There is a rather depressing school of management that assesses a software developers productivity by the sight and sound of someone pounding at keyboards. That clicketty clacking noise and a tense expression of grim determination convinces that this expensive contractor is clearly worth their considerable day rate. Anything less and questions may be asked. The layers of the management hierarchy may fear their deadlines may slip and project plans compromised without the audilble confirmation that work aplenty is well underway.
Yes this is a the WISCA style of management in action because if they can’t hear the keyboard they will ask ‘why isn’t Sam coding anything’?
A loud keyboard is also an effective countermeasure to discourage people from having impromtu voice conferences and gathering around a phone with a loudspeaker. That is so annoying. As are mobile phones left on desks ringing constantly…
Open plan offices are rather a silly idea whose days must, surely by now, be numbered. If this helps give them a shove over the edge, a robust mechanical keyboard is well worth the investment.
That would be another top-5 reason for not going into the office. But 5 people gathering around a speakerphone can get much louder than even a room of Model Ms. And they will get as loud as necessary to drown out the background noise.
My manager is in a different state, but in any case I’ve never met one that confuses busyness for productivity. Sorry to hear that you’ve found otherwise.
I have a Das Keyboard and like it. It’s really well made. Can’t remember which kind of switch but it’s loud and not squishy. Still prefer my precious scissor switch keyboard though. Very quiet but not squishy IMO.
The Model M showed up in the mail today and, despite almost throwing my back out when I picked up the package, I’m using it to type this very message.
The tactile feedback is very pleasant, and after just a few minutes getting used to it (are the keys spaced further apart than on modern keyboards?) I was up to full typing speed.
I didn’t remember the distinctive metallic pinging sound that the keys produce along with the clicks. It’s not exactly unpleasant, but I don’t know if I’d like it long-term. Apparently this is something of a debate among the mechanical aficionados; some of them will mod the keyboard to dampen the pings while others embrace it as a distinguishing characteristic of the design.
Is it the sound of the springs buckling? That would be the only metallic ping that I can imagine and I don’t hear much (if any) on mine but maybe I’m just so used to it I can’t hear it. (It’s also possible that too many punk rock concerts have ruined my hearing.)
It’s the vibrations of the springs after release, I think. You can’t really hear it if you just press one key, but it’s definitely there when you’re doing some brisk typing. Relatively subtle and probably easy to get used to unless it happens to be a nails-on-chalkboard noise, which it is not for me.
The conclusion of this tale - my dad absolutely loves the vintage Model M that I gave him. After I handed it off, going back to a regular membrane keyboard felt like typing on mashed potatoes. Today my Unicomp New Model M arrived in the mail. I wish they had a color scheme identical to the vintage keyboards, but otherwise I’m very happy with it. I love the springy clicks and the weightiness of the keyboard itself.
Would you say that your Unicomp feels the same as the vintage? After you get used to the Unicomp it would be interesting for you to try the vintage again to see if you can tell a difference.
I actually intend to bring it to the folks’ place at some point and try them side by side. I was thinking really hard about it today and I think the Unicomp requires a little less pressure on each key. There’s also much less of a metallic pinging like I mentioned above about the vintage, though it’s still there.
When I’m able to compare them side by side I’ll report back.
After having used some model-m-style keyboards just out of high-school, I’ve used membrane-style keyboards for decades. Over the past few years, I’ve had a couple with Cherry Brown clones and I liked them, but I found them a bit lacking. They were supposed to have a tactile ‘bump’, but I never felt it. I finally went all-in and got Blues, and it’s much better. I used some o-rings to help quiet it, and I don’t think I’ll ever use any other kind ever again.
I’ve got the Keychron K1 with the Gateron Brown switches. The only downside is sometimes it “sticks” (not physically) and types a bunch of letters in a row. Otherwise, I love it.
My wife has to shut the door sometimes because she doesn’t like the noise, though, when we’re both working at home.
I’m banging away on a DAS with Cherry MX Blues right now. Scary to think that the old IBM bucking springs are louder. The guy next to me at my old office location had a real IBM 3270 mainframe terminal in his cube and people would complain.
