I was 11 when I originally learned how to type. No, I didn’t take a course at school. In fact, my mom had rented a typewriter — an electric model — and gave me a few pointers on where to put my fingers. The rest I had to more or less figure out by myself.

That typewriter, an old IBM, was a predecessor to the legendary IBM Selectric, which became my favorite writing tool until it developed a few critical mechanical problems in the mid-1980s that would be costly to repair. However, by then, I had discovered the Mac.

However, the ultimate comfort of that Selectric was never equalled by any keyboard built by Apple. No, not even the legendary Extended Keyboard II, a product subsequently mimicked to a large extent by the Matias Tactile Pro, courtesy of similar key switches.

Yet, the Apple keyboard wasn’t my favorite by a long shot. The hefty, springy feel was great if you were accustomed to pounding your keyboards into submission, but that wasn’t my scene. The soft touch and the accompanying clack made by the Selectric and later IBM keyboards still echoed in my ears, long after I stopped using them.

Story continued in this week’s Tech Night Owl Newsletter.

This article was posted on Sunday, March 29th, 2009 at 5:54 PM and is filed under News and tagged with: IBM, Key Switches, Keyboards, Mac, Matias, mid 1980s, Predecessor, Ultimate, week.