On Mon, 30 Oct 2017 16:01:16 -0500, Lynn McGuire
wrote:

My Northgate Omni Key/102 GOLD is in great shape. A few food stains.
Some coffee stains. Some blood (I am on blood thinners and my fingers
bleed all the time). The Gold Omni Key/102 sticker is peeling. Other
than that, great shape. It uses the old 1 inch DIN ? plug which I have
a converter cable for. The key characters are all very visible since
they are permanently etched.

I could care less about lit keyboards and such. I write software for a
living and love mechanical keyboards going back to the old mainframe
operator teletype consoles with the 3/4 inch travel keys.

I wouldn't necessarily turn it down - differences in modern keyboard
construction offered. Finer gradients from a centi-Newton measurement
force of actuation. MX Blue switches of Cherry manufacture are also
employed in a Blue factor with this FOCUS, 50 cN, except they're
actually ALPS "Blue" switches. Blacks are higher, 60 cN, Reds and
Browns lower;- Greens and Clears are slight deviations on Blues and
Browns;- Specialty application key construct, for such as the space
bar, lack delineation.

Lighting, macro assignments, the whole ball of wax. Bring it on.

Of course pricing remains commiserate. A Northgate, as I recall, ran
anywhere from around $100 to $150;- mine was a budgetary
consideration;- the FOCUS was even a better deal at something
significantly less.

This issue, perhaps, is one of quality, reliability and longevity, in
making the substitution. There's more, a greater competitive field of
fashions and fabrications, along with some correlate for uncertainly,
that a contemporary keyboard will continue, say, as long as this
15-year-old, or more, FOCUS. Whether that is a $100 mechanical on
sale for $50, or a $100 model from $200, subjectively, seems less
material;- I'd only likely cross my fingers before looking first at a
$50 model. I'm afraid I haven't much faith left in premier ratings or
their gloss, and feel just as apt to be burned by sub-par merchandise
in either instance. I'll go through the motions and research for what
insularity I may, nevertheless, "hope" to gain.

This company still markets key switches designed and based on the
actual mechanism employed by an IBM Model M. They're also cheap, the
way I read it in my book, at least for the vaunted technology:
http://www.pckeyboard.com/page/category/UltraClassic

Should you not jump but leap to immediately buy yours....caveat
emptor, I'd suppose, applies.