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Enthusiast Resurrects IBM's Legendary 'Model F' Keyboard (popularmechanics.com)
An anonymous reader quotes Popular Mechanics: 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. The second coming of the high-quality Model F (not to be confused with its more affordable plastic successor, the Model M) isn't a throwback attention grab from IBM, nor a nostalgia play from Big Keyboard. Instead, it's the longtime work of a historian in love with the retro keyboard's unparalleled sound and feel, but frustrated by the limitations of actual decades-old tech.
The Model F Keyboards project, now taking preorders for the new line of authentic retro-boards, was started by Joe Strandberg, a Cornell University grad who's taken up keyboard wizardry as a nights-and-weekends hobby. He started as a collector and restorer of genuine Model F keyboards -- originally produced from 1981 to 1994 -- a process that familiarized him with their virtues and their flaws... Working with a factory in China, Strandberg has carefully overseen the reproduction process one step at time, from the springs to the unique powder-coating on the keyboard's zinc case. Despite the expense (Strandberg estimates spending $100,000 to revive the tooling necessary for the production run), it was the only viable option given the kind of abuse your average keyboard takes on a daily basis. "With 3D printing," he says, "the keyboard wouldn't last a year."
The first prototypes have just left the assembly line, and he's already racked up over a quarter of a million dollars in pre-orders. Does anyone else fondly remember IBM's hefty and trusty old keyboards?
The Model F Keyboards project, now taking preorders for the new line of authentic retro-boards, was started by Joe Strandberg, a Cornell University grad who's taken up keyboard wizardry as a nights-and-weekends hobby. He started as a collector and restorer of genuine Model F keyboards -- originally produced from 1981 to 1994 -- a process that familiarized him with their virtues and their flaws... Working with a factory in China, Strandberg has carefully overseen the reproduction process one step at time, from the springs to the unique powder-coating on the keyboard's zinc case. Despite the expense (Strandberg estimates spending $100,000 to revive the tooling necessary for the production run), it was the only viable option given the kind of abuse your average keyboard takes on a daily basis. "With 3D printing," he says, "the keyboard wouldn't last a year."
The first prototypes have just left the assembly line, and he's already racked up over a quarter of a million dollars in pre-orders. Does anyone else fondly remember IBM's hefty and trusty old keyboards?
Unicomp has been making brand new Model Ms for years, using the same tooling that was originally used by IBM to make them.
What makes the Model F better, other than the historical angle? And if it's just the historical reasons, why bother with a $300 remake instead of the real thing, when you can just buy a new Model M from Unicomp for a lot less money and get the same feel with identical inauthenticity?
If you're confused reading this, welcome to the club. :)
I can't remember having seen a site slashdotted in a long time....
I finally just got the order page up. Prices start at $325. No thanks.
Beware of the Leopard.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
The IBM Model F and M were specifically designed to mimic the feel and sound of IBM Selectric typewriters, since those were pretty much THE STANDARD for typewriters in offices at the time.
This way when employees would move from their Selectric to a computer, the keyboard would have a familiar feel and sound.
So yeah, the wonderful feel of these keyboards goes back to the 1960s when IBM perfected the Selectric.
Cherry MX series switches come in four basic types. One, I forget which, has a nice clicky feel but is also very quiet. A variety of keyboards use them and some aren't that expensive.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I've had $10 keyboards. Heck, I have a $100 Mac keyboard. The feel isn't the same. When I'm typing on one of my Model M's, I know what I'm typing is getting through. With the squishy keyboards, I keep having to backspace because I'm missing a letter, which sucks when I'm on a unix box typing in commands (which I do most of the day).
I've had my Model M since 89 and it still works great (I'm on it now). Work has provided Dell keyboards, Mac keyboards, and various other brand and non-name brand keyboards. Just nothing works like the IBM I have, to the point that I bought a second one just on case :)
[John]
Shit better not happen!
Cherry MX switches are NOT buckling spring. They are mechanical but not the same mechanism at all.
Gateway? I think you misspelled "Northgate". The Omnikey Ultra was my all time favorite.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.