Wyse WY60 ASCII
Switches
Vintage Cherry MX Blacks. Unrivaled smoothness, tastefully weighted for everyday typing tasks. I myself was a nonbeliever before I tried them. Previously I thought that Cherry was for the plebs until I gained the maturity to be able to look past the hipster appeal of Alps. I've actually been thinking about this a lot lately and have decided that I'll be naming my first born child (male or female), Vcmxb(1) even though it's completely unpronounceable.
Keycaps
These things have some serious meat on their bones. In the keyboard lectures I frequently give my girlfriend; I like to do a demonstration where I take a few chintzy, thin plastic caps. I hold them near her ear and shake them in my hands. The sad clinking of weak keycaps that probably never worked a day in their lives. Then I set those down. I pick up the Wyse caps; the Chads. I then do the same thing. I begin shaking them and it was almost as if a classic babershop quartet just entered the room. Those were better times, my friends.
Layout
There are a lot of myths and half-truths about the history of the Wyse WY60 ASCII layout. But I have it on good authority that the whole thing was an accident. My sources (who will go unnamed) allege that a confused Wyse engineer mixed up his units of measurement. Instead of measuring in his design in yards, he accidentally used meters. He did all of his designs this way (starting with the case). By the time they were halfway through manufacturing and cutting the plates, the error was discovered. All of the cases and most of the plate rough cuts were smaller than he had designed! He took back to the drawing board and began revising his design. Legend has it that he didn't sleep for three nights. But in the end he didn't disappoint event a single Wyse employee. The new form factor and layout were a smash hit; not only with the Wyse workers but with the public as well.
Case
I've already told you the story about how the shape came to be so there's no reason to belabor the topic. I'd like to talk about the material. They tell me that with plastics there are two options: ABS and PBT. I'm not a chemist but I have to believe that there are other options out there. How else can anyone explain how this "plastic" case feels as solid as a sheet of granite?
Convertibility
A really smart dude named Soarer converted it and so building a converter is super easy (but if you do have trouble, make sure the keyboard is not attached to the microcontroller when you flash it).
I could go on for days. I haven't even touched on the colors, flipout foot, or ease of disassembly. I honestly can't think of a reason why it isn't considered a top tier keyboard by enthusiasts.
Now that I've rambled enough for the day, I want to hear what you guys consider to be the most underrated keyboard (and why)?
.
