The two most famous generations of IBM-made keyboards actuated a keypress by pushing down on a spring connected to a plastic flipper and held juuuust a bit off center, so at a certain point, instead of continuing to compress, the spring crumples over and causes the flipper to trigger either a capacitive pad (Model F) or a conductive membrane (the later and more common Model M that set the continuing standard for the PC layout).
People really like the way they feel and the fact that the buckling is directly, physically tied to actuating the key (not always the case with modern switches’ “tactile event” if they even have one). Some people love the loud clicking sounds.
What’s a buckling spring?
Here’s the wiki article.
The two most famous generations of IBM-made keyboards actuated a keypress by pushing down on a spring connected to a plastic flipper and held juuuust a bit off center, so at a certain point, instead of continuing to compress, the spring crumples over and causes the flipper to trigger either a capacitive pad (Model F) or a conductive membrane (the later and more common Model M that set the continuing standard for the PC layout).
People really like the way they feel and the fact that the buckling is directly, physically tied to actuating the key (not always the case with modern switches’ “tactile event” if they even have one). Some people love the loud clicking sounds.