On Wednesday 21 November 2007 23:34:33 Stroller wrote:
On 21 Nov 2007, at 18:06, Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
....
Of course we've ignored one important fact about keyboards with
"Windows
keys" - they're bloody awful. I could chew up and swallow a bag of
yoghurt
pots and excrete a less flimsy keyboard than the ones on sale these
days.
Here, I've corrected your statement for you:
Of course we've ignored one important fact about most modern
keyboards
- they're bloody awful...
I have an IBM keyboard here with windows keys - it is at least as
good as the Mac keyboard (assuming that was actually made by Apple)
that you say you're using in your work PC (and, really, probably
better).
Of course, I've had this a few years, and perhaps IBM's (Lenovo's?)
current keyboards aren't so good, but you can still pay 100 quid
(that's c $200) for a keyboard if you want a good one.
PCkeyboard.com
offer buckling-spring models which feature the Windows key and which
are "based on an award winning design, ... the same quality and crisp
tactile feedback as their IBM predecessors"; if these are really as
good as the model M, then I think there are few who would be unhappy
Hmm. They look interesting. I couldn't see anything about buckling-spring
keyboards, but I might not have been looking hard enough. The idea of custom
keycaps sounds good - the Windows Objectors could get alternate logos on
their Windows keys.
Back when my father bought his first
"IBM-compatible" 286, he paid
more than that for a keyboard, but in those days, so did everyone
else - it was just one component in a c ?2000 package. Nowadays
computers are cheap "commodity" items, and Walmart sell whole
computer systems for $199. Are you surprised that the keyboards feel
naff?
You could (as of 2006) buy new Model Ms as an IBM spare part - I don't have
the reference number handy, but it was in the parts database. As you can
probably imagine, they were Not Cheap.
I find the Windows keys pretty useful, being obliged
to use Windows
on a daily basis. All the keyboard shortcuts on Windows 2000 / XP and
I use Linux pretty much exclusively (the rest of the time I use NetBSD), and
find the Win keys handy - you can always remap them to something useful if
you're not using them as modifier keys.
research, hands-on with users. For those of us that
like keyboard
shortcuts a Mac is a VERY poor relation in this regard.
Not having much experience with Mac and even less experience with Windows, I'm
not best placed to comment. But, they seem about the same to me. Going from
Gnome or KDE to Mac OS X takes a bit of getting used to, mostly reaching for
Splat-S instead of Ctrl-S to save ;-)
I think that's as much OT as I'm going to get into.
Gordon