Re: Off Topic, Part 2 (Avant Stellar keyboards)

[Robert Holmgren holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to note from xywrite@xxxxxxxx Mon, 30 Mar 1998 17:49:58 -0500
> 
> I checked the Avant Stellar Web page and the picture of their keyboard
> looks almost exactly like the "Omnikey ultra" I'm using

It _is_ the OmniKey. They told me that they bought the molds for it. The only
changes, as I said, are they they added three Win95 keys (and eliminated one
redundant key to make physical room for them), duplicated the 12 Fkeys on the top,
and exchanged a much-superior software key-remapper/macro-loader for the dip
switches that used to be in a little compartment upper-left (but note that the
compartment is still there, only empty -- so it really is the same box). When you
pull the key tops off, it looks exactly the same underneath (sans dust).
 
> Can you describe the click more fully? Like compare it to the Omni when it
> was young? The click is very important to me--I've abandoned a number of
> Keytronics because of mushy keys--and if you say it's great I may just buy
> one.

As I said, I was startled by the clickiness of the click. It's clicky. You won't
feel any deficiency in that respect. Your co-workers may be a bit startled, but...
what the heck, it's a few hundred bucks for your main input device. It's only
expensive compared to the crap they sell at CompUSA. My first replacement IBM AT
keyboard cost $424, circa 1985 (that was the keyboard that the Omnikey cloned,
at a quarter of the cost!).

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Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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