[Article] King of click: the story of the greatest keyboard ever made

[jwaz]

Found this via clickykeyboards.com who is featured in it:

http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/7/6882427/king-of-keys


they made a pretty sweet keyboard-related music video

[jacobolus]

they made a pretty sweet keyboard-related music video

They’re slapping those keys like the keyboards are drums or something. Which I guess they are in this context, but I hope no one tries to type with that kind of force.

Edit: still a nice music video though. :-)

[snoopy]

nice read. thanks for posting!

[CPTBadAss]

Agreed with snoopy, a very enjoyable little read. I know I love my IBM boards

[tp4tissue]

i mean.. historically MOST significant.. I'd agree with..

Best keyboard evar ?  mmmmm........ mmm.....

[Puddsy]

Oh man, my cousin goes to Princeton

I'll ask him if he knows this guy

[Glod]

Would have been cool for some of the stuff done on geekhack was mentioned instead of reddit,
but its pretty neat for this to be on the cover tiles of The Verge.

The comments on that page though is making me cringe. some saying the apple chicklet keyboard is the best keyboard ever made.

[supamesican]

I literally just got done reading this when I came to the forum and saw your post. Really great article. Its been years since I use a model M, still my favorite keyboard, and can't wait until December so I can get me a new unicomp for my birthday. I hope they never stop making them, these keyboards need to be at least tried by anyone who does serious typing.

[dgreekstallion]

No mention of the Model F. Fail.

[Puddsy]

No mention of the Model F. Fail.

PC / XT and AT are both model Fs

[dgreekstallion]

No mention of the Model F. Fail.

PC / XT and AT are both model Fs

Correction: Model F-122.

[jacobolus]

No mention of the Model F [Correction: Model F-122]. Fail.

They’re talking about keyboards for PCs, not terminals, and it’s a short article, not the complete history of keyboards. More specifically, they went to visit the clickykeyboards.com guy, and what he sells is Model Ms.

The point of this article isn’t to describe/compare all the keyboards that might be in the running for title of “best”; the title/framing of “Model M was the best keyboard” just happens to be a convenient attention grabber.

[dgreekstallion]

No mention of the Model F [Correction: Model F-122]. Fail.

They’re talking about keyboards for PCs, not terminals, and it’s a short article, not the complete history of keyboards. More specifically, they went to visit the clickykeyboards.com guy, and what he sells is Model Ms.

I'm just saying the F is the king of keyboards, IMO. Haha.

[fohat.digs]

Anybody who has disassembled these keyboards knows that a Model M is a cheap plastic example of extreme cost-cutting done to the Model F in order to bring the IBM keyboard brand to the mass market.

Credit where credit is due, and I think that the article emphasizes this: the Model M's greatest contribution is the standardization of layout.

[jacobolus]

I'm just saying the F is the king of keyboards, IMO. Haha.

That’s even lazier than the article, which at least puts some descriptive effort into justifying its claim.

If we more generally want to talk about the “best” keyboard there are various worthwhile criteria: most influential, longest-selling, most easily available, most durable, nicest to type on, easiest to modify, most efficient, most comfortable, prettiest, most portable, best hand-to-hand combat weapon ...

It would be worth writing up profiles on a number of “best” keyboards:

Model M, SSK, Model F-122, Kishsaver
various Beam Spring boards
some Selectric

various historically important typewriters

Some Honeywell hall-effect keyboard(s)

Maltron
μTron
Cherry G80-5000
various NEC ergonomic keyboards

Northgate Omnikey 101
Apple Extended Keyboard
AEK II

Epson Business Full Keyboard
Topre Realforce Hi-Pro
HHKB

HaaTa’s “Super Alps” board,
and his Marquardt “butterfly switch” Olympia typewriter

Various custom CNCd-Aluminum-case boards

* * *

Anyway though, this is all a bit off topic. :-)

[dgreekstallion]

Oh my god dude, you certainly took what I wrote in jest and went crazy with it, lol. And yeah, a tad off topic....

[jacobolus]

http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/7/6935097/how-we-turned-12-clicky-keyboards-into-a-music-video

[fohat.digs]

went crazy with it

I have always acknowledged that the Model M is "the one true keyboard" without a doubt.

But that does not mean that it is not an inferior wimpy wannabe to the pinnacle of keyboard excellence, its father/grandfather/progenitor.

The "one true keyboard" derives more from being the standard by which all layouts and configurations are measured than by its quality of engineering and construction.

The wet dream of almost all Model F users would be to own a Model F in the straight-ANSI standard or SSK Model M layout.

[dgreekstallion]

went crazy with it

I have always acknowledged that the Model M is "the one true keyboard" without a doubt.

But that does not mean that it is not an inferior wimpy wannabe to the pinnacle of keyboard excellence, its father/grandfather/progenitor.

The "one true keyboard" derives more from being the standard by which all layouts and configurations are measured than by its quality of engineering and construction.

The wet dream of almost all Model F users would be to own a Model F in the straight-ANSI standard or SSK Model M layout.

Yes, kind of like the Kishsaver!

[rowdy]

Oh man, my cousin goes to Princeton

I'll ask him if he knows this guy

We need a special discount for GH members

[sunshine]

Found this via clickykeyboards.com who is featured in it:

http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/7/6882427/king-of-keys


they made a pretty sweet keyboard-related music video

nice posting,thanks

[madhias]

Interesting reading! I like the overview of the keyboard layouts. The greatest thing about the Model M's is i think the layout - almost 30 years later it's nearly the same. That reminds me to use my XT sometimes...