lol! everytime i go to the thrift store or flea market i have to press the keys on the stack of old keyboards. so far, i've only found one, but it was made for IBM POS terminals and doesn't work with mac/pc. the one i'm using at the moment came from dad's stash of archaic e-junk.
that board uses cherry mx blue switches. the switch technology is very different vs what was used in the model m. (not that thats a bad thing, its just different)
the model m used buckling spring switches. ever push down on a spring and it suddenly collapsed to the side and shot across the room? thats what the spring in the model m is doing with each keystroke, but instead of shooting across the room, it slams into the wall of the key housing. if you're too young to remember these, they are LOUD, heavy (5lbs) and produce a very satisfying "click".
as far as i know, unicomp, is the only modern manufacturer of buckling spring keyboards. they bought the rights to the technology from lexmark/ibm so i dont think that i would consider them clones, but i don't know that they are close enough to be called originals either. http://pckeyboards.stores.yahoo.net/en104bl.html
if its truly built like the original, $79 for smaller framed usb model m is very reasonable imo.
-sj
