In tandem with out 'Best Mouse You Ever Loved' article, the same bunch of home-workers and office-bound colleagues were pressed(!) to tell us what their favourite keyboard was.

They're not all still available (and we had to do some digging to even get pictures of a couple of them), but here are a handful of the keyboards our fellow clackers most dreamed about...

IBM Model M
Not used by this writer since the heady days of college in the early 1990s, this work-horse came up trumps with many respondents of a, erm, certain vintage. Essentially, the key quality of this creamy grey keyboard was its responsiveness. Each key was spring-loaded, and repaid the typist's keystrokes with a satisfying clack.

As can be seen from the picture, it predates any Windows (or even OS/2) special keys (see the gap between the alter Ctrl and Alt?)

This baby has long been discontinued, but have a word with the old-school chap in your Helpdesk. He's have one somewhere (probably down the back of a gestetner machine or something)

Microsoft Natural Elite
It's nearly 10 years since this smooth little treat first arrived - and we remember seeing it on the news, so it must have been special. The tri-split ergonomic keyboard has a brave and hearty following in our BigCo office. It doesn't have much to offer in terms of flashy features, but it does make up for it in the sheer joy of use. Almost like we are hugging the words we type.

The RSI we once suffered evaporated at the mere thought of this input device.

Apple Aluminium Keyboard
Our current keyboard, just due to its small form-factor and the fact it came with our beautiful iMac, this delicate flower made the grade with each of our colleagues who have jumped the PC ship and taken up residence at Apple Island.

Possibly not the most ergonomic keyboard to type on, it gets points for its beauty. It is slim, sleek, slender... and has (almost) no crannies for bits of biscuit to fall into. Lacking the same satisfying clickety clack of the old school IBM keyboards, the very short travel on the keys aids in the speed of typing.

The white keys may become slightly grimy over time, but it's smooth top makes it easy enough to clean.

Did we mention it looks great?