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New Model M Is an American-Made Keyboard That Puts a Spring Back in Your Typing

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Re: New Model M Is an American-Made Keyboard That Puts a Spring Back in Your Typing

#171

Post by Wowfunhappy »

alberth wrote: post #150

Butterfly keyboard / low-travel. Am I the only person who has grown to love the butterfly keyboard? It take sooo much stress of my of joints to type since the travel is so shallow. I also type considerably faster with the shallower/lower travel required. I know folks had issues with reliability with he design but I guess I'm on the of the lucky few who hasn't had issues.

I hate the butterfly keyboard, but I have a similarly-weird affection—I love Apple's circa-2010 desktop keyboards. These are the USB keyboards that shipped with iMacs up until ~2015 (prior to the Magic Keyboard), as well as the "Apple Bluetooth Keyboard" that runs of two AA batteries.

The keys have more travel than their laptop equivalents (and much more than the Magic Keyboard), but not enough to actually slow down typing. Just the right amount of spring.

Re: New Model M Is an American-Made Keyboard That Puts a Spring Back in Your Typing

#172

Post by macNchz »

thereddaikon wrote: post #148
executesorder66 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I'm not alone. I really can't understand the appeal of a mechanical keyboard. - They are loud - They are expensive - The keys are massive and ugly - Massive travel time (So slow to type on) Sure they are a bit more customizable, but is that really worth all the drawbacks? Especially the worse typing, which is the main point of a keyboard. If you are a mechanical keyboard fanatic, and my comment angered you, please…

It sounds to me like you have used one particular kind of mechanical keyboard. What you describe sounds a lot like either a buckling spring like the Model M or a clicky tactile switch like the Cherry MX Blue. One of the cool things about mechanical switches is they can be built in such a way to have different characteristics. Much like how a car's suspension can be tuned to be soft or hard and with high ground cleara…

Yeah I think like anything there's a spectrum of how people perceive and react to tactile things. I'm really into all the things that feel nice in your hand. I love the weighted shift knob on my manual transmission car, my topre keyboard, the click-feel of my Intellimouse, the mechanical feeling of my various pocketknives, any heavy well-built hand tools, twiddling a nice wood pencil while I think. I'll often favor buying products that have really nice knobs or switches–I just bought a microwave that has a nice knob for setting the time instead of a flat button panel.

Re: New Model M Is an American-Made Keyboard That Puts a Spring Back in Your Typing

#173

Post by EForEndeavour »

cordite wrote: post #166
formerly_proven wrote: post #2

The IBM Model M hype is absurdly overblown. Anyone who has used decent mechanical keyboards should be able to pretty much immediately notice just how cost-reduced that keyboard is. It is quite literally the cheapest buckling spring keyboard IBM managed to make in '89, and it shows. Cherry boards are often bashed for their flexing and wobbly cases, but the IBM Model M is hardly better with the top and lower parts of t…

How can you use vim without the escape key? These model F reproductions lack that.

Ctrl [

Re: New Model M Is an American-Made Keyboard That Puts a Spring Back in Your Typing

#174

Post by DamnInteresting »

executesorder66 wrote: post #45
skocznymroczny wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of the hype around mechanical keyboards in general is overblown. I had a period of transitioning to mechanical keyboards. I couldn't get used to the high-rise keys and long travel times which made my wrists hurt and made typing a chore. I kept convincing myself that I just had the wrong type of switch, so I changed keyboards every few months seeking that perfect feeling. The closest I got was low-profil…

So I'm not alone. I really can't understand the appeal of a mechanical keyboard. - They are loud - They are expensive - The keys are massive and ugly - Massive travel time (So slow to type on) Sure they are a bit more customizable, but is that really worth all the drawbacks? Especially the worse typing, which is the main point of a keyboard. If you are a mechanical keyboard fanatic, and my comment angered you, please…

I prefer chiclet style keyboards when I am coding, and mechanical keyboards when I am writing. The clack of the keys acts as a sort of white noise to shut out the world and allows me to think about what I'm writing more clearly.

When I was able to write in coffee shops and the like, I didn't want to bother other patrons with a noisy keyboard, so I whipped up my own writing app that simulates loud keys via headphones, and it works almost as well as the real thing.

Re: New Model M Is an American-Made Keyboard That Puts a Spring Back in Your Typing

#175

Post by wodenokoto »

burlesona wrote: post #132

Ok, for the keyboard enthusiasts here: does anyone know if there’s such thing as a “magic keyboard” - flat keyboard and flat keys - but as a split keyboard? I’ve been testing split keyboards lately and I think they’ll provide some relief to some neck and shoulder pain I get from hunching when I type, but I don’t really like how gigantic the keyboards all are, and to be honest I prefer the “chiclet” keys over the big…

How split? Like actual two pieces or just wavy?

logitech ergo k860 And Microsoft sculpt are pretty flat, chiclet style ergonomic keyboards.

Re: New Model M Is an American-Made Keyboard That Puts a Spring Back in Your Typing

#176

Post by telchar »

executesorder66 wrote: post #45
skocznymroczny wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of the hype around mechanical keyboards in general is overblown. I had a period of transitioning to mechanical keyboards. I couldn't get used to the high-rise keys and long travel times which made my wrists hurt and made typing a chore. I kept convincing myself that I just had the wrong type of switch, so I changed keyboards every few months seeking that perfect feeling. The closest I got was low-profil…

So I'm not alone. I really can't understand the appeal of a mechanical keyboard. - They are loud - They are expensive - The keys are massive and ugly - Massive travel time (So slow to type on) Sure they are a bit more customizable, but is that really worth all the drawbacks? Especially the worse typing, which is the main point of a keyboard. If you are a mechanical keyboard fanatic, and my comment angered you, please…

I'm with you on this. I recently tried out a keyboard with Cherry MX switches and was taken by surprise by how wobbly they were. I assumed they would be less wobbly than my old keyboard. It really ruined whatever tactile gain there was to be had. Sure maybe that revealed some problem with my typing technique, but I can't picture myself growing to like such a wobbly key.

Re: New Model M Is an American-Made Keyboard That Puts a Spring Back in Your Typing

#177

Post by amelius »

Dirlewanger wrote: post #167
amelius wrote: post #131

I'm still waiting for a hacker's keyboard. Should have a lambda key for sure. And special symbols like ⊥, ≤, ≥, ≠, ≔, ¬, ∀, ∃, → ... And a large escape key. Otherwise should just be a US keyboard.

I mean, a real hacker would just assemble it themselves. You can get all the parts needed. You can get custom caps printed with whatever symbols you want.

Sure, but with a universal hacker keyboard the use of those special symbols would be more common and as a consequence there would be better support in various programming languages, etc.

Re: New Model M Is an American-Made Keyboard That Puts a Spring Back in Your Typing

#178

Post by mholm »

burlesona wrote: post #132

Ok, for the keyboard enthusiasts here: does anyone know if there’s such thing as a “magic keyboard” - flat keyboard and flat keys - but as a split keyboard? I’ve been testing split keyboards lately and I think they’ll provide some relief to some neck and shoulder pain I get from hunching when I type, but I don’t really like how gigantic the keyboards all are, and to be honest I prefer the “chiclet” keys over the big…

I'm in the same boat here, and nothing currently exists to my knowledge without building custom. My dream keyboard would be an Apple Magic Ergodox, but I'm not sure how viable that form factor would be from DIY parts.

Re: New Model M Is an American-Made Keyboard That Puts a Spring Back in Your Typing

#179

Post by apocalyptic0n3 »

EForEndeavour wrote: post #170
apocalyptic0n3 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought the K3 from them (low profile, 75% layout) and I gave it an honest shot for a few weeks, but before long just went back to an Apple Magic Keyboard. I liked the feedback, but the travel was still longer, the keys were much louder, I wasn't a fan of the layout, and frankly, I just prefer chiclet keys. I really wanted to like it, but after that experience and working with another, more traditional mechanical fo…

I'd had my eye on the K1 and now the K3, and have hesitated for the reasons you cite: at the end of the day, flattening a mechanical keyboard just feels like incompletely reverting back toward what is admittedly the superior typing experience of the Apple Magic Keyboard. I'm actually typing this on a Keychron K2 version 1 with Gateron brown switches, and it took a few weeks of trial and error as well as a wrist pad t…

> The Keychron spacebar partly overlaps X and comma,

This was part of my "wasn't a fan of the layout" comment. The alignment of the X and Comma with the Command key, which is a key your thumb reaches to a thousand times a day, is so much more comfortable than any other keyboard I've found. And it really created some strain for me on the K3. I also wasn't a fan of the right shift being shorter to make room for the full size arrow keys (I'd rather have a tenkeyless or, preferably, the half-height keys on Apple keyboards) or of the function key on the right.

Really, I just wanted the Apple Magic Keyboard, the 60%/65% one, with a more tactile feel to it and preferably in black. I've looked at dozens of keyboards over the last 8 months and the K3 was the closest I found. So I'm just going to stick with the Magic Keyboard.

Re: New Model M Is an American-Made Keyboard That Puts a Spring Back in Your Typing

#180

Post by war1025 »

dkarl wrote: post #115
mewse wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They can be loud, depending on the switches you get. It’s worth noting that for folks who don’t know proper typing technique (which is probably nearly everybody under the age of 40, as nobody really teaches it any more, at least in the countries where I’ve lived) it almost doesn’t matter what sort of mechanical switch you’re using, in terms of noise. In my experience, the majority of mechanical keyboard noise for m…

> My theory is that most folks these days learned to type on membrane keyboards where you have to bottom out the keys (often with quite a lot of force, if the keyboard is old) I hate this. It's uncomfortable. If you aren't old enough to have used a good laptop before laptops could be thinner than two inches, you can think of modern laptop keyboards as the 21st century equivalent of a girdle. You give up a certain amo…

> the 21st century equivalent of a girdle. You give up a certain amount of comfort, but hey, at least you look sexy.

My wife does a lot of sewing and garment making. She has convinced me that a properly designed and fitted girdle is actually a net-benefit for people. The trouble is proper fit is hard at a mass scale, which is why women transitioned to bras, which also have notorious fit issues, but are at least manageable when mass produced.

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