5 ms·

You might collect Ferraris, which might all be objectively Robust Wire / USB Cable better than a Honda Civic, but you aren't going to drive one every day.

mdszy 7y ago
Why wouldn't you use a more quality keyboard every day though? You're literally spending thousands of hours of your life using it, why cheap out? It's not even comparable to cars like that. It's not like mech keyboards are practically unusable in any conditions like how high end cars are somewhat unusable in adverse weather conditions.
rhinoceraptor 7y ago
You wouldn't drive a Ferrari every day because they're not comfortable or practical, and because they have short service intervals and very expensive consumable parts. And a high performance car is almost necessarily not a reliable car since it's operating near the limit, especially once it has tens of thousands of miles on it. OTOH a mechanical keyboard is much more comfortable than rubber domes for many people. And they can last almost indefinitely, even if a switch breaks, you can fix it in a couple minutes if you have a soldering iron. If you spill coffee on it, you can clean it with isopropyl alcohol and most of the time that will fix any issues.
- cr0sh 7y ago
  I have a Model M with the flow-thru option; keyboard is probably 30 years old or so. My mobo still has a PS/2 port, but I bought an adapter for USB when that time comes. Other than needing a really deep cleaning (something I really need to do) - it works flawlessly. And it doesn't have any of the "Windows Key" junk that happened in the 90s to distract from my *nix aesthetic. Only downside is that it is beige, while the rest of my system is black. When/if it ever breaks - I have another one waiting in the wings, plus a Unicomp USB classic also available (I've been thinking about swapping it out to keep the aesthetic - and replacing the 'doze keys on it with Tux keycap covers or something like that). Somewhere, in my junk stash, I also have an old SGI keyboard that I need to look into making an adapter or something for...
  - justwalt 7y ago
    There was a Linus tech tips video a while back about a new run of copycat Model M keyboards using some combination old tooling and new techniques (I don’t remember the specifics at the moment). Are you familiar with those boards at all?
    - rhinoceraptor 7y ago
      The company is Unicomp for those wondering.
    - lewisflude 7y ago
      IBM sold off their keyboard division to Lexmark, and eventually Lexmark decided to stop doing keyboards, so two Lexmark employees bought the tooling to make the very last model of the "Lexmark Model M" and still make them to this day under the Unicomp brand.
lewisflude 7y ago
My logic is that it's good to invest in a good mattress cause you spend 8 hours a night in one, good shoes because you spend another 8 hours in them and a good keyboard as I'll typically spend a lot of my day typing. Now, the main reason I've not just bought one good keyboard and continued is honestly because the custom mechanical keyboard community is so nice. People design their own keyboard cases, caps, parts and there's so many ways of putting your dream keyboard together.

mdszy 7y ago

Why wouldn't you use a more quality keyboard every day though? You're literally spending thousands of hours of your life using it, why cheap out? It's not even comparable to cars like that. It's not like mech keyboards are practically unusable in any conditions like how high end cars are somewhat unusable in adverse weather conditions.

rhinoceraptor 7y ago

You wouldn't drive a Ferrari every day because they're not comfortable or practical, and because they have short service intervals and very expensive consumable parts. And a high performance car is almost necessarily not a reliable car since it's operating near the limit, especially once it has tens of thousands of miles on it. OTOH a mechanical keyboard is much more comfortable than rubber domes for many people. And they can last almost indefinitely, even if a switch breaks, you can fix it in a couple minutes if you have a soldering iron. If you spill coffee on it, you can clean it with isopropyl alcohol and most of the time that will fix any issues.

cr0sh 7y ago
I have a Model M with the flow-thru option; keyboard is probably 30 years old or so. My mobo still has a PS/2 port, but I bought an adapter for USB when that time comes. Other than needing a really deep cleaning (something I really need to do) - it works flawlessly. And it doesn't have any of the "Windows Key" junk that happened in the 90s to distract from my *nix aesthetic. Only downside is that it is beige, while the rest of my system is black. When/if it ever breaks - I have another one waiting in the wings, plus a Unicomp USB classic also available (I've been thinking about swapping it out to keep the aesthetic - and replacing the 'doze keys on it with Tux keycap covers or something like that). Somewhere, in my junk stash, I also have an old SGI keyboard that I need to look into making an adapter or something for...
- justwalt 7y ago
  There was a Linus tech tips video a while back about a new run of copycat Model M keyboards using some combination old tooling and new techniques (I don’t remember the specifics at the moment). Are you familiar with those boards at all?
  - rhinoceraptor 7y ago
    The company is Unicomp for those wondering.
  - lewisflude 7y ago
    IBM sold off their keyboard division to Lexmark, and eventually Lexmark decided to stop doing keyboards, so two Lexmark employees bought the tooling to make the very last model of the "Lexmark Model M" and still make them to this day under the Unicomp brand.

lewisflude 7y ago

My logic is that it's good to invest in a good mattress cause you spend 8 hours a night in one, good shoes because you spend another 8 hours in them and a good keyboard as I'll typically spend a lot of my day typing. Now, the main reason I've not just bought one good keyboard and continued is honestly because the custom mechanical keyboard community is so nice. People design their own keyboard cases, caps, parts and there's so many ways of putting your dream keyboard together.