things up.
(The inadequately-configurable trackpads, in positions where they detect the palm resting on the laptop (or brushing them) and randomly jump the cursor or highlight whole paragraphs so the next keystroke replaces them, are no help, either.)
On the other hand, when the nails do hit the key, they quickly wear through the top level of black plastic, exposing the backlit transparent light below it. I replaced a laptop about a year ago and after about six months about a half-dozen heavily-used keys had their pretty letters obscured by the giant glow of the scoured away region.
I had been running on older thinkpads and toshibas, with classic keyboard-shaped keys, or at least the little fingertip cup and substantial fingernail clearance. Switching (in a two-dead-laptops-in-two-weeks emergency) to a lenovo z710, then to a company-supplied toshiba s75, both with the stupid "I'm so thin", square, low-travel, no-finger-cup keys has been a disaster.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
"Still" have followers? Mechanical keyboards have been making a huge comeback for years, and are pretty much a standard for gaming and other high-end self-built machines now. You don't have to spend anywhere near $500 to get a good one either. This article/video sounds like it was written for an audience from six years ago or something.
Love my Corsair K95. Marketed as a gaming keyboard (it's got fancy LEDs and 18 macro keys etc.) but works well for long coding sessions too.
You should be aware that some PS/2 Model M keyboards will not work with a USB-PS/2 adapter. Some keyboards draw too much power (amps?) for some USB-PS/2 adapters, even though both PS/2 and USB are 5v. So, you may replace your Model M with an (older) one and it suddenly won't work with your adapter or will drop at random times. There's no way to tell which adapter-keyboard combination will fail until you try it...
That's why I went with a Unicomp USB clicky keyboard, as they bought the factory & patents from Lexmark... (IBM -> Lexmark -> Unicomp)
Windows 3.1x calc: 3.11 - 3.10 = 0.00
I have a Lexmark branded IBM keyboard from the 20th century that I use to this day on my personal home machine. It has a large 5-PIN DIN connector and I use a DIN to PS2 adapter to connect it to my MB. It has no Windows key, but I used SharpKeys to remap caps lock to Windows. I never used caps lock anyway. :) So the keyboard is from my 486 days. It's heavy. All the keys work as they always have. It's the Porsche of keyboards. Like my 911, I don't think I will ever get rid of it.
But I've yet to find one of those half and half keyboards that felt right. The Microsoft Natural curves slighly towards the center. Most of the split keyboards are a flat plane that you prop up at an angle. Literally just a regular keyboard cut in half that you can put at about a 30 degree angle. The trouble is my pinkies are shorter than my middle/index fingers. The Microsoft shape seems to talke that into account more.
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I may have to try out the ergonomic version. I currently use a Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000 keyboard. I love the shape of it, and I don't mind the key action, but I wonder if it's more because I really haven't tried something else. Still, $200 is a lot of money to drop on a product you're not sure you'll actually prefer using.
Is there anyone out there who's actually tried mechanical vs membrane keyboards and actually prefer the latter (excluding the noise factor, as it sounds like that problem has been largely solved)?
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
There has been a near continuous stream of articles, videos, advertisement, and reviews of mechanical keyboards coming out over the last few years. They only 'went out of style' because they stopped making new models for a few years. That only lasted until the keyboard manufacturers saw how much we were paying for model Ms and wanted back in on the action.
OMG facts!
For regular typing the "truly ergonomic keyboard" is actually really nice. Symmetric stagger but the rows are not straight...they curve to match finger length.
For coding I found that the punctuation keys (the huge cluster by the right pinky) were moved around too much and it was hard to switch between it and a normal keyboard.
The best keys are the Honeywell Hall-effect devices, now out of production for 18 years.
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Ever notice that as membrane keyboard rose, repetitive injuries flourished?
If you start having pinched nerves or spasms of your inner arm muscles (mostly teres minor and brachialis) simply buy a second "micro" keyboard for $14 and put it off to the side of your other keyboard.
You type on the right half of the right keyboard and the left half of the left keyboard and your arms are in an open relaxed position. You won't be "clinching" your arms to your side any more.
It works. I did it. I recommended to others-- it worked for them. Everyone who has tried it so far has adapted in about 30 to 90 seconds.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
I don't have to have the best of the best, I don't even need mechanical clicky keyboards although I like them. If I get something that's pretty decent that's fine with me. ...which is why I'm really surprised there are so many machines out there with keyboards that are flat-out unacceptable for any level of typing. The Surface Pro 3 comes to mind--I complained to a friend that this keyboard was just shy of a war crime, and their response was "Oh, yeah, you must have the Touch Cover--they stopped making that, and you should get the Type Cover, which is way better". The punchline, of course, was that I had a Type Cover. The "good" one. I can't even imagine how a keyboard could have been worse. Was the Touch Cover made out of molded toothpaste or something?
Anyone remember the Model F keyboard? (PC/XT keyboard). It used capacitive switches and a buckling spring. Has a really loud click and a nice feel. They are still around because the switches have about a 10^8 keypress MTBF. Only problem is you need a microcontroller to remap the scan codes to use it with current machines.
1) Wireless is a must.
2) Split is a must.
I've spent thousands of dollars on keyboards and mice over the years I've owned computers. While a mechanical keyboard may cost twice as much as some of the cheaper models out there, it lasts for many long years without failing. Contrast that with, for example, Microsoft or Logitech keyboards, which only last about 9 months under my heavy use.
The sole exception was the original Natural Pro that Microsoft released. The first one I owned lasted five years. The second and third lasted 6-9 months, after which I swore off ever buying one again.
My el-cheapo "X-Armor" cherry keyswitch keyboard (the cheapest I could find), on the other hand, is now over two years old and still going strong. The clatter of a keyboard isn't an issue for me, because I no longer work in cube-land, but even if I was still in an office setting, I'd insist on a proper mechanical keyboard and to hell with the cube-mates. Your yapping on the phone, chit chat in the hallways, and annoying radios/headphones are not work related like my "noise" is.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
I agree, Unicomp keyboards are hard to beat thanks to their buckling spring switches. And the price is awesome: $80 or so for a keyboard that feels *solid*. Compare to at least $120 for most Cherry-based keyboards. I use mine in a software development office (cubicles) and I don't have complains. To the contrary, other developers and sysadmins have bought their own Unicomp after typing a few test lines. Too bad the poster posted as AC, this is a very thoughtful post.
--
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The reason I have a Model M at home, one in the server room and not one at my work desk is the noise pisses nearby people off. It just goes to show, those keyboards are a hell of a lot quieter than a mechanical or electric typewriter so the noise was not a big deal when they were designed.
I love my Unicomp. It reminds me of the IBM Model Ms we used in school.
I charge forward recklessly, leaving chaos in my wake.
I work with a guy who uses a refurbished old IBM keyboard. Heavy clicking, bulky, and honestly awesome. I grew up with an IBM manual and love feeling like I pressed a key. Now if my monitor would stop falling over when I accidentally hit the invisible carriage return...
Get your new fangled crap off my lawn!
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
I still have my first keyboard, an Omni Key 101 from 1994. Wouldn't trade it for the world.
That's the last time I run code posted in somebody's sig...
The Unicomp clicky keyboards are also available with blank keys (no letters). I've found that to be a good way to improve touch typing. Even if you don't think you're looking at the keyboard much (I didn't) it can be surprising how much you're cheating.
... also, I can kill you with my brain.
I actually watched this video. It appears about 1/4 of the video is the guy saying "um" or otherwise stammering through his statements. Everyone would look better with a little trimming of the fat in this video.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
I do a lot of writing, fiction and non. About a year ago I got a Rosewill keyboard with the Cherry Brown switches and love it. Once had a Toshiba notebook that had a great keybd but other than that everything I'd used for years was the flat, no-feel, lowest-common-denominator cheap ass junk that everyone seems to put up with. I never seemed to find anything at the local computer stores (Micro Center etc) that was worth a damn either. But the Rosewill seems pretty damn nice. I can pound it mercilessly all day.
My only concern at this point is key legend wear. It seems that the "s" key is not as legible as it was when new. By comparison my old Dell kbd's legends were almost completely gone except for Q, Z, X, W and a few others. There's a process called double-shot molding where the legends go all the way thru the thickness of the key, otherwise they're like painted on, and can wear off.
Edgar Matias saved the ALPS switch industry. His company, at significant expense, and through expensive trial-and-error, has succeeded in perfecting the manufacture of clicky and non-clicky ALPS switch clones.
While most of us keyboard enthusiasts extol the virtues of buckling-spring IBM/Lexmark keyboards continued by Unicomp, and the recent introduction of full Cherry MX Green heavy clicky switch keyboards (previously only used in spacebars alone), Matias is a true hero.
Newegg Rosewill/Striker, Newegg ABS, DS International, and Ducky have had reasonably good ALPS clones that have fallen out of production. But Matias continues to be the gold standard for those of us who appreciate the sound and feel of classic ALPS clicky and non-clicky keyboards.
It's a complicated and varied history in the original and clone ALPS switches if you're into that sort of thing.
Kriston
Keyboards? Voice recognition had rendered them obsolete. You are all living in the duck cages.
There are many mechanical keyboards. I use a Filco which I am very pleased with.
Of course there are still people liking mechanical keyboards. so what?
There are actual split keyboards out there. Some have a very short wire between the two halves - penny pinching, I suspect - but this looks like it would suit even a university librarian.
http://www.fentek-ind.com/imag...
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I started with mechanical keyboards and barely noticed when they all disappeared. I liked them well enough but there is no way I'm spending $100.00+ on a keyboard for nostalgia or some imperceptible gaming edge. Certainly not when I spill a beer in my keyboard every few months. Perhaps if I were a coder or writer who actually typed all day...
The keyboard is the oldest part of my computer set-up. A 1986 IBM model M.
I use a laptop now, but at my former employer, when I used a workstation, the ergonomics department took away my 'clicky' keyboard because they said the large travel of the keys put too much strain on my wrists. They replaced it with a laptop-style keyboard.
Interestingly, my typing technique revolves around not moving my fingers. If you hold the hand in a relaxed neutral position, you'll observe that there are angles from which each finger will protrude beyond the others. By using rotation of the hand from the arm, friction due to contact between finger and key, and the geometry of the finger's bones as you move the hand across the key, muscular effort in the hand is unnecessary. To learn this, you have to start slowly, and be aware, for each keypress, which key is coming next, so as to leave one key in such a way as to set up the hand for the next keystroke. Done well, this discipline leads to very few errors, and reasonable speed, and of course no strain on the joints, ligaments and tendons on the hand and forearm. The half keyboard, with it's use of the spacebar appears to be difficult to use using such a technique.
A 'C' in touch-typing in high school on an IBM Selectric has over some decades of practice become a fairly quick set of fingers.
There are polite comments--"gee you type really fast". Sometimes people even walk over to make the observation.
Folks are NOT impressed with typing speed. They're distracted by the racket from the next desk over. This with a 'regular' soft keyboard.
We *do* have an original Model M in the lab. One of the Engineers brought it in along with an IBM AT so we could test some ancient programming hardware and software. It's sat idle since the tests were completed. One can only imagine that the purchase of a USB adapter would be followed shortly by a homicide.
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
I am generally a "touch typist", having learned keyboarding on a manual typewriting more than 60 years ago.
When I bought a new PC from Dell, it came with a Dell keyboard with a USB connection. The keys were nearly flat on top with straight sides and little space between, which meant I had constant problems with positioning my fingers without looking down on the keyboard. Since the keyboard was black with white lettering (very poor ergonomics), I had to keep the lights on in my home office to see where I was placing my fingers; bright indirect daylight through the adjacent window was insufficient. The spacing between groups of function keys at the top was too little, which meant that I often hit the wrong function key.
I quickly replaced the keyboard with a beige Microsoft keyboard, again with a USB connection. This was purchased through Amazon.com. The keys were tapered and concave on top. There was sufficient spacing between groups of function keys. Its design indeed met my needs. However, certain character keys were defective; quickly repeated strokes did not register. If I typed "11", for example, it would give me only "1". At first, this was merely an annoyance. Paying my bills via the Web through my credit union, however, I once paid a bill requesting $110.00 by sending only $10.00. Microsoft, the manufacturer of the keyboard, referred me to Amazon.com. Amazon.com indicated they no longer stock that keyboard and refunded my purchase price and even said to keep the keyboard.
My wife's PC is several years old and has a KeyTronic keyboard that is even older, from a prior PC. I found KeyTronic on the Web at https://keyboards.keytronic.co.... The most pricy item in their list of keyboards was under $100 unless you wanted a package of 10 keyboards. They have wired and wireless. The have PS2 and USB. They have black, light gray, and beige. They guarantee a keyboard for as long as you own it (as long as they remain in business). My KeyTronic keyboard is wonderfully noisy, letting me know when a key-touch actually registered.
By the way, I much prefer wired keyboard and mouse. I really do not want to deal with batteries. Too often, I have had a battery leak and destroy the device that used it. I now have two extra keyboards for anyone who want them.
I'm typing this on a 1994-vintage Model M. Best keyboards ever made.
Yes, but they are not $14. They tend to be hundreds of dollars.
It's ridiculous - you take two $14 microkeyboards (with full size keys), make a limited run of specialty split keyboards and they cost over $300.
I replace the hand which doesn't use the special keys with the alternate keyboard. Measuring it...my thumbs are 23" apart. sort of looks like i'm playing an organ. But my arms and hands are in a very natural position, no muscles tightened.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
eh?
Best keyboard I ever owned - built like a truck and cost me - I dunno - $65? The two previous keyboards died after about couple years each - with the money I pissed away on them, I could have bought the unicomp...
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
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Fair point, I hadn't noticed how much they were. Your solution is certainly ingenious but I've worked in places where I wouldn't have had the room. And where does your coffee go?
P.S. Make sure the cleaner doesn't put one on top of the other. I used to have a French one (used only for logging in) and an English one for actual work. Overnight it had attempted to log in with a blank password a few thousand times more than the failure limit.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
i'd like it more if they were a bit more accessible and less gimmicky. ever searched hard for a particular mechanical keyboard that you feel is just right for your needs, only to find out it's made in extremely limited quantities and sold out across the globe? looking at you, Ducky.
the majority of them are just gaudy. who really needs backlighting? i personally don't like the look of illuminated keyboards, and they make up more than 60% of the mechanical keyboard market. let's not be concerned with the fact that you can usually disable this particular feature, i'd just rather not spend the extra money on a feature i don't actually want.
finally, prices are typically absurd for the exclusiveness of these products. for the limited time i was in the market for one of these, i was searching all over the internet looking for that particular keyboard i really would have liked to buy, ready to throw at least $110 at it, but eventually found out it was not available to buy anywhere (unless i happened to buy the last one in stock from a UK-only retailer; didn't happen) so this pretentious exclusivity turned me away from the mechanical keyboard market altogether, and my money stays safe in my pocket.
My coffee is behind my right keyboard on top of my notepads. Mouse is in the middle right now tho I've had a mouse tray in the past when doing this. Graphics tablet is on the back of the table leaning against the wall or in my hands/middle if I'm using it.
I using a mini desk/folding table right now. (Long term a small antique desk is intended for this spot.
The table is 20" by 40". The 28" monitor is 24" from my eyes and on a upside down "infile" box about 9"x12". I think mid term I'll be putting it on a mount or even mounting it on the wall.
The space available is shallow but wide- about 48" deep (including seating room) by 62 inches wide.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Get a Cherry MX Board 3.0, its 60€ and you can get whatever switches you want. No stupid lights, no useless macro keys, just a pure keyboard with awesome feel.