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ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
If you're like me, you probably spend hours typing on your keyboard - working, reading, googling. So, take note. NPR's Martin Kaste reports that a tiny company is making what some fans call the one true keyboard.
MARTIN KASTE: If you're 30-something and slightly geeky, this might be music to your ears.
(Soundbite of computer keyboard)
KASTE: That's the IBM model M, a tank of a keyboard whose distinctive racket once reverberated through the offices and computer labs of the land. This one belongs to Cheryl Lowry, a technical writer at Microsoft.
Ms. CHERYL LOWRY (Technical Writer, Microsoft): People tend to stop in the hall and look in and say, wow, that's an old school keyboard because it's fast and it's clattery, and people haven't heard that in 15 years.
KASTE: IBM stopped making these in the early 90s. Since then connoisseurs have come to the conclusion that the Model M was the best keyboard ever, certainly better than the mushy cheapness that standard issue today. The M was the last computer keyboard that still tried to feel like a typewriter. In this case the old IBM Selectric.
Ms. LOWRY: I think this is it. Model M is the end of the line. (Laughing)
KASTE: The end of the line? Not quite yet. They're still cranking out new Model Ms here in Lexington, Kentucky....