I feel a bit silly posting yet another "hello" post but I guess that's what this section is for.
I've been picky about keyboards for a long time, but have been content enough with decent quality non-mechanicals for the last number of years. Back in the day, I used to use Model M's a lot, when I could. In some work environments this created enough noise that I was disallowed from using them, so my favorite for a while was the Sun Type 5. Rubber dome but I appreciated the curved backplane of it. When my wrists started hurting I switched to Dvorak, and the pain disappeared ever since. It took me about a month to get to the same 50-60wpm I was able to do on QWERTY, and another month to get up to ~100wpm, which is still my limit today. I really appreciated that both the Model M and Type 5 could be easily remapped by swapping keycaps, and this has been the main decision-making factor when choosing keyboards ever since. I also liked the space-saving IBM Model M4, and at one point had about a dozen of them.
For the last few years, I've been replacing the horrible Dell keyboards supplied by my employer with an Apple wired keyboard - mainly because they are mainstream and have a nice appearance. The feel isn't too bad either, and is frankly quite good compared to other laptop keyboards (which is really all that it is - a standalone alternative to their laptop keyboards). But it's not perfect by any means. Strangely, their laptops and ten keyless models (both wired and wireless) are easily remapped by swapping keycaps, but the 104-key model has the switches for the 'F' and 'J' keys turned sideways (a shenanigan I've seen on so many cheap keyboards). I have no idea why the hell they decided to do that. I hate wireless and preferred the smaller wired model, though it's been discontinued, and for the last year or so I've been using the 104-key model. Not a big deal because I touch-type, but annoying that the keycaps didn't match reality.
A little over a week ago, I had a catastrophic accident. I had an herbal remedy mixed up which was a 50/50 mix of honey and ginger juice, mixed with a bunch of ground black pepper. It was in a small mason jar and I'd set the lid on top of it but didn't screw it on. I forgot about that, and when I went to take some more, I gave it a shake to mix it up, and of course the entire contents shot out of the jar and landed all over my monitors, keyboard, mouse, laptop, and myself. DON'T EVER DO THIS. It took *hours* of repeated cleaning to finally get all the sticky residue cleaned up. Fortunately my expensive laptop was fine thanks in part to a plastic case I could easily remove and wash, and the mouse and monitors recovered okay too. The keyboard though was completely shot, and even if it wasn't, I don't think I could possibly get it clean enough to be tolerable enough to use again, as it made all the internal workings sticky and sluggish. Well whatever, I was a bit sad to lose an $80 investment, but I figured it was a sign from god that it was time to get a keyboard I could be more happy with. I purchase a maxed-out Macbook Pro 15" last spring, so I figured it was time to start getting my peripherals up to snuff. As a temporary interim replacement, I started using a Wyse keyboard - unique in that it's a USB keyboard but has a PS/2 mouse port on it, and comes coupled with a Wyse PS/2 mouse. These are what Wyse provides to use in conjunction with PCoIP thin clients that my company bought.
For some reason I didn't even consider getting an older keyboard like a Model M adapted to work with USB, but started looking at new keyboard options right away. A month or two ago, I'd been browsing at Best Buy, and was impressed with the feel of a Razer Deathwidow keyboard (an older display model that still used Cherry MX Blue switches). So I went and had another look but was disappointed that the ones available for purchase all used some nasty Razer switch replacement that I really didn't care for as much. Also I thought they keyboard was a bit much with it's silly font on the keys. I use keyboards for work and casual purposes, not gaming. I didn't want a keyboard that looked...like that. I also remembered a Das Keyboard that a previous coworker had. So I got on the internet and started researching Cherry switch keyboards. It's probably a good thing I didn't learn about Topre or other options first, as I would have taken a lot longer to decide. I had heard of the HHKB, but thought it would be too minimal (I like arrow keys a lot) and didn't want to spend that kind of money without being able to feel it first.
I quickly decided I didn't want red or black switches, as my value is typing and I didn't like the idea of no feedback. I always bottom out keys but optimistically thought that maybe I'll improve upon this habit in the future. So it came down to Blues or Browns. I decided the Browns would be the "best of both worlds", tactile feedback plus silent so as not to disturb coworkers. Then somehow I found out about the existence of greens and clears. I read some nice reviews, some not nice reviews, but decided I wanted Clears. So then I searched for keyboards with Clears and found the WASD Code Keyboards, which looked really nice. I didn't know about most of the other keyboards I've seen now here on this forum, and WASD seemed a better way to go for me than Das. So I placed my order for a Clear 87-key via Amazon. About 30 seconds later, I decided that coworkers could be damned, cancelled the order, and ordered a Green 87-key instead.
I'm glad I did, because the noise really isn't an issue. I like the feel of the Greens, though I am not sure that I wouldn't like a Blues set even more. In any case, I don't mind the feel and think it's quite nice. I'm getting a little better about not always bottoming out, though most of the time I still do. Perhaps the greens are helpful in that respect.
Sadly, I just assumed when ordering a relatively expensive mechanical keyboard that like the Model M of old, I'd be able to simply swap keycaps around to have a Dvorak keyboard. Nope, no curved backplane here, so that puts me in a weird place. I really like the keyboard, but really wanted to get away from being stuck with a mislabeled keyboard as part of this transition. I could order another keycap set from WASD, but they don't make a backlit set in anything but QWERTY, as most of their keyboards are not backlit. I don't think I care about backlighting, but it seems silly to have the feature on the board and not be able to use it. Then again, maybe simply having the glow from in between each key would be a nice effect. Of course, this forum has opened my eyes to the fact that a plethora of keycap options are out there. Though I'm not very versed in them yet, maybe somebody makes a backlit-capable Dvorak set that will fit this keyboard? I'm fighting the temptation to order yet another non-backlit WASD keyboard with blue switches and correct keycaps included, because that would be just silly (and expensive). I will most likely end up ordering a custom keycap set to put on the current board.
However, I did decide that a new mouse was also in order, and went out and bought a Razer DeathAdder. I don't like it, and have since ordered a Zowie FK1. Whenever it arrives the Razer will be going back to the store whence it came. Nonetheless, I'm much happier with my current work setup, and I suppose the next thing to do would be to replace the two portrait-oriented HP 24" monitors I have with a single better-quality 27-30" one. Maybe 4K displays will come along a little more by the time I can afford to think about that. I will probably order a WASD 87-key with blue switches to use at home, whenever I do that (currently at home I just use a laptop with no external accessories, which will probably continue being the case until I can take a 24" monitor home).
