… these keyboards had been the state of the art. Nearly indestructible and perfectly usable. No flimsy plastic rubbish, but 4kg of weight just for the keyboard. In these days every notebook needs to be lighter than this. This model was called IBM Model M and had its typical sound produced by so called buckling springs, when a key was pressed. A legendary typing feel.
Can you use them still? Oh yes. Thanks to qmk software and small embedded boards like Arduino those keyboards can be transformed into an USB-keyboard with multiple layers and macro functions. It is a joy to use such solid items, in fact, this blog entry is being written on the pictured keyboard.
Some guys at IBM did not want to let this pice of hardware die, so they bought the complete set of tools and the rights to manufacture those Model M buckling spring keyboards. Actually you can buy a newly manufactured keyboard at www.unicomp.com
And most important, they now have replacement keys available, that the old models were missing. Guess what happens if you press the panic button …