My trusty old keyboard has given up the ghost. I have replaced it with a $4.99 piece of crap from microcenter. I'm now spenfing way too much time correcting typos - double letters or missing letters. This keyboard sucks.
Since you can't get Northgate Omnikey 102s anymore, what's your preference for a GOOD keyboard?
Depends on what you want to spend.. But for me, I type on a Dynex DX-WKBD
It's a cheap keyboard I picked up from best buy, and it works great for me. I like the letter spacing, it has a bunch of buttons on the side that I never use, but for the 10-20 bucks I paid for it, I'm happy.
A difficult one - but I would hazard a guess that the $4.99 one you got is, well, worth $4.99. I use a very ancient Honeywell keyboard, just keeps chugging along. Scrub the gunk off the key-tops occasionally, the only thing I have ever had to do it. (Its in the workshop, so grease/oil/weird stuff get all over it as I cant be stuffed washing my hands before I use it etc) Got it (from fading memory) from a Opportunity Shop (Thrift Shop in the US?) - you will maybe have to buy the complete computer to get it, but thats OK - some good bits in them worth salvaging. Older the better, if you can find an XT based system... I think, too, that you get used to a keyboard, and a new one you have to learn over again. (Bugger - life's too short for that, hate it when "New" technology forces you to do things differently just cause its cheaper to make the "New " version - and they spin it as "Improved" on the old version - must be designed by politicians...)
I had a couple banana boxes full of Northgate keyboards in storage. I have no idea where they are, right now. I got them about 10 years ago, when my employer was buying dozens of new computers a month. They gave away the spare monitors and old computers, then finally cleaned out the storeroom of mice & keyboards. I see that old Northgate keyboards are going for $60 and up on Ebay.
How many keyboard do you want? I can buy more than I can carry at the thrift store and surplus stores for about 1$ a piece. I have been using a Microsoft ergonomic keyboard. I have no problems with it other than I can not swap the keypads around so it is labeled for the Dvorak layout. It forced me to learn to touch type. I do not remember where I got it, but am sure I did not pay more than $3.
I've been nursing a no longer available Focus keyboard, which uses the same buckling spring keyswitches as the old IBM and Northgate keyboards, so I understand your attachment. These folks are apparently making keyboards using IBM's technology:
I stopped in at the surplus store today. They had a couple of good sized boxes with keyboards. One box was labeled 58 keyboards so I would estimate they had well over 100 keyboards. They want 1$ each.
About going rate at the surplus/recycling joints. Paid $2@ for a half- dozen Dell keyboards, will keep me going for awhile. Worth the extra buck since they were basically new. Haven't had any troubles with them doubling. Long cords, too. Not as nice a feel as the oldies, not nearly as heavy either. Some of the old Zeniths had what seemed to be bullet-proof bottom plates, weighed a ton. Not too nice for working off a lap. Stayed put on a desk, though.
What's really nice for some things is a wireless jobbie, have one intended for home theater use that has a built-in trackball. Just depends on what you want. Nice not being tethered for some things. Not going to get one for for a buck or two, though.
NED - THANK YOU! This is the sort of company I was looking for. I appreciate all the other replies, but I'm not looking for a cheap keyboard, I'm looking for a GOOD keybord. No, I'm actually looking for a GREAT keyboard.
I sit in front of the computer sometimes upwards of 14 hours a day. I see no reaon to cheap out on the input device.
The Apple Keyboards are pretty darn good. Picked one up at Value Village for $3 - still had the protective plastic over the cord. Some of the higher end Logitech boards are pretty darn good too. I've got a y-bn52 that is solid as a plank and has good feedback. The keyboard is about the only part of a Dell computer I have any use for - some of them are pretty decent (chinese) units. Some of the Microsoft stuff is pretty good too. Mitsumi made som decent ones too. Last Mitsumi I got was made in Maylasia who-knows how many years ago and is still my wife's keyboard of choice.
Not sure if you can still get KeyTronics or Cherry boards. They were my favorites years ago.I still have a Cherry with a card scanner - German quality.
And for some applications you cannot beat the flexible keyboards like the "air touch" Totally washable, waterproof, spill-proof, crumb proof, and virtually idiot proof.(available from Main Event Marketing - I got mine from the local "surplus" outlet for nine bux.)
I'm not looking for cheap. I'm looking for a professional quality keyboard. The one I'm using now cost five bucks. I'd gladly pay ten or twenty times that for one that works like a Northgate or an old XT, but with all the windows keys. Multimedia keys (at least volume up & down) would be a plus.
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