Do you need mechanical switches if the most typing you ever do is for Facebook updates? My capacitive touchscreen works great for that! =-D
Two very big selling points of RD boards:
- They can be made CHEAPLY (huge for $ conscious CIOs)
- They can be made very quiet (huge for cubicle farm America)
If I'm a CIO buying 1000 new systems, I can take the included keyboard at no extra cost. But I want to do the responsible thing and get quality/best-of-breed in everything. Besides "best of breed" sounds good when I'm talking to other CIOs.
Say I get a steal ($99 each) because I bought 1000 Filco browns (my current fav) at one time for my new systems. I can pay $99,000 (easily 10%+ of the entire budget for desktop replacements) for GOOD keyboards that very few people will appreciate. Most will complain about the noise and lack of "features". And then there is the one or two (aren't they in every crowd?) who would object with "I wanted a Unicomp/Topre/Model M/blues/blacks/reds". The CFO will flip his lid 5 times; I have a $5 million SAN deployment, a $500k router refresh project, and a $2 million JD Edwards implementation to worry about. (hypothetical, but you see it every day). Keyboards, as long as they work, aren't even on my "CIO radar". If I could save $500,000 in insurance with a "RSI Free" workplace initiative then maybe the good boards are worth it, but...
Nope. As the CIO I'm taking the freebie and I'll buy a nice board for the 3-ish people who want it bad enough to request a specific one. There won't be any keyboard envy because it's not supported and the others at large will wonder why you "downgraded".
And I have to be honest here: I work in a
small cubicle farm and talk on the phone a lot for my job. I wouldn't want to sit in the middle of a bunch of Filco's, Unicomps, and Model M's.
A big plus for the RD manufacturer: For another ~32 cents you can add "advanced features" to it and sell it as a 50-150 dollar board.
Tell the world at large, who just don't type all that much, except in chat rooms and email, that they should pay between $150-300 USD for a wired keyboard with no volume or integrated music controls on it (or whatever)...when they can get wireless with music controls, and sometimes an included mouse that works on the same wireless controller, for $50-80. Or that same capability comes with the board included with their system.
Well, that's how the world at large gets to RD boards and why they will continue to do so, but, most of us here are at least a little wierd over our keyboards. I consider myself VERY moderate in that respect and I still can't explain this stuff to co-workers without a raised eye-brow. =-D
...how did we use RD boards for so long? Ignorance, economy (although my operations weren't cheap!), going with the flow. Wanting a COOL board instead of a highly functional typing interface. For the longest time, I was sold out to a NAME, my RD board cost $45 (I thought that was a lot) said "IBM" on it, and my wife thought it was too loud. I thought I was old school!
And...SOME RD boards really do provide decent tactile feedback until the rubber starts to wear, so I've heard.
One thing is for certain...as long as keyboards are needed for computers, RD or something like it will always be around, and it will be prevalent. This isn't the only area of society where we (collectively) wind up doing something that's bad for us because it is cheap, easy, and popular.
That's not to say that all new RD boards are bad, but they will wear faster than a mechanical, and almost ALL really nasty bad for you boards are RD.
