Detailed guide to mechanical keyboards (switch types, hysteresis graphs, etc)

Don't skimp on your peripherals!<p>I see many fellow programmers buy and use the cheapest peripherals they find, and it bothers me. They are tools of our trade, and we will spend thousands of hours glued to our peripherals.<p>Getting a decent keyboard/mouse/headphones/monitor will make life a little more pleasant for a very small upfront investment.

Sadly, the best keyboards ever made by mankind were the MIT AI Lab (about the same as the Stanford AI Lab) keyboards, custom manufactured by the now-defunct Microswitch corporation. The second-generation versions (LLL and Sun/Symbolics keyboards) were not up to snuff, but were still pretty spectacular.<p>It's hard to describe the feel of the original AI Lab (Tom Knight) keyboards--even though they had a fairly long throw, the action was so smooth and natural as to defy imagination.<p>I even bought into a custom run of the LLL keyboards (second or third generation), at $600 each, and jerry-rigged a little home-made 68K processor board to translate the up/down signals into standard ASCII serial keycodes using a UART.<p>Oh well...

Hmm... I just ordered a Happy Hacking Lite 2 keyboard, which uses a membrane switch. The HH Professional uses a mechanical switch, but the ~$250 price scared me away. I also looked at the Das Keyboard and the Unicomp Customizer, which are both mechanical.<p>Has anyone used both versions of the Happy Hacking keyboard? Is there really a huge difference in the feel of the membrane version and the mechanical version?

I switched from a Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard to a relatively basic Mechanical Keyboard with Blue Cherry keycaps. My typing experience has never been better, and I really recommend investing in a good mechanical keyboard for everyone.<p>If you're in India and need a good keyboard - I recommend the TVS Gold, an unlikely name which actually is somewhat comparable to a Das Keyboard.

+1 for a very detailed summary of various mechanical switches and boards. A pity they glossed over the Alps switches, but few people know anything about them in detail. You owe it to yourself to get a good keyboard! Not all mechanical switches are noisy, so it's possible to use one without annoying your cube mates.

Does anyone know of a natural mechanical keyboard, something similar to the MS Natural 4000 perhaps? I have and like the 4000, but nothing replaces the mechanical "bounciness," if I may invent a word.

A friend of mine struck gold and found a pile of Model M's in hard rubbish. Its pretty easy to tell who now has them when using skype/vent/etc.<p>Personally, I use an ultra flat logitech illuminated keyboard, mostly for the shape and feel and not the illuminated keys which is a bit redundant unless one is hunting and pecking. Really don't like the way the wrist has to arch up for the more conventional keyboards, and i'd rather not have a wrist rest when I can just have a keyboard with a similar profile to my desk.

If you really want to obsess about this stuff, this is a good forum: <a href="http://geekhack.org/" rel="nofollow">http://geekhack.org/</a>

I have a collection of Model Ms and I love them. However, as my main home and work computers are Macs, and the Ms are missing one of the control keys, I'm out of luck.<p>I have a das keyboard at work, which is pretty good, but not as nice as the M. I always thought that it had the same mechanism as the M but this article says not.<p>Time to try a Unicomp.