brown linears? aren't those extremely rare?
how do they compare to greens?
i actually prefer the F-section of the XT boards over the standard F-row of today.
when i switch from an XT board to a 'classic' board, i'm quickly annoyed by the F-row.
clustered together on the left side makes so much more sense for my left arm/hand. i wish it was common practise!
cheers for the tip, i think i'll try the paper/bandaid trick!
edit: is NKRO that much more expensive to make, or something?
i mean.. so many huge names/brands have 6KRO or even lower. why? super old boards prove that NKRO has always been an option.
and for example hasu's controller shows that NKRO is possible over USB.
why is NKRO not the standard?
not that i need more than 6KRO, but i just don't understand why we went from NKRO to 6KRO
Linear brown Alps are indeed quite rare. The best bet is in old Texas Instruments Low-Profile Keyboard models. Which don't turn up often. They aren't all THAT special. They feel like the MX black of the Alps world, where linear greens feel like MX reds, imo. They actuate at around 65g of force. They are both very smooth, but I prefer greens more myself. I'll have to give the browns more attention though.
Hehe, I like the XT layout for its looks, but I couldn't get used to the layout myself--granted, I only had XT protocol boards with that layout, so I couldn't even TRY to get used to them.
Yes, NKRO was very uncommon back in the day, aside from the technologies that had it by default, ie capacitive keyboards.
The only NKRO boards I know of in the vintage Alps world are the Z-150, the ZKB-2, the Omnikey, the Leading Edge DC-2014, the Leading Edge DC-3014, and the Chicony 5161A. That might sound like a lot, but it's pretty tiny compared to the plethora of Alps boards out there. The blue Alps variants with NKRO... Well, there's only the DC-3014, the gold label Omnikey 102, and then the Chicony 5161A. None of which are absolutely guaranteed to have blue Alps (much less so the Chicony).
NKRO is more standard today on high priced boards, but yeah... I dunno. I guess the extra couple of cents of expenses for diodes adds up over designing a labyrinth of a matrix and adding blocking (?). Though I have a few old boards that have no diodes OR blocking, and it's pretty amusing. I can do the whole "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" test just fine, albeit with some random tildes and Ms thrown in, haha.
I'm not sure what the 6KRO thing is about. I always thought that was more of a limitation with USB tech. Only my Infinity and the DIN5-to-USB Soarer's converter DIN5-to-USB I bought from orihalcon allow full NKRO over USB. Someone more technical than I am could probably give you a far better answer! My Duck boards all have diodes, but only get 6KRO over USB. I'm not sure if that would change with an active PS/2 converter or not.
I'm fine with 6KRO, but I really wanted a vintage blue Alps board with NKRO. I FINALLY found a DC-3014, and that's my Christmas gift to myself, haha. I can live with 2KRO or ... a willy nilly unblocked matrix, but having the freedom is nice.
I use a DTR laptop, so I don't have the option of PS/2 alone, I should say.