Or maybe, you’re an of old fogy who simply is too set in his outdated ways in order to change. (When I was your age, computers didn’t have memory. You had to etch your programs using clay tablets and a stylus, and we liked it!).
I, another ancient fogy, cannot type very fast on an iPhone or iPad, but my three sons certainly can. On an iPad, they can easily maintain 40 words per minute, and watching them text on an iPhone simply makes me dizzy.
They don’t like Android because the virtual keyboard isn’t as good. I know this to be true because when I watch them text on an Android phone, I can actually see their fingers as they type instead of a mass motion blur. They haven’t tried W7P yet.
I didn’t start using computers until I was in my 20s. All of my sons used computers before they could read, and have been touch typing since they were seven. To them, a virtual keyboard is just another keyboard. Then again, I knew several of my father’s friends who didn’t like electric typewriters because they didn’t have that solid feel an Underwood typewriter had.
As one of my sons loves telling me “Get out of the way Grandpa. You’re being replaced.”
I remember my grandparent’s IBM clickey clacker. Worked darn well but damn was it ugly.
I don’t know if I’ll spend the same amount on a keyboard than my new video card… but maybe sometime. I like my Logitech G15; it’s still pretty loud for a “modern” keyboard but I love the backlight and LCD screen.
Put me down as another Apple keyboard user who has been ruined for any other keyboard. I have the same reasons that have been mentioned: short key travel, perfect crispness.
But there’s another factor too, which came as a complete surprise to me.
I bought the numpad-less USB (cable-bound) version. It may be the smallest keyboard with full-size keys in existence. It is astonishingly tiny. And I discovered that with a keyboard this tiny, the mouse can stay so close to your mouse wrist, it negates most of the costs of reaching for it. You twitch your arm over to the mouse, flick it two or three places, and go back to furious typing, with barely a moment of lost time.
So I am now additionally ruined for any keyboard larger than this one.
Those keyboards in the photos? They aren’t keyboards. They are battleships.
I would like to try some of these, especially the blank Das Keyboard, but I really need a keyboard with Swedish layout (yes I know that the swedish characters aren’t needed for programming, but the Swedish layout is the one I am fast at typing on).
I can’t seem find any of the models with Swedish layout. Are there any that does and also supports mechanical switch?
I have been using original Apple Extended keyboards for 3 or 4 years. These are Apple’s original Alps switch keyboards and as much a cult favorite among Mac users as Model Ms are elsewhere. Some people prefer the Extended II, which also uses Alps switches but is slightly quieter but I find slightly more… mushy.
I paid $2 for each of my Apple Extended keyboards ($1 for each keyboard, $1 for each ADB cable) and $40 more each for ADB-USB adapters, so this is a pretty inexpensive solution too. Any electronics recycling place should have piles of these things lying around (as well as a variety of other mechanical keyboards from ancient times, all similarly priced).
There are a couple of downsides:
Some systems don’t recognize the device, through the ADB-USB adapter, as a proper USB keyboard device early enough during boot to allow doing anything before the OS is booted (this was a problem I experienced on earlier Intel Macs, but isn’t a problem on either of my most recent machines);
It’s downright enormous, and heavy enough to be used as a weapon, so it’s not very portable;
It’s pretty ugly, unless you like 80s beige plastic, and grime shows up on them just like it did on anything from that era;
No nice new features like USB hubs, if you care about using your keyboard that way.
Overall though, these things are tanks and they’ll probably survive the zombie apocalypse, and I miss it every time I type on another keyboard, especially a laptop.
Oh, one downside I forgot to mention (which can also be an upside): on the Apple Extended, the Caps Lock key actually mechanically locks. This makes reassigning the Caps Lock key pretty useless, but if you use Caps Lock for its stated purpose at all, it is nice to be able to physically check if Caps Lock is engaged without looking at the keyboard.
I’m an incredible keyboard nazi, myself. I too started off with boring rubber-dome keyboards, eventually moving to the Gateway Anykey (which was basically the ultimate rubber keyboard, being fully programmable and very versatile… but still mushy and physically not very durable). Eventually I moved to an ancient Suntouch mechanical-switch board that was lying forgotten in a closet, which was quite satisfying, but it had a nasty tendency to launch the keycaps back into my face while I was typing. And no macros.
I’m fourthing the CVT Avant Stellar. Not only is it mechanical, but it also has remapping and macro functions built into the board. It also has a second set of function keys for your enjoyment. Extremely expensive… although IMHO, having a keyboard constructed mostly of steel is worth it.
I can type faster on a laptop keyboard, but I make fewer typos on a good old battleship keyboard.
and I love it but have been missing the mechanical keyboards, however I don’t want any mechanical keyboard that doesn’t also have all the features of my current keyboard, must of all the key back lighting. With the key back lighting on this keyboard the letter of each key lights up with no lighting around the keys. Then yesterday I found this. http://store.razerzone.com/store/razerusa/en_US/pd/productID.211651300/categoryId.35156900
Finally, my Lycosa and mechanical keys combined in one, I will be forever happy with my keyboard now.
I understand the appeal of buckling springs, but I’m with Kevdog on this one: TypeMatrix make the best ergonomic keyboards. Any keyboard that has staggered keys can not be called ergonomic; they are simply terrible for your fingers. The latest TypeMatrix keyboard is their third iteration, and it really is a very well thought out layout, almost perfect in my opinion.
After 20 years of Qwerty touch-typing, I switched to Dvorak and my speed is up 40%. But it’s not so much about speed as efficiency, and Qwerty is horribly inefficient. I take a TypeMatrix keyboard with me if I anticipate having to type away from the office or home. They easily fit in a small bag.
I used to be a Model M user, I still have a Model M from 1984 that I used to use all the time. I also loved my SGI “graphite” keyboard but after I got a wireless Apple keyboard, the current alu model, I’ve been hooked. It’s basically like a very good laptop keyboard, short key travel and a very good feel…
An ergonomic layout is more important to me than a mechanical feedback. The MS Natural 4000 keyboard may not be mechanical, but I can feel very well, when I pressed the key deep enough and I don’t need to feel when I released the key far enough, because I simply release the key all the way. What annoys me most about all your candidates is the space key. Look at the space key, it’s “edged”. That means my thumbs rest on an edge and when I press it, the edge pushes itself into my flesh and that will hurt if you type on the keyboard 6-8 hours a day. A space bar must be rounded to be comfortable, everything else might have been good in the 80’s, but it’s not good enough for this century any longer. Look at this old Apple keyboard:
I hated this one, because all the keys in the lowest row were so edged, that it was really unpleasant to use it. A keyboard doesn’t have to be split, to be ergonomic, but it must have a rounded/flat spacebar, it needs keys that you can push down with little force and that are softly decelerated. I once had a keyboard where the key was stopped abruptly. I used to type on this for two weeks… then I had a sinew inflammation and couldn’t touch a keyboard for 6 weeks! That’s because all the “motion energy” is pushed back into your finger, if the key is stopped abruptly. It’s the same difference as stopping a car by hitting its breaks (decelerating it) and stopping a car by driving it against a concrete pillar (stopping it abruptly).
Ah yes, keyboard affectionados unite! Just wrote a post about how the keyboard was a key influencer in my decision to pull the trigger on a Thinkpad W510 over the weekend…can’t wait to pound my fingertips on a quality laptop keyboard again. It’s been a while since my last Thinkpad in 1995!!
I expected the usual ergonomic complainers, but sometimes the switch makes all the difference in ergonomics. You have to use one before you know what a difference it makes.
I hate typing on laptops anymore just because of the difference of mechanical switches versus the scissor-switch rubber domes used on laptops.
I find ShapeWriter soft keyboard has no problem understaing the smudging motion of my drunken left thumb - it took a while to get used to but it’s very effective. Perhaps not quite as fast as a real keyboard, but not far off.
I personally love my Logitech MX 5500 Revolution set; I consider it the both the best keyboard and mouse I’ve ever had.
The keyboard isn’t made of mechanical switches, of course, and though I’ve yet to try a Cherry-switch board, so far my experiences with mechanical keyed boards haven’t impressed me.
The logitech has a good key feel, acceptable volume, and I’ve come to totally dig the Home/End, PgUp/PgDwn, Delete layout. As a programmer, I feel like the MX 5500 put those buttons in the exact right locations.
The real bonus with the set is the Revolution mouse. It fits in my hand and makes me feel like a surgeon holding a scalpel. The hyperscroll is amazing for scrolling through long code files and/or web pages, and this is the only mouse with electronically controlled hyperscroll, giving me one more useable button and better options for switching in and out of hyperscroll mode.
As for the touchscreens, I find as a reasonable typist I can get some speed with Swype. Guess you iFans don’t have that tho, right?
Get a grey logo Model M. You won’t be disappointed. Mine was built in 1990 and I got it in 1994 and I haven’t regretted it as a purchase ever. My dad used to comment on the fact that it sounded like I was using a machine gun in my bedroom, but I didn’t care as I could get up to 115 WPM when I was angry (I don’t think fast enough to type that quickly otherwise). Until I started working for a big company and got tossed in a cubicle, I typed a lot and never hurt. I suspect that most of the pain I’ve got now, isn’t just from not using an ergo keyboard, but using a keyboard that you have to work so hard to use as I don’t type nearly as fast or as much as I used to.
My dad has a first run Model M (1988?), as he ordered his PS/2 Model 30 the day the shop let him. I’ll admit that I kinda learned to touch type on a TRS-80 Model 3, really learned on an IBM Selectric III and did most of my programming on the school’s PS/2 Model 25s. Thus, I might be a little bit biased.
