I have used almost every Apple keyboard made to this date.
I grew up in a household with a lot of Macs. I particularly remember my mothers Apple Adjustable Keyboard for her 660av Macintosh. I thought it was really strange how it split across the middle and could be stretched out. My fathers Apple Design Keyboard for his Performa 6400 was also memorable. It looked great, but compared to the other Apple keyboards, it was probably the mushiest and most cheap feeling keyboard they ever made. My first computer happened to be the original iMac, (which turned 12 this month) the keyboard it came with was colorful and interesting to look at, but it lacked the cursor cluster and the fact that it had tiny arrow keys really got on my nerves since many First Person Shooters of the time relied on the arrow keys and not WASD. This lead to me to get an Macally iKey, which is standard rubber dome, but at least it was properly sized.
In 2002 my school offered a QWERTY typing class which I decided to take so I wouldn't have to think for 50 minutes. The class had about 40 different Macs of various configurations. Some 68k era and some early PPC era. The class itself was extremely dull. The teacher was an elderly lady who was computer illiterate, and all we did was copy lines from a textbook into Apple's SimpleText program. At the end of the class, the teacher would take an excerpt from the textbook, and time us with a stopwatch to see what our WPM was.
The highlight of the class was the fact that every day the teacher would make us use a different computer, which meant a different keyboard. On days that I used the Apple Extended Keyboard I or II, my enjoyment for the class would go up. I loved the way the Caps Lock stuck down, and how nice it felt to type on. However, on the days that I had to suffer with the Apple Design Keyboard, I would groan. Not only did they feel cheap and poor as previously pointed out, but it was even worse at school because the keyboards were so worn out, dirty, and shiny. One such keyboard had so much dirt and dust in it, you could see balls of the stuff bursting out from the edge of the keys. This would make them feel even more mushy and it was disgusting to look at as well.
Over the next several years, I used the Apple Pro Keyboard for various other courses that my school offered. It had black keys and the way it felt was similar to the USB keyboard that came with my Original iMac, but it looked better, sounded better, and was appropriately sized. After this keyboard, Apple made a rather large white keyboard that felt excessively mushy, had a weird curve which was useless to me since I usually don't use keyboard feet anyway, and attracted all kinds of dirt. (It was nicknamed Crumbtray for a reason) The best thing about the Crumbtray is that it felt sturdy, but other than that, it's probably the worst feeling Apple keyboard since the Apple Design Keyboard.
In 2007, when Apple released the Aluminum keyboard with Numberpad, I was so interested in it, that my friend went out and bought one for me. I loved the way the C key and the Spacebar aligned perfectly just like the Apple Extended Keyboard. I loved the look of it and I liked the fact that DFJK could be pressed simultaneously which I found very useful for a game called Stepmania. My big complaint with it however is the fact that it hurt my fingers after awhile due to the short travel distance which caused constant bottoming out.
I would love to return to using the Apple Extended Keyboard I or II once more. However the price of the Griffin iMate ADB to USB adapter just kills that dream. Sure the keyboard may be 5-30 USD but getting the adapter would raise the price another 25-50 USD. At that price, is it really better than the other quality sub 80 dollar keyboards? Somehow I doubt it. The other option would be to purchase a G3 tower, which was the last Mac to feature an ADB port, but that seems like an awful lot of effort and would cost the same as the adapter anyway. Then again, the nostalgia factor alone might make the costs worth it for some people.
In conclusion, this post explains some of my signature, and the typing class I took in 2002 with the Apple Extended Keyboard is the reason why I became obsessed with keyboards. I always knew the AEKII was better than the other Apple keyboards, but I never knew why until I discovered Geekhack. I've also heard stories from other bloggers basically saying that the AEKII is their most loved Apple Keyboard. It makes me wish my family still kept theirs (I think we had 2 at one point). Well, thanks for reading and I apologize for the bloated post in advance.
