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IBM 09N5542 Rapid Access Pro Keyboard | List Price: $29.99
Discount Price: $9.39
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Brand: Micro Innovations
Binding: Electronics
Warranty: 1 year warranty
Quite passable [Posted on 2003-03-22]
This is a typical IBM consumer-grade keyboard. IBM's consumer grade keyboards, including this one, are characterized by a moderate keypress force and a slightly higher than usual clickiness. The trigger pressure peak is satisfyingly abrupt (keys move hardly at all until depress force is reached), though as is typical with such keyboards the depress force does not diminish again past the trigger point. Though not mentioned in the product description, this keyboard supports both USB and PS/2 interfaces. The media-control keys work fine on Linux. The keycodes produced by the media and standby keys are the conventional ones.
The best keyboard I own [Posted on 2003-04-24]
I have had this keyboard for a while now. I have many other keyboards including a microsoft internet something keyboard and a logitech pro internet something keyboard. This is not the most feature rich keyboard - there is not built in usb hub, no fancy contols for this and that (which you never use anyhow). in short none of the frills. what it does have : a couple of programmable keys and the best feel of any keyboard i have used till date. the keys are just perfect. not too hard, not too soft, not too quiet and not too loud. it really makes a big difference to typing speed too. if all you want is a well built keyboard - this is the one for you. if you want a keyboard that you can have answer your phone and clean the house at the press of a key (okay okay they're not quite that bad but some are loaded with so much junk nowadays), look elsewhere.
Extreamly Robust Keyboard [Posted on 2005-05-04]
This keyboard originally came with my IBM computer back in 1999 and has been in use until recently. The media keys are pretty decent, and the rapid access keys at the top seem cheaply made, but for 4 years they have worked pretty decently with moderate use. It wasn't untill not long ago when some of the keys either stopped functioning or required being pressed very hard to function as they should.
As for the main Qwerty keys and numpad, they are very well built. As I said, I've used this keyboard since 1999 and this keyboard has taken on quite a bit of abuse and still functions flawlessly. I am a computer science major (or computer information systems as most college and universities are calling it now), and I will admit out of frustration I have taken a semi violent approach and slammed down on the keyboard, but that hasn't hindered the preformance of the main keys in the least bit. There was a brief moment where I used one of the Microsoft Natural keyboards, but the first time I hit it I snapped the internal motherboard in half thus rendering it useless, and I switched back to this keyboard and carried on my same ways with it and still have not had a problem with the main keys.
I just recently switched to a new keyboard for functional media keys, but other than that, the main qwerty keyboard is rock solid.
As for the software it is functional, and lets you even print out labels for the rapid access keys which is very convieninet and slides under a clear plastic cover. But like one of the other reviewers, I have been using Linux for the past couple of years and all the extra keys are just as usable as in windows. Your distro (I use SuSE) may even have a layout for it as the Rapid Access II (which it originally was called when first came out) so setting up the access and multimedia keys is a simple processs.
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