5 ms·

10 worst PC keyboards of all time

7 points by mcxx 19y ago

brk 19y ago
I actively remember using almost all of those at one point or another. Many just for playing around on, or at friends houses (the Atari and the T/I's). The PCjr is always bashed, especially for the keyboard, but I never understood that. For starters mine had the "real" keyboard in addition to the chiclet keyboard. I also knew a few other folks with jr's, and never remember anyone using the chiclet keyboard. I must've written a couple hundred thousand lines of BASIC on my jr, and interfaced it to all kinds of peripherals, and later other PCs in the house. The PET brought back fond memories, I taught myself to program (more or less by looking at other BASIC programs for examples) on one of those. My first "application" was to display a calendar for the month of November... I finished it in February ;)
- bobochan 19y ago
  You were fortunate. I was the only guy in my college dorm with a computer, an Apple //e, when my neighbor announced he was getting a PC Jr. As a dedicated fanboy (even back then) I was nervous that my Apple would be crushed by the IBM giant. I was instantly relieved when I saw his chiclet keyboard and surmised that my computer was still the cool one on campus. I lived to type in adventure games from Creative Computing, inCider and other mags that published BASIC code. I still remember fondly playing countless hours of Super Star Trek.
alaskamiller 19y ago
It's Model M or die.
apathy 19y ago
Is it sad or proud that I recognized 5 of the 10 keyboards from having written programs on them in elementary school? The TI-1000 was particularly atrocious, although the PCjr wireless keyboard was pretty godawful. The old-school HP, IBM, and Sun workstation keyboards -- seemingly cleft from a solid block of metal, with a satisfying CLICK on each keypress -- get my vote as the best keyboards ever made. It was a sad day when I looked at the HP and IBM white-box models in a store one day and realized that the good keyboards were no longer being made.
mhb 19y ago
The current iMac keyboard is a big POS and should be among these. But maybe the reviewers didn't want to include because it looks so pretty.
jacobolus 19y ago
Shouldn't the title be more like "10 worst PC keyboards of the late 1970s and early 1980s"
- icky 19y ago
  I think any keyboards made later couldn't help but suck less than those abominations.

7 points by mcxx 19y ago

brk 19y ago

I actively remember using almost all of those at one point or another. Many just for playing around on, or at friends houses (the Atari and the T/I's). The PCjr is always bashed, especially for the keyboard, but I never understood that. For starters mine had the "real" keyboard in addition to the chiclet keyboard. I also knew a few other folks with jr's, and never remember anyone using the chiclet keyboard. I must've written a couple hundred thousand lines of BASIC on my jr, and interfaced it to all kinds of peripherals, and later other PCs in the house. The PET brought back fond memories, I taught myself to program (more or less by looking at other BASIC programs for examples) on one of those. My first "application" was to display a calendar for the month of November... I finished it in February ;)

bobochan 19y ago
You were fortunate. I was the only guy in my college dorm with a computer, an Apple //e, when my neighbor announced he was getting a PC Jr. As a dedicated fanboy (even back then) I was nervous that my Apple would be crushed by the IBM giant. I was instantly relieved when I saw his chiclet keyboard and surmised that my computer was still the cool one on campus. I lived to type in adventure games from Creative Computing, inCider and other mags that published BASIC code. I still remember fondly playing countless hours of Super Star Trek.

alaskamiller 19y ago

It's Model M or die.

apathy 19y ago

Is it sad or proud that I recognized 5 of the 10 keyboards from having written programs on them in elementary school? The TI-1000 was particularly atrocious, although the PCjr wireless keyboard was pretty godawful. The old-school HP, IBM, and Sun workstation keyboards -- seemingly cleft from a solid block of metal, with a satisfying CLICK on each keypress -- get my vote as the best keyboards ever made. It was a sad day when I looked at the HP and IBM white-box models in a store one day and realized that the good keyboards were no longer being made.

mhb 19y ago

The current iMac keyboard is a big POS and should be among these. But maybe the reviewers didn't want to include because it looks so pretty.

jacobolus 19y ago

Shouldn't the title be more like "10 worst PC keyboards of the late 1970s and early 1980s"

icky 19y ago
I think any keyboards made later couldn't help but suck less than those abominations.