[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Inside the World's Greatest Keyboard here

[bluefalconloyd]

Getting to 2008,



As a gamer I've tried out about every name brand keyboard - Logitech G11 and G15, Merc Stealth, Razer Lycosa, etc....

and by far my favorite choice is the Razer Lycosa, reasoning?

-The keys are rubberized for anti-sticking/sliding when playing on a competitive level

-3 modes of lighting including only lighting the WASD section of the keyboard

-Up to (12 I think) different profiles along with mapable keys down to the MS for macros

-The keys are close enough together that dust, food, as well as anything else particle like is rather hard to get down below the keys.

[jessedorland]

My favorite is Microsoft Wirless Mutlimedia. It's a combo Mouse + Keyboard.

I have less wires + it's looks cool.

[JimH443]

As a non-gamer I've tried many keyboards too. my favorite so far is the Logitech G-15. The feature I enjoy the most is having 54 (*) programmable keys that are "program sensitive." When I switch from one program to another, the key definitions can also change.



(*) I have one of the older ones with the gray on black LCD display. I believe the newer orange/black display keyboards only have 18 programmable keys.

[dhood23]

I've had my Model M for at least 10 years - got it secondhand. Although mine is only a shadow of the original (mine was manufactured in 1994), it's still, hands down, the best keyboard I've ever owned. I also have two backups in case this one ever breaks down. I've found that other keyboards stress the tendons in my wrist after long usage. This is the only keyboard that I can type on for extended periods without my wrists tiring.

[marcmandev]

Yeah, it's the click and feel that makes these keyboards so desirable. A buddy recently called me and said he had purchased a pickup box full of old computers. My first question: any IBM keyboards? I found one Model M IBM keyboard and a whole bunch of off-brand, nearly identical knockoffs. It was heaven on earth.

Curiously, nearly every one of those keyboards had little notes taped to the underside. Each note read: "lower case -- password." Pure nostalgia.

[Undefined]

umm yea that might have been the best keyboard of its time. But only during its time. The fact that you say you still use it is strange. There have been far better keyboards released since then from logitech and apple.

[bluefalconloyd]

The clicking feel of the older keyboards might be desireable to some...but to me it's a pain to hear. I type so fast it just sounds like a machine gun going off when typing with one of those keyboards.

I have the older G15 as well, and it was a nice keyboard back in the day. I just recently switched over to the Razer Lycosa to play CoD4 with. I still have "that keyboard" for certain games...like the G11 I use for lotro and the Merc Stealth I use for Age of Conan.

[Grahm]

The ibm spinoff co www.unicomp.com still makes them

[dweebessm]

tried the unicomp keyboard, no where near the quality or feel of the old Ibm keyboards. Also tried Ione scorpious-m10 and it's a little better, but still not quite the same as the good old keyboards. I'm not so picky but we have 911 dispatchers that swear by the old style keyboards. We do not have any IBM's left, but we have some older compaq keyboards that the dispatchers love.

[flow]

I got four Model M to made three from a lot of garbage. Now I can't use other type of keyboard.

[Nuspieds]

Excellent story!

I'm an ex-IBM mainframe developer and you are so dead on: There is absolutely no other better keyboard, pe-ri-od! As a matter of fact, I am using one right now--I never gave it up!

Well, I did for a bit, when I bought the Microsoft cordless mouse and keyboard but I have to admit that I like to type and there's nothing like the tactile feedback you get from the IBM keyboard. I gave up my cordless and the Windows key and the Calculator button and all the other extras to revert back to the IBM keyboard. Ahhh...there's absolutely nothing like it. :D

To this very day, I'm still amazed as to why IBM stopped making PC keyboards with the same tactile feedback and why the standard from all manufacturers seems to be soft-touch and "tactile-feedbackless". Without the feedback, I find all those keyboards horrible to use.

[Codeman119]

Well for me I don't like the old straight keyboards. I have a natrual keyboard and my hands and wrist feel much better typing on it. I won't ever go back to a staight keyboard again. (well except my laptop).

-Codeman

[rgreen4]

Actually, the original 83key version had one advantage over all that followed. When entering a column of numbers in a spreadsheet, you could enter the number, hit the shift key and the 2, and the cursor would move down one row. (Yes, I know those who are raised on Window and Xcell, that this is a standard feature now, but it wasn't with DOS 1.1 and Lotus version 1 or 1A).

We used to have a lot of the later versions around that came with the PS/2's as they had the smaller connector (today's fading standard) and still connect up without and adapter. They had similar feel and would take a pounding. You could hear one of those especially if the user was frustrated, for many times when he hit enter it was with force. Those keyboards didn't care, they would just keep on going.

Another thing, an experienced typest never had a problem finding "home" as you do on these new one. I have to look now, something I never used to have to do because the feel of the keys was natural and the home keys felt different. Of course finding experienced typests is also becoming more difficult.

[JimH443]

rgreen4 said:

Another thing, an experienced typest never had a problem finding "home" as you do on these new one. I have to look now, something I never used to have to do because the feel of the keys was natural and the home keys felt different. Of course finding experienced typests is also becoming more difficult.

FWIW, my G-15's "F" and "J" keys have identifying bumps on them.

[rgreen4]

Are the bumps on the bottom of the key as they are on so many or properly in the center. The bumps on the bottom of the keys are outside the normal curve of the fingers and don't get felt unless you move your fingers around. Plus the newer key are flatter, whereas the older keyboard had a bit more of a depression for the fingers. They just felt better.

Keyboard feel is very important. I always recommend someone looking at laptops to browse the stores and put fingers on keys. On a desktop you can always find a new keyboard, but on laptops it is extremely difficult if not impossible to change keyboard styles.

[WeThePeople]

I own the slightly newer M2 73G4614 1995 PS-2 BTW.

But I must ask those above that have these which one you own/like?

There are a number of these and there are differences..

A casual five minute sample from eBay.

I've only included ones that had pictures
of the label's posted with the bid sheets...

42H1292 - 1997 PS-2 Made By LexMark
82G2383 - 1996 PS-2 Made By LexMark
1396790 - 1995 PS-2 Made In U.K. (NOT Lexmark, UniComp)
52G9700 - 1993,94 PS-2 Made By LexMark
1398609 - 1992 PS-2 Made By LexMark
1397956 - 1994 RJ-45 (Ethernet Style Plug)
1397599 - 1993 PS-2
1392595 - 1990,95 RJ-45 (Ethernet Style Plug)
1391401 - 1984-85,87-88,91-93 PS-2 Removable Cord
1390131 - 1987 PS-2
1390120 - 1986 DIN-5 Removable Cord, NO LED's
1390101 - 1986 DIN-5 Removable Cord

Soooooo, which one is the quiet one (like my M2),
but still awsome to type on?



You should see the layout on the old "M AS 400" model, LOL...

[JimH443]

Yes, it's on the bottom. But it's better than nothing at all. :)

[Dermatea]

The IBM Model M is a good keyboard. The construction is of very high quality, but to me, the feel is just too ancient, and the click is excessively loud. It's also not good for playing games due to the nature of the keys (at least for me). Furthermore, it clashes with my other hardware, which is nowhere near as old. It's a bit on the ugly side, (as is nearly all beige-colored hardware) and its bulk is obtrusive. As for me, I prefer NMB keyboards. I use an old black NMB keyboard (Model: RT2358TW) with a pretty much identical layout to that of the Model M, but is designed for Windows 98/NT, so it has a Windows key, (which I find, can be quite useful) and a context-menu key (right-click menu). The design is also simple and modern, so it goes well with virtually any other black or dark-colored hardware. Like the Model M, it's also quite heavy, but not as much. The construction is of very high quality (made in Thailand) and is very sturdy, but not "like a tank". There is an excellent feel to the keys and the click is just right. I use it for everything, including gaming. There are no extra cables, (which I would probably never use anyways) and you can't exactly go about plucking out the keys (though I never tried or needed to anyways). It is easy to clean and dirt does not accumulate easily beneath the keys. So in all honesty, I think this keyboard has several points over the Model M. So the Model M itself isn't really the "World's Greatest Keyboard", however, it does inarguably have the "World's Greatest Keyboard-layout" from which nearly all modern keyboard-layouts are now modeled after.

[mjd420nova]

I can't count how many of those IBM PC keyboards have hit the trash heap. From the original IBM PC to the XT model and then the AT and eventually the PS2 units, they were the best keyboards and simple to maintain because al you really need to do is clean the keycaps once in a while. The ridges and dots on the keycaps are so a touch typist can find the home row without looking. I've still got an old IBM ketboard that was a special version for the 3270 emulator models, it has two rows of twelve special function keys on the top that are programable, talk about a gamers keybaord, they could be programmed to hold up to a twenty six character string. Around my home it would be considered to be NOISY with all that clacking going on. The most noise you hear now is just the space bar.