Basics

Pictured below is, quite possible, the most perfect and long enduring piece of computer related kit. It is the Unicomp Customizer 101 keyboard in white (aslo available in black). Read on to find out about a great keyboard that sells for a reasonable price and can outlast any other piece of tech hardware on, under, behind or around your desk.




History

Back when keyboards were the main input and navigation devices for most computers, IBM made its own keyboards. Mean keyboards. Good keyboards. Each and every key has its own glorious mechanical switch. Eventually membrane keyboard started to rise in popularity (i.e. they are a whole lot less expensive to manufacture) and Lexmark, which had been spun off from IBM, stopped production of the classic buckling spring base keyboards (the tactile feedback for each key is provided by a metal spring that is buckled, not compressed, with each keystroke).



In comes Unicomp. The little company based in Kentucky started making the same wonderful keyboards that first IBM then Lexmark had made for over a decade. While the boards were now badged Unicomp rather than IBM, they were the same board made using the same machines. It is one of those heart-warming workers buying the factory stories and, if you like this sort of thing, these boards are still made in the United States. Not something you can say for many keyboards.