"I enjoy using an iPad, it’s a wonderful device; the Kindle e-reader is a beautiful thing," says says Brandon Ermita, a Princeton University IT manager. "But I could never write a story, I could never write my dissertation, I could never produce work with a touchscreen." Ermita is devoted to keeping the Model M alive: he recovers them from supply depots and recycling centers, sells them through his site, ClickyKeyboards, and runs a veritable Model M private museum. He estimates he’s put between 4,000 and 5,000 of the keyboards under the fingertips of aficionados over the past decade.
Like many people, I have vague memories of using a Model M
as a kid. Last month, though, I took a trip to suburban New Jersey to meet
Ermita and rediscover the magic of one of the most beloved keyboards of all
time.
The day I visited his spacious office, two dozen
or so keyboards were ensconced in a rack like fine wines. Above them, a single
black keyboard sat protected in a glass case — a prototype Model M that’s one
of the oldest pieces in Ermita’s collection. A hamper held recent acquisitions
that still needed to be taken apart
and cleaned of Doritos, sewing needles, and other pieces of detritus from their
former owners. Looking at a Model M for the first time in years, what was most
remarkable about the keyboard was just howunremarkable it looks. The Model M
might be a relic of the past, but its DNA remains in almost every keyboard we
use today.
Keyboards from the '70s and '80s range from familiar to
counterintuitive to utterly foreign_
The QWERTY keyboard layout was designed for typewriters in
the late 19th century and quickly became universal. But by the time IBM
released its first PC in 1981, layout was no longer a simple matter of spaces
and capital letters — users now needed special keys to communicate with word
processors, terminals, and "microcomputers." In hindsight, keyboards
from the '70s and '80s range from familiar to counterintuitive to utterly
foreign: in the IBM PC’s original 83-key keyboard — known as the PC / XT — the all-important
Shift and Return keys were undersized and pushed to the side, their labels
replaced by enigmatic arrows. The entire thing looks like a mess of tiny
buttons and inexplicable gaps. In August of 1984, IBM announced the far more
palatable PC / AT keyboard. Compared to the previous model, "the AT
keyboard is unassailable," said PC Magazine. The AT couldn’t pass for a
present-day keyboard: the function keys are arranged in two rows on the far
left instead of along the top, Escape is nestled in the numeric keypad, and
Ctrl and Caps Lock have been switched. Even so, it’s cleaner and far more
comprehensible than its predecessor to modern eyes.
Find out how we turned 12 clicky keyboards into a music
video
But IBM wanted something more than merely acceptable. In the
early ’80s the company had assembled a 10-person task force to build a better
keyboard, informed by experts and users. The design for the previous iteration
was done "quickly, expeditiously — not the product of a lot of focus group
activity," says David Bradley, a member of the task force who also happens
to be the creator of the now-universal Ctrl+Alt+Delete function. The new group
brought in novice computer users to test a friendlier keyboard, making
important controls bigger and duplicating commonly used keys like Ctrl and Alt
so they could be reached by either hand. Many of the keys were detachable from
their bases, letting users swap them around as needed. And the Model M was
born.
Introduced in 1985 as part of the IBM 3161 terminal, the
Model M was initially called the "IBM Enhanced Keyboard." A
PC-compatible version appeared the following spring, and it officially became
standard with the IBM Personal System / 2 in 1987. The very first Model M that
Ermita can verify — a terminal version — was produced on June 10th, 1985.
That’s an awfully specific date, and it’s available because every Model M
keyboard comes with an ID and production date printed on its back — Ermita does
steady business with 20-somethings looking for a keyboard made on their
birthday. He also curates the Model M Archive Project, a set of dauntingly long
spreadsheets that track keyboards that have passed through his business as well
as ones submitted (with ID, production date, and plant number) by other users.
"I have the uneasy feeling IBM is telling me, ‘You’d
better learn to love it, because this is the keyboard of the future,’"
wrote a PC Magazine reviewer_
Ermita’s collection includes many specialized,
industry-specific keyboards, like one with baked-in labels for travel-agent
booking, or a small model with the keys grouped into thirds, possibly for
cashiers. "When computers were introduced, they were introduced as
business machines," says Neil Muyskens, a former IBM manager. Vintage
keyboards still bear stickers with commands for specific programs, and
reviewers judged keyboards partly on how well they worked with software like
WordStar and Lotus 1-2-3.
One reviewer was frustrated by the once again reshuffled
keyboard layout that the Model M presented, but had a nagging suspicion that
this design would stick. "I have the uneasy feeling IBM is telling me,
‘You’d better learn to love it, because this is the keyboard of the
future,’" wrote a PC Magazine reviewer, in what would prove to be one of
computing’s bigger understatements.
IBM PC/XT
- Control keys
- Function keys
- Typing (alphanumeric)
keys
- Navigation keys
- Numeric keypad
That layout of the Model M has been around so long that
today it’s simply taken for granted. But the keyboard’s descendents have
jettisoned one of the Model M’s most iconic features — "buckling
springs," a key system introduced in the PC / XT. Unlike mechanical
switches that are depressed straight down like plungers, the Model M has
springs under each key that contract, snap flat, or "buckle," and
then spring back into place when released. They demand attention in a way that
the soft, silent rubber domes in most modern keyboards don’t. This isn’t always
a good thing; Model M owners sometimes ruefully post stories of spouses and
coworkers who can’t stand the incessant chatter. But fans say the springs’
resistance and their audible "click" make it clear when a keypress is
registered, reducing errors. Maybe more importantly, typing on the Model M is a
special, tangible experience. Much like on a typewriter, the sharp click gives
every letter a physical presence.
Soon after its emergence, Model M clones flooded the market.
For its part, IBM gave new versions of the keyboard only the barest of
redesigns. As a result, nostalgia for the Model M spans generations.
"People contact me often via email, thanking me for reminding them of when
they were a 20-something engineering student back in the 1980s," says
Ermita. Younger buyers recall rearranging a classmate’s keyboard as a
middle-school prank — "I’ve heard that story a few times."
In 1990, IBM spun off its US typewriter, keyboard, and
printer business into a new company called Lexmark. Six years later, Lexmark
dropped its keyboard division during what Muyskens calls an industry-wide shift
towards cheaper products. IBM continued to commission products from a factory
in Scotland and, briefly, a company called Maxi-Switch, but the last IBM Model
M — as far as we know — rolled off the production line in 1999.
With a limited supply, all Model M fans are typing on
borrowed time_
You can still buy an official Model M for about $80, but it
won’t wear the IBM badge. After Lexmark left the business, Muyskens and other
former employees began slowly purchasing the keyboard’s intellectual property
rights and manufacturing equipment, working under the name Unicomp. "We’ve
had to change the electronics," Muyskens says. "The clamshell cover
material was changed back in ’99. But pretty much everything else has remained
the same."
For some, that’s not authentic enough. "We get asked
all the time — can we sell [someone] an IBM logo-ed product? And the answer is
no, IBM owns the logo," says Muyskens. He says IBM still orders some
keyboards for existing commercial customers, but if you want the old-school
logo, you’ll have to turn to eBay or people like Ermita. For others, the
inherent superiority and versatility of the Model M trumps nostalgic notions of
authenticity: some users are adapting them to work wirelessly with Bluetooth.
One Reddit user posted a custom modification with backlit keys that evoke the
over-the-top designs of Razer or Alienware. But with a limited supply, all
Model M fans are typing on borrowed time.
"This is like oil. One day oil will run out. It’ll be a
big crash," says Ermita. For now, though, that crash seems far away. The
oldest Model Ms have already lasted 30 years, and Ermita hopes they’ll make it
for another 10 or 20 — long enough for at least one more generation to use a
piece of computing history.
The Model M is an artifact from a time when high-end
computing was still the province of industry, not pleasure. The computer that
standardized it, the PS / 2, sold for a minimum of $2,295 (or nearly $5,000
today) and was far less powerful and versatile than any modern smartphone. In
the decades since, computers have become exponentially more capable, and
drastically cheaper. But in that shift, manufacturers have abandoned the
concept of durability and longevity: in an environment where countless
third-party companies are ready to sell customers specialty mice and keyboards
at bargain basement prices, it’s hard to justify investing more than the bare
minimum.
That disposability has made us keenly aware of what we’ve
lost, and inspired a passion for hardware that can, well, take a licking and
keep on clicking. As one Reddit user recently commented, "Those bastards
are the ORIGINAL gaming keyboards. No matter how much you abuse it, you’ll die
before it does."
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