• Hardware keyboard upgrades

    From phigan@VERT/TACOPRON to Nightfox on Monday, May 04, 2026 10:01:11
    Re: Hardware keyboard upgrades
    By: Nightfox to Mortar on Thu Apr 16 2026 02:29 pm

    That said, I've always heard good things about mechanical keyboards. I'm ju not sure I feel like I can justify the extra expense right now. Also I'd li to find one that's quiet, as I don't really like loud keyboards.

    I'm thinking the days of the cheap clones for $20 (or less) are long gone, but I still see some come down to around $35 every once in a while. I would highly recommend picking one up at that price. Personally, I like the smooth red switches, but even a clicky blue switch one is more pleasant than a membrane keyb.

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  • From Nightfox@VERT/DIGDIST to phigan on Monday, May 04, 2026 11:13:16
    Re: Hardware keyboard upgrades
    By: phigan to Nightfox on Mon May 04 2026 10:01 am

    That said, I've always heard good things about mechanical keyboards. I'm
    ju not sure I feel like I can justify the extra expense right now. Also
    I'd li to find one that's quiet, as I don't really like loud keyboards.

    I'm thinking the days of the cheap clones for $20 (or less) are long gone, but I still see some come down to around $35 every once in a while.

    Clones of what? The classic IBM mechanical keyboard?

    Nightfox

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  • From phigan@VERT/TACOPRON to Nightfox on Monday, May 04, 2026 14:39:03
    Re: Hardware keyboard upgrades
    By: Nightfox to phigan on Mon May 04 2026 11:13 am

    Clones of what? The classic IBM mechanical keyboard?

    Name brand or "established company" mechanical keyboards.

    Atm, I'm using a Lorrik from Walmart ;).

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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@VERT/REALITY to phigan on Tuesday, May 05, 2026 12:25:05
    phigan wrote to Nightfox <=-

    Re: Hardware keyboard upgrades
    By: Nightfox to Mortar on Thu Apr 16 2026 02:29 pm

    That said, I've always heard good things about mechanical keyboards. I'm ju not sure I feel like I can justify the extra expense right now. Also I'd li to find one that's quiet, as I don't really like loud keyboards.

    I'm thinking the days of the cheap clones for $20 (or less) are long
    gone, but I still see some come down to around $35 every once in a
    while. I would highly recommend picking one up at that price.
    Personally, I like the smooth red switches, but even a clicky blue
    switch one is more pleasant than a membrane keyb.

    I played with a colleague's keyboard at work - the fact he had it in an
    open office was a good sign. He mentioned that he bought brown
    switches, which I'd heard were much quieter than the other switches.
    Can Confirm - it was unintrusive in an open office.

    The one thing holding me back, besides cost, is needing to connect two
    devices to one keyboard. I use one Logitech keyboard and mouse in my home
    office, and connect my monitor to my work laptop and home desktop. each
    system has a logitech unifying receiver. To switch, I switch the
    monitor, keyboard and mouse between the systems.

    The logitech MX Master keyboard isn't mechanical, but it's quiet and
    has nice feedback for a laptop-like keyboard. It feels more like an old
    Thinkpad keyboard.

    Some of the cheap keyboards can do Bluetooth and use a
    single-PC dongle, which would work. And Logitech makes a mechanical
    keyboard. Considering that Logitech has discontinued the unifying
    receiver and now uses an incompatible receiver technlology (apparently,
    a new protocol encrypting the data between the keyboard and dongle was
    a DOD requirement) which means when I replace something I'd either need
    to have 2 dongles in each system or buy a keyboard, desk mouse and
    travel mouse. :(



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  • From Nightfox@VERT/DIGDIST to poindexter FORTRAN on Wednesday, May 06, 2026 08:40:08
    Re: Re: Hardware keyboard upgrades
    By: poindexter FORTRAN to phigan on Tue May 05 2026 12:25 pm

    Some of the cheap keyboards can do Bluetooth and use a single-PC dongle, which would work. And Logitech makes a mechanical keyboard. Considering that Logitech has discontinued the unifying receiver and now uses an incompatible receiver technlology (apparently, a new protocol encrypting the data between the keyboard and dongle was a DOD requirement) which means when I replace something I'd either need to have 2 dongles in each system or buy a keyboard, desk mouse and travel mouse. :(

    I still prefer a wired keyboard & mouse, at least when I'm using a desktop PC. If the keyboard & mouse will always be near the computer, I don't really see the advantage of having them be wireless - The disadvantage is having to change their batteries or recharge them when they go dead, and you don't need to do that if they're wired. If I'm using a device/computer that I'm sitting far away from (like something connected to a TV), I'd use wireless peripherals though. Also, I've used a wireless mouse for a laptop at work when going to meetings because a wireless mouse was easier to pick up & take with me.

    Nightfox

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