How do you like its feel?
The feel is amazing. I find the force to depress the key is just right, with a pleasant click-ping when I get to the bottom and then let up. You can really feel when the foot comes down, but it's not too loud either. My model F was stored properly, and so the foam backing inside is fully intact and still a little tacky, and it really helps to reduce the noise.
As for my kbdbabel, I happen to have an IC programmer, so that's no problem for me. I need to wait till I have some spare money so i can get the parts. It'll be cheap enough.
Upon opening it up and cleaning all the keys etc. I noticed that one key was broken. The little foot at the bottom of the 6 key was missing its hinge pin, causing it not make it's distinctive "ping" properly. I just swapped feet with the scroll lock key, since I don't foresee using it.
Another thing I really like about this model is the legs on the keyboard. I don't have to turn my keyboard over or reach awkwardly underneath to raise or lower it.
Lastly, with a little bit or careful twisting, I have removed the kinks in the coil. This keyboard has a MASSIVE cord, more massive than the last model M I saw. It also has what appear to be original serial number labels both on the outside and inside of the keyboard, which I have not seen present on the ones being sold on clickey keyboards. If I took a picture, could people identify it for me?
EDIT: something to note, the XT appears to have a different layout from the AT version of the Model F. And with a kbdbabel converter I am not expecting any significant mis-mapping issues on other computers.
Actually, I never learned to type "properly," having taught myself wrongly from a very young age, and have no problem with the unusual layout. In fact, I rather enjoy the placement of the keys, with the possible exception of the pipe and the tilde. However, I haven't been in the custom of using those, and if I decide to then I'll not have any issues. As a retro-computing enthusiast, I intend to keep this keyboard as stock as possible, and besides, it resembles other older computers I have used in terms of layout, which makes it seem less strange.
