Only 3 years old? They just don’t make them like they used to. I have 2 of the original Microsoft Natural keyboards (not that crappy Elite that I suspect is the source of that mangled arrow cluster above) that I’ve been using since late 1996 or early 1997.
Combine that with my beloved Logitech Trackman Marble FX trackbals located in front of my keyboards and thus oriented sideways, and it keeps most people away from my computers.
http://www.npkdesign.com/projects/HomeOffice/Dell/Dell_keyboard_1.jpg
I really like that Dell keyboard. A lot.
Really? Here’s what I don’t like about it:
The keys go right up to the edges (presumably to cut costs). There’s no room for resting your fingers on the board but off the keys.
The Print Screen/Scroll Lock/Break keys are moved out of reach to make room for the Dell logo. Try doing Alt-PrntScrn with one hand now.
The whole keyboard is too light (again, probably cost-cutting) and the keys a bit spongy (as are many these days, but this one more so).
The bump on the bottom with the extended keys. I can sort of see the usefulness of the larger space bar, but combined with #1 and #3 this causes a big problem: it’s nearly impossible to use a standard rectangular wrist rest and not have the keyboard move around.
I have never seen a keyboard so sturdy, reliable and longlasting as this -
http://www.tvs-e.com/productpage.asp?prodname=tvs-gold-black-keyboard-usb.asp
I don’t know if it is available outside India. It is a bit heavy and occupies more desk space. It has no ergonomic layout and it is a bit heavy. But I have seen it last over 10 years with no problems. The keystroke has a very distinct sound, its easy on the fingers. It doesn’t tire out the fingers as easily as ordinary rubber membrane keyboards. As far as I know, a seller once told me that it has springs on the keys instead of rubber which gives it longer life. I also am not sure how water resistant it is.
And it has a standard layout for the Home key cluster, function and arrow keys 
It is a bit on the costly side though.
Nice blog entry.
All Hail to the classic IBM Mod. M. keyboard with its solid click. They just don’t make them like that anymore. My old SGI Irix workstation keyboard is a nice 2nd. I never got to like the Microsoft - the layout gives me a sort of horizontal vertigo.
Cherry G80-3000. 14 years old, no windows keys. Still good as on the first day. Will get a bunch of Das Keyboard to try them out; a shame that they don’t sell the 105 key variants in the U.S.
I’ve got a wonderful keyboard for my work desktop. Goes to every job with me and have never seen another like it - a real pity because it’s getting old and fragile, and it’s absolutely brilliant for me.
The key action is good, but nothing that unusual. It’s got a big wrist rest built in which is nice, but nothing unusual.
Two things are unusual though - it’s got a second set of cursor keys next to the left ctrl/shift keys - amazingly useful when you get used to them. And the absolute decider, the show-stopper for anything else for me - it has a built-in trackpad positioned like a laptop pad, centrally under the space bar. Once I got used to a trackpad, I found it far quicker for getting around a GUI - just a quick move with the thumb without having to move from the keyboard and no less precise.
That’s not why I need it though. I get really nasty pains in my right shoulder if I use a mouse all day for more than a few days at a time - try reaching across for the mouse and just feel the strain in your shoulder. Well, that sets me off and keeps me awake at night in pain.
I’ve got two, but they’re both ratty by now. If I can’t find another in the next few years, I suspect I’ll be on laptops permanently on health grounds. Not ideal.
Keyboard manufacturers of the world - please, make a proper desktop keyboard with a trackpad or similar in the middle, just like on a laptop. I will easily pay twice what I’d pay for any other keyboard for one, and would probably get a couple as insurance.
Again Goldtouch
I love their adjustability. I am on #3 in 10 years.
#1 was a PS2, used at work for 7 years and only retired when I went USB.
#2 was also PS2, used at home until a coffee incident wiped it out.
#3 is the USB one. They had the cheek to re-layout the keypad between the first and third I got. That messed me up for a while. The stuff they’d moved to left handedness went back to the right. Placement is key for efficiency, I hate keyboard swapping, it slows you down so much.
Along with the keyboard, you need a good shelf…
Kinesis Advantage Pro. Give yourself a couple weeks to adjust, and then you’ll fly.
Learn vim, install viemu if you can’t live without visual studio.
I used my first keyboard TVS, for around 10 years, it served its life, it took a lot of poundings, lot of programming and gaming aggression. I bought a new keyboard becuase it went beyond repair, but still have it for old memories. I like a keyboard that is smooth, soft on the hands, and completly noise less. Till date NO other keybaord has come close to its performance of TVS keybaord yet. Better yet, if we could interact with computer without having to use the keyboard it would be great.
I really like my Cherry G80-3000.
It comes with Buckling springs like the IBM Model M for that loud click-clack. Feels very good to hear what you type.
Mi home keyboard is an IBM Model M that I find to be the ultimate keyboard ever made.
I’m currently on an ebay-hunt to find a semi-cheap additional one to use at work since the cheap buckling-spring Model M-ripoff I have there I found when I moved in to my current apartment since some previous tenant had left it in the storage room and I doubt it will live that many years.
The apple keyboard is what i am using, and have been using for quite a while, I would not recommend it to any windows users though, it has no insert key, which I desperately need in windows to do ctrl+ins and shift+ins copying and pasting. If you can live without that or have gotten used to the whole extreme lower left corner combinations (they kill my thumb) You won’t have many problems., the keyboard seriously rules.
Up until recently, I was using a keyboard bought circa 1996, which had a DIN connector plugged into a DIN - PS/2 converter. The thing was built like a tank, and I loved it so.
Sadly, the space bar proved the achilles heel, and typing ALT+255 everytime I needed the space bar was proving just a little too tedious.
And the home key cluster is useless when using one of true text editor : vi and emacs.
I am an Apple retailer and I use the Unicomp model M keyboard. Anything else feels like pushing your fingers into oatmeal.
For some detailed analysis of these keyboards, see:
#8226; Review Of Microsoft Natural Multimedia Keyboard
http://xahlee.org/emacs/ms_keyboard/ms_natural_keyboard.html
#8226; A Review of The Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000
http://xahlee.org/emacs/ms_keyboard/ms_natural_keyboard_4000.html
and
#8226; Computer Keyboards Gallery
http://xahlee.org/emacs/keyboards.html
That’s odd, I also have a Natural 4000, and it’s semi-colon has also all but died.
Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000
Mouses
Well
