i am tempted so strongly to build a FOSS laptop, with either an ARM or RISCV processor, and a model f ssk. you can buy brand new model f’s from modelfkeyboards.com, but they’re like $400.
it would be so dope to build something like that, with maybe a 3d-printed case, but i can’t justify that sort-of investment on a whim, lol.
please, help me justify a very, very poor financial decision.
Added: somewhere around here I have an old Gateway keyboard that is a knockoff of an IBM Model M, I believe. If I can find it and if you want to cover the shipping cost, I can send it to you. I expect it either has an old school IBM PC plug, or maybe PS/2, but anyway older than USB. Getting it connected to a modern computer would require an adapter that might be hard to find by now. Like the model F, it is big and heavy enough that using it portably would be impractical, but I guess practicality isn’t everything.
firstly, i greatly appreciate the offer, and thank you for it, but i use a model m every day, and have another “awaiting repairs” in my basement – send it to someone who needs it! start a thread!
secondly, i use a coreboot’d thinkpad already. i want something heaver, jankier, and more “starts a conversation with CS-students”. adding a 4g modem with a gigantic antenna (like i have laying around) would be even funnier.
i want to build something that i bring to class one day, people lose their shit, and then people just get used to it.
In this case I think you need an MIT Space Cadet keyboard (try web search), not a model F.
Added: OMG. https://www.techspot.com/news/106659-massive-173-mechanical-keyboard-tribute-classic-space-cadet.html
oh god… that’s even more expensive. but my life will never be complete without it…
you motherfucker.
There are a lot of keyboards out there inspired by the Space Cadet. You can probably spend a while picking one out. There are even some original ones still in circulation.
noooo i have work and shit
i wore a pink spandex suit to class enough days last semester that a prof of mine said to me – immediately before a final exam i forgot about and wore a FUCKING PINK SUIT TO, and that i fucking ACED – “[spv], you’re cool, you have a way of making the strangest things seem normal”
to which i replied “i’m just gonna take that as a compliment?”
“i meant it that way, you’re, you’re cool”
it was so uncomfy… lmao