from zero to five in two weeks

[gocantor]

Not much a technical insight here... I just found it intriguing that from the time I first posted to the forum about mechanical switches and keyboard layout it took me two weeks to get my hands on five different boards! ;-)   The main board I use at work now is a Filco Tenkeyless MX brown, my first mechanical and the only one purchased new; love it, but miss the numpad, and wish the right-hand side windows key wasn't there...   through my search for a model F, I came across two other IBM boards at local computer repair shops, a 1989 model M (1391401) and a 1997 model M13. A lot of time spent cleaning and restoring the former, and it's now beautiful and shiny, albeit not being used regularly.  The M13 is waiting for a replacement key, and some thorough cleaning.  My AT model F was found on ebay, I really want to be using it but it too needs some thorough cleaning, and the spacebar badly needs to be relieved.  Finally, I found this black Kinesis Advantage buried in the office, which, too, needs to be thoroughly restored.

My boards ranked by usability: Filco tenkeyless; model F; IBM model M/M13; Kinesis.

Ranked by classiness: model M; model F; model M13; Filco; Kinesis.  This may change as I get to restore the ones I hadn't had time to attend to.

Just a quick thought Re: tenkeyless vs navkeyless:  I really love the way the model F is organized in terms of the layout of the different sections. It feels great on the desk, and when I hold it on my lap as well. I do wish the layout of the particular sections more closely resembled the accepted standard though---I'm sure I can adapt, but for me everything feels a lot more intuitive when typing (say) on the Filco.  It is my hope that a model F inspired board will be manufactured at some point in the future---I'd love to have one! ;-)

Thanks everyone for your welcoming spirit and wealth of knowledge! It's been a great journey.

EDIT 1: neglected to mention a Goldtouch GTC-0077 numpad (MX browns) that'll be arriving soon...

EDIT 2: also an interesting cost distribution, where two of my boards cost >$110 each while the others were <$5 each ($10 if you consider replacement parts)  ;-)

G

[daerid]

Awesome! Enjoy your boards. I went from 1 to 10 in a month. But now I'm at 7 (needed to raise some cash).

[AUAnonymous]

What do you not like about the Kinesis so much? I've never used one, but they seem pretty cool.

[gocantor]

What do you not like about the Kinesis so much? I've never used one, but they seem pretty cool.

From the usability standpoint, I find it kind of extreme. I never really got it going with separate hand keyboards before (I also own a TypeMatrix 2020). And the Kinesis in particular puts a lot of emphasis on using one's thumbs. For me, it's a burden.

I do not deny that it's a cool board, though. I just wasn't ranking by coolness  ;-)

[theferenc]

I also found my Kinesis difficult to get used to, initially. You really have to commit to it for a week or so, at minimum. And even then, I find the layout of the programming keys (|\ especially), to be kind of annoying. For free form text though, it's pretty damn nice.

It does take me an hour or so of use to switch between layouts completely now, so it's annoying to use the Kinesis full time since I have to use standard ANSI keyboards for a few minutes at a stretch fairly often.