These are the same switches used in the old Northgate Omnikey keyboards. They last forever, and they feel fucking great. A little noisy, similar to the old IBM PC keyboards, but you really do type better when you have auditory feedback.

You can use these with a PC as well. If you've got a KVM to switch between PC and Mac, now's the time to finally use a Mac keyboard instead of a PC one. :)

Using my keyboard about 2000 hours per year, I've come to realize the difference between a really good one and a really cheap one. I used a PFU Happy Hacking mini keyboard for 5 years with no problems until it finally started to give out last year. I tried some cheaper brands when I switched from Linux to OS X since PFU didn't make a board with USB plugs. I noticed a couple months ago that there are now mac-compatible Happy Hacking keyboards with extra USB plugs, so I got one immediately. No regrets. This one reviewed here is beautiful.

Kensington has been selling a $90 keyboard like this for about a year now called the Studioboard -- in fact, it looks identical to the tactilepro keyboard, save that Kensington doesn't put the option and shift-option symbols on the keys. (I'm not sure whether the information value of that truly outweighs the clutter, but I know that's awfully subjective.)

I don't know whether Kensington uses the Alps switches, too, but I wouldn't be surprised if both of these keyboards are actually OEMed by the same company. It looks like Matias has just done a much better job of promotion than Kensington did. I've had one of the Studioboards for nearly six months now (I bought it when I bought my G5, a purchase in a moment of weakness at the Panther release party--10% off! Now it's only overpriced! Shiny!) and it's been great so far.

There is another option for an excellent keyboard with the Alt/Command keys in the right place for a Mac user: a Sun keyboard.
I am typing this on a Sun Microsystem's Type 6 USB keyboard, Item-number #320-1271. You can order one at the Sun Store for $60:

http://store.sun.com/CMTemplate/CEServlet?process= SunStore&cmdViewProduct_CP&boxid=%2523320-1271 [sun.com]
or apparently here [amessciences.com] for $40.

You can even use the extra keys on Linux. [uni-passau.de]
Here's a picture. [lucksnet.or.jp]

Apple, back in the ADB days, produced several keyboards for systems. There was a small keyboard that lacked function keys and had the escape key placed just right of the space bar, this was called the "Apple keyboard II". It was a very nice keyboard for use on servers or in tight quarters, there's almost no extra frame around the keys and the thing is very small and light. The sort of thing people would purchase today as an add-on keyboard for a laptop.
There was also a behemoth of a keyboard called "Apple Extended Keyboard", which included a full set of function keys (F1 - F15), two complete sets of modifier keys (control, option, command, shift), had a full set of navigation keys (home, end, ins, etc) and a proper layout for the directional arrows, and there were LEDs to display the status of caps and the other "locks". The ergonomics were improved with a 4 step incline adjustment and lots of spacing between sets of keys (function, alpha/num, numpad, nav, arrows). Basically the extended keyboard was a 101 key PC style keyboard built to Apple standards, and like a tank.

The extended keyboard has a very distinct feel, there is a significant amount of travel in the keys, so your fingers actually have to move to press them down and it's difficult to accidentally press a key without being difficult to hit the one you intend. Since the key switches are mechanical, there's a satisfying tactile response when you move the key and the switch connects, you can feel and hear that you are typing a character. This may not mean much to the people that "hunt and peck", but for touch typests, there's a rythm to typing and many times you can tell when you've messed something up just by listening to the rythym of the keys.

I should note that the extended keyboard is large, is has almost an inch of plastic around the left bottom and right of the keys, and several inches at the top where you could place templates for the function keys for different applications. It also weighs almost as much as am iBook.

I love the extended keyboard, and when I get my G5, I'll also be getting a USB-ADB adapter so I can use the extended keyboard on the new machine. I don't like the lightweight, light touch, short stroke keyboards Apple ships with the current systems, not at all.

Mainly the feel of using it. The "extended" in the name refers to the fact that it's a full 105-key keyboard [yimg.com] (Apple used to also make a smaller keyboard [yimg.com] lacking the page up/down, extra command/option and F keys, IIRC usually sold with the SE and LC computers), so in that regard it's nothing special compared to a standard PC keyboard.

But the actual use of it was great, because of the tactile feedback (the keys sort of clicked just at the moment the input actually was sent -- sounds trivial, but on more modern computers it's a little lacking) and the audible "click" the keys made was also nice to have as an audible feedback (if you're transcribing texts and can't look at the screen, that's helpful).

So it's a lot of little stuff. Not something for everyone -- I sure as hell wouldn't go so far as to shell out $90 for it, and am satisfied with my current Apple USB keyboard with the G5 -- but some people really need that.

I do like the additional labels on the keys, though -- something that's sorely lacking on Apple's newer keyboards (especially the non-US ones).

My question is, does it come in non-American layouts? From what I saw on the site and article, there was no mention of other layouts at all. (The physical layout is usually the same, just the keys are rearranged and in some cases labelled differently for special characters.)

Cheers,

Ethelred

That's why product reviews exist.. The one linked from the article is a good review, by someone who really cares about the quality of his keyboard.

You can use these with a PC as well. If you've got a KVM to switch between PC and Mac, now's the time to finally use a Mac keyboard instead of a PC one. :)

Alternately, check out the Fujitsu 4725 [accelerated.ca] (which for some reason appears to be a distinctly Canadian thing).

I've got one, it's beautiful. Based on the IBM Model M technology, which I think Fujitsu licensed or acquired somehow. PS/2 only, which means you need a PS2/USB adapter for it to work with most Macs, but the clickyclicky is very worth it, and unlike the keyboard in the article, it's not backordered and about half the price.

(Stay the hell away from the Fujitsu 8725, it's model number suggests that it's better, but it's actually a cheap, horribly mushy piece of garbage)

pckeyboard.com

ebay for "Mobel M"

Ebay for "Northgate"

Blatant karma whoring alert!

Here's the product page for this keyboard: link [kensington.com].

I have ADB keyboards and my primary machine is a Blue & White G3 (upgraded to G4) that still has ADB ports and I still ordered two of these. Mainly because the machine is on a USB KVMA switch and I don't like having to keep so many keyboards around. And that it has a power key on the keyboard is a plus since I had to move the power switch of the B&W to make room for more internal drives than it was designed to accomodate. (The power switch on the G4 Cube's monitor, serving as the B&W's second display, won't start up the B&W.)

And as I have more ADB-only computers than I have ADB keyboards (are there any NuBus USB cards?), this will help that achieve balance. At least until I can get a good and affordable ADB KVM for them.

But I still have to have a PS/2 keyboard for the PC for some tasks like some Linux boot CDs that have queries that need answering before they've loaded USB drivers, and sometimes I can't wait the 15-30 seconds it takes for Windows XP to re-recognize returning USB devices.

Ah yes, the open- and closed-apple keys. Introduced on the Apple IIe, generated the same signals as button 1 and button 2 on joysticks and paddles. Control-OpenApple-Reset restarted the machine, Control-ClosedApple-Reset put it into self test mode. (Encountered a problem a user had where Control-Reset would always cause a reboot. Turned out to be a stuck button on the joystick.)

Morphed into Command and Option on the Apple IIgs which used an ADB keyboard but with Control next to the A and Caps Lock small and below the Shift key. (Nowadays keyboards for computers are arranged more for typing than for programming; if it weren't for Windows, the Control may have gone away entirely by now.) The Reset key lost its label. Command and Option were still the same game I/O button signals. Forced reboot became Control-Command-Reset.

Macs came to call Reset the Power key, as pressing it would cause the computer to power up unlike the IIgs, but they still had the triangle symbol as the IIgs used. The restart sequence became known as Control-Command-Power. Eventually morphed into a power button with the c- symbol on its back. Then it vanished from the keyboard entirely.

What three-finger-salute does one use to force a reboot from the keyboard now?

However, the Lisa and Macintosh keyboards both had closed apple symbols.

The Macintosh keyboard had NO Apple symbol at all.

Susan Kare [kare.com] was asked to pick an abstract symbol. She found a sweedish campground map symbol [folklore.org] that's been in use ever since.

I'm actually puzzled why Apple put the "Apple" on the later command keys, since the symbol is not used in any of their software to denote keyboard shortcuts. The purists among us bristle at references to "apple-q to quit". Bah! It's "command-q". :)

(The IIgs keyboard was never actually sold with Macs, was it? I remember it having a fairly unique design that matched the styling of the GS)

- Peter

A word of warning about ps2->usb adaptors: every one I've tried has a bad habit of forgetting about modifier keys that are held down a few seconds with no other keypresses.

Which sounds like an obscure case, until you're scrolling back in your xterm with shift-pgup... go back a while, pause to read an interesting bit while still holding down shift... hit pgup again and find that you've just sent an unshifted pgup, dumping you back to the bottom of scrollback. Pretty bloody annoying, I found it.

(Fortunately, Kinesis now makes a usb version of their keyboard. Unfortunately, it has its whole own host of bugs. But it's a nice shiny silver!)

I bought one of those fancy Apple Ergonomic Keyboards with separate numeric keypad when they were introduced. They were just gorgeous: small, good feel and huge hand rests.

Then I wanted to use MacSOUP as I am used to: with the keypad. So I dug out the box, found the keypad, attached it and found that now my mouse was too far away. Since I could use neither mouse nor keypad with my left hand, I switched back to my old Extended II keyboard which is still in use today - 14 years after I bought it.