Monday April 04, 2005

Confessions of a Keyboard Snob

I love loud crunchy clicky keyboards. First keyboard I can remember using was an Apple ][ and it had a loud crunchy keyboard. You knew you were typing because you could hear the joyous cacaphony. Life has since provided a cavalcade of keyboards, some not as good as others. Recently I was forced to give up my favorite keyboard ( an IBM bazillion-key monstrosity manufactured in 1993 ) and embark on an epic tale of discovery, disappointment and technolust. And who said being a geek isn't saucy?

Ode To A Keyboard

In no particular order, my favorite keyboards down through the ages have been:

1. IBM RS/6000 105 Key keyboard
2. Apple Extended Keyboard II
3. NeXT second generation keyboard with the pipe in the right place.

OK, I fibbed about order. The IBM was really my favorite and I went to great lengths to keep using it. We first met as a co-op at IBM and it wasn't quite love at first touch. I had just come off a recent relationship with an Apple Extended Keyboard II ( the kind that shipped with the early generations of MacIntosh IIs ) and I was still pining for that beauty. The IBM quickly woo'ed me though with its springy keys and satisfying clickiness. As an employee, I bought several of these keyboards at the IBM Employee store ( alas, an era gone by ) for a couple of dollars a piece. When I joined Sun, I went to heroic efforts to keep my keyboard of choice. I wasn't kidding about heroic. The dongle for hooking up PS/2 style devices to Sun hardware was not cheap ( Thanks boss! ) and Stop-A was a hideous production involving an auxillary keyboard kept under the desk.

As I mentioned, I also had a fling with the Apple Extended Keyboard II. A fine keyboard with a somewhat softer touch than the IBM, but a satisfying type regardless. I often found myself thinking about this keyboard, but given it's strictly ADB implementation and my Apple sticker shock it seemed we would never meet again.

Through the Desert to An Oasis

Circumstances beyond my control required that I give up my trusty keyboard companion and find a new pointboard to ride the crystal wind with. I'm not sure how many cyberpunk metaphors I just fractured, but I do know that I hate Sun Type 6 keyboards with a hot seething undying hate which brooks no argument. They are too mushy and the layout is abominal. Apologists will point to the PC style Type 6 and I will laugh the laugh of the righteous. Sun Type 6 keyboards are icky and I don't want to use one. You can't make me.

So I tried to use the USB keyboard that came with my Sony Playstation 2 Linux kit. It was relatively crunchy but still the touch was not anywhere close to my beloved IBM. I tried to use the Sony for a couple of months, but my accuracy suffered from the poor feedback of it's mushy keys. I wanted my noisy clicky crunchy keyboard back.

With the help of Google, I began searching for my next keyboard love. Long story short, I found the Matias Tactile Pro keyboard. It is a revival of the Apple Extended Keyboard II updated for our modern times. You can google up several glowing reviews of the Tactile Pro which talk about it's style and manufacture. What you need to know is that it is clicky crunchy and glorious! These keyboards aren't cheap and it took alot of typing on crappy keyboards for me to gather my courage and order one sight unseen. I'm so glad I did, it was love at first type!

I'll miss you my old IBM friend. But I, for one, welcome our new keyboard overlords.

-ejo

(2005-04-04 12:46:48.0) Permalink Comments [3]