Dann's keyboard

[btyson]

I noticed on the last couple of episodes the sound of Dann typing. It sounded like a nice quality keyboard, the kind with mechanical, non-membrane switches. I was just wondering what kind of keyboard that was, and any keyboard preferences or recommendations people have.

I can tell you I love the old Northgate OmniKey and the Fujitsu FKB4700 series.

I am surprised sometimes to observe that many people don't seem to care about keyboards. They happily use whatever piece of junk came with the computer.

What do some of you out there think about keyboards?

[mowestusa]

I can tell you I love the old Northgate OmniKey and the Fujitsu FKB4700 series.

What do some of you out there think about keyboards?

I agree, I do care about my keyboard. I have a cheap black keyboard that came with my Walmart special closeout computer that I hate, but I rarely use that computer so I suffer for now.

My favorite keyboard that I use every day is a Dell QuietKey. I don't think it is that quiet, but I like the feel of the keys, the key spacing, the effort needed to press the keys feels right. It doesn't look special at all otherwise.

I like nice laptop style keyboards too. I just got a new one for my GeeXBoX computer so I have not typed on it much, so I'm not sure if I like the feel or not.

[adam]

IMHO, the model m is the god of keyboards.


I'd like to try out one of the Happy Hacking Keyboards but I can't justify spending $70 on something that I'm pretty sure I won't like.

[snarkout]

That IBM looks like a keytronic w/o windows keys. While I'm happy that IBM/Lenovo ditched the windows key on my lappy keyboard, replacing it with dead space seems kind of stupid on a full sized kb.

While I love good keyboards, I tend to type on whatever I have - right now I'm typing on a $6 pile of crap. I've spend upwards of $60 on a KB before, and liked the KB (though not 10x more than this one), but since keyboards around here seem to die horrible deaths much before their time, I'm sticking with junkboards until my kids get older.

My one and only absolute requirement is that my KB does not have that goddamned HUGE enter key. I always wonder what kind of person has difficulty with the restrictions of the current inch-plus long return key, but have no problem at all with a microscopic backspace key and |\ key. Sadly more and more manufacturers seem to be moving to this style.

[mowestusa]

That IBM looks like a keytronic w/o windows keys. While I'm happy that IBM/Lenovo ditched the windows key on my lappy keyboard, replacing it with dead space seems kind of stupid on a full sized kb.

I'm not sure if you were refering to the model M that Adam praised or not in the above quote. When the model M was manufactured there were no "Windows" it was still mostly a DOS world, so that is the reason for the lack of a Window's key and the blank space. They did not have anything else to put in its place.

[adam]

If I'm not mistaken, UniComp(makes the model m these days), offers a wide array of key layouts and you can get a standard 104-key with a penguin key instead of a windows key. Not really important but just an FYI.

[harriseldon]

I use this keyboard at work.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/8396/

It is well-weighting with good "clicking" noises. Plus, the reaction on people's faces the first time they try to type is priceless.

[dann]

dann should have replied long ago and now that he has, he should not have replied from work because I don't know what kind of keyboard I have. All I know is that i paid like 15 bucks for it at some office supply store on a whim because my other one was getting to grimy and the keys were sticking. I'm not one for paying too much for a keyboard.

[btyson]

I'm not sure if you were refering to the model M that Adam praised or not in the above quote. When the model M was manufactured there were no "Windows" it was still mostly a DOS world, so that is the reason for the lack of a Window's key and the blank space. They did not have anything else to put in its place.

I prefer keyboards without the Windows keys because I never use that key, and I like the longer spacebar that is possible without them. Naturally such keyboards are old, since virtually all modern ones have the Windows keys. However, I still have a bunch of old pre-Windows keyboards, most of which use the old "AT" style large connector, so I have to use an AT-PS2 adapter. I have such a keyboard, an old AT&T model, in my office at work. Recently a technician from our IT dept. came to install an update or something, and he was quite amazed at the absence of the Windows keys. It was obvious he had never seen this before and did not realize there was a time when keyboards did not have Windows keys! "Yes, Sonny, back in my day, keyboards did not have Windows keys, and they had a nice long space bar. Sit down and let me tell you about the first time I saw a 486!"

[btyson]

dann should have replied long ago and now that he has, he should not have replied from work because I don't know what kind of keyboard I have. All I know is that i paid like 15 bucks for it at some office supply store on a whim because my other one was getting to grimy and the keys were sticking. I'm not one for paying too much for a keyboard.

Thanks for answering the question, Dann. The sound fooled me into thinking it was one of those really nice mechanical ones.

I have an IBM keyboard I got for $15 on sale at Office Max a few years ago. It is one of the nicest keyboards I've seen in that price range, and it is nicer than several of my other keyboards. I have often wished I had picked up a few more.

On the other hand, we have some IBM keyboards at work that are horrible in my opinion. Minimal feedback, minimal key travel, look and feel cheap. Once I fried one of them that was especially gunked up and encrusted with filth. I held it under a faucet, and boy did it look nice after that. But I did not wait long enough for it to dry out, and it fried when I plugged it in! I opened it up, and I found that there was moisture between the two membrane layers and on the circuit board. As you can guess, I was not very sad about it.

[snarkout]

Unfortunately lots of things, even in Linux, map the windows key to things these days. Obviously the keys can be remapped, but that leaves the user with the job of dealing with this. I liked the idea of that german "tux" key keyboard, but it had a non L-shaped but equally as horrible enter/return key.