New buckling spring keyboards re-create IBM’s iconic Model F

It's funny how things come and go.

I remember my first "real job" I was a young guy in a crowd of guys roughly all 20 years older than me. They were good at their job but very much go in, punch the clock, go home. It was a technology company but a very old one and few people in my department really was interested n their computer beyond their prescribed job.

I showed up and everyone had these monster IBM M style keyboards. They were brutal on my hands, stiff mechanical monsters. And oh man was it noisy in that place with everyone pounding on them.

So I bought in my own "Microsoft natural keyboard". At one point a coworker complained that they couldn't use my computer if they needed to because of my keyboard. It was absurd that this guy would bring in the keyboard he wants to use from his own home!

But within a few months everyone's old keyboards were in the extra cube dumping ground and everyone brought in their own keyboard. The M style IBM keyboards were out.

After using a model M for so many years the model F feels too light. I am glad to see someone making a new model F for people that want them though. I just bought a Unicomp new model M to keep in a box for the day my original keyboard finally dies. If I had to work in an office with other people I would use something quieter, but since I have a detached home office I can make all the machine gun typing noises I want. I am a firm believer in buckling spring. I am 38 with no signs of RSI.

Interesting to see that Model F keyboards have an ergodox-style build on offer. The pricing is "reverse Dutch auction"; so you'd have to know that you want it.

400 bucks?

I'll stick with unicomp, the one I got for my dad's birthday a few years back is doing just swell.