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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.
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.
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 got my CMStorm for $55 after $20 rebate from Newegg. It was shocking how much less the gaming peripheral companies could sell these for.
It's my normal-use typing keyboard that I use for gaming too. I got the Cherry MX Brown. Common types are:
Cherry MX Blue - classic clicky switch, half-way press
Cherry MX Red - pure gaming - key is light (a lot less force to push down) and must be pressed down all the way (to benefit double-tapping)
Cherry MX Brown - In-between blue and red
I initially purchased a Blue (from DAS), but I hated it (too heavy and noisy), and returned it to Amazon. Brown was perfect though. More info about switches here:
http://www.overclock.net/t/491...
Tried the Cherry MX too. Hated and returned it, then bought one from Unicomp. It's really NOT the same thing. The big difference is in how the click is generated and how the key-press is reported to the computer. With the Cherry MX, the fact that the keys are typically harder to push, (increased force required as compared with modern dome-switch and Apple-slim keyboards,) and the click it makes are INCIDENTAL to the function of sending the key-press to the computer. You can try this with your cherry MX. Press a button, "F" for example, all the way down, then let it up a little bit, not all the way, then press it again. The Cherry will send an F, and after a pause when you push down again, it will send a string of F's until you let up again, with NO second click associated with second and additional key-presses. They're basically just dome keyboards with a clicky module built under each key to SIMULATE the feel of using a real, true, ACTUAL buckling-spring keyboard, which they, (the Cherry-MX I tried, I think it was Blue, though might have been Red, wasn't, at any rate, and I could tell).
An IBM/Unicomp (original classic 'clicky' keyboard) will only acknowledge the FIRST press of a key until you let it far enough back up for the buckling spring to UNBUCKLE, (Cherry's don't do this,) and the rocker-like device at the bottom of the key to return to its original position. A TRUE buckling-spring keyboard, like those now made by Unicomp (and cost 5-10 times as much as your cheapie, throw-away keyboards at the bottom of the cost-range, to about the same to twice the cost of a decent, but still basically cheap keyboard, and less actually than really expensive, yet still inferior other keyboards that have lots of BS bells and whistles,) is mechanically different. The way buckling-spring KB's work is a rocker-plate with contacts on the bottom is held by the force of a mostly un-compressed spring pushing one side of it down. I believe this is the open-switch position, (though I am not 100% sure how the electrical part works). When the button is pushed down, the spring is compressed to a point where the force downward exceeds the force at which the spring can remain a vertical coil, and causes it to bulge to the side, or buckle. The only direction in which it can buckle, (due to the post projecting from the top-side of the rocker at the bottom that runs part-way up through the spring,) is in the direction that the rocker-plate is free to move, bringing the contacts on the underside of the switch in contact with contacts on the circuit board just below and partially exposed by the plastic panel that acts as a tray for all the tiny little rockers, which are each about the size of a fingernail.
A Unicomp buckling spring keyboard will run you about the same as a new Apple Keyboard from Apple, give or take a few bucks, depending on which one you buy. The prices are comparable, which IIRC is pretty impressive given that Apple's keyboards are made by child-slaves in China, and Unicomp manufactures its keyboards in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA employing REAL actual Americans while having to meet environmental regulations and workers' rights rules, etc. etc. etc., and having to pay their employees a living wage, which Apple does not, hence why Apple is a hugely valued company, while Unicomp has been in business for years but odds are, you've only just heard of them for the first time. Just got back from their site, it says they're made in Kentucky. That's in the US, for those of you who don't know where Kentucky is. It's by Tennessee, I think.
Source: I have actually taken apart and cleaned an actual, genuine IBM 82-key keyboard a few years ago. I recently bought a Unicomp keyboard, and observed it to be manufactured essentially the same way and exhibit the same behavior, though I did not actually disassemble it.
Footnote: a shocking amount of dust and crud manages to get up the sides of the wells that are where the keys ride up and down, and down t