On Fri, 2021-09-03 at 15:39 -0400, Douglas McGarrett wrote:
If you can find an IBM model M keyboard somewhere, you'll never look for another. They haven't been made in years, AFAIK, but I have three of them--two full sized and one without the numeric pad that I use with a laptop at home. The only drawback is that it's loud--I tried it at the office once when I was still working, and I had to take it back home.
I have to say that I'd also like a proper typist's keyboard, but without the high volume clattering sound that they had. But you go into a store, and all they have is gaming keyboards (and often boxed up so you can't try them out - they're expensive and flashy, and not really that great for typing on), and wireless ones (which are a pain, with disconnections and needing batteries).
I particularly despise noisy keyboards, keyboards with sharp edges on every key, legends that wear off, plastic that wears down, too short cables for reaching tower boxes sitting on the floor, wireless keyboards, and bad rollover handling (I've a number of keyboards that if you press your keys too closely together, timing wise, suddenly it's issued a HOME command and you're typing back at the head of your sentence, and I'm only a reasonably fast typer of around 40-50 wpm), and keys with insufficient travel distance.
I wish someone could make one that felt like typing on the old IBM Selectric typewriters, and there are a few companies that have made that claim, but actual users have called them out for lying. At the moment I'm using an old, recycled, HP KU-0316. It's reasonably good, though not good enough, and suffers the rollover problem. I quite liked the Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000, but I've worn out two of them, and the last one is starting to go bad (at the time it was the best keyboard I could find, so I bought three).