http://www.pckeyboard.com/
Unicomp is still keeping the glory days of the IBM Model M keyboard alive.
So I got a quieter keyboard (Realforce 87U that I picked up in Japan, very different key feeling but in a good way) and put the Model M in storage.
My son is now 7 years old, loves Minecraft, and wants to learn programming. So we've been spending some quality father-son time on pcpartpicker.com lately, in search of the best computer he can afford. "No need to buy a keyboard," I told him, "I've got exactly what you need."
You never actually own a Model M. You merely look after it for the next generation.
torpe keys are louder than cherry, mostly because cherry you can use heavier key caps and dampening rubber all around. there are rumors of topre with dampening on the up motion, but even finding regular topre is already difficult enough (also imported mines from Japan, like you)
also, the feeling from tactile cherries are closer the bucking spring
And I most certainly did my homework, which in my case meant walking around in Den-Den Town (Osaka's version of Akihabara) trying keyboards at various stores. In the end, my two favorites were a Fujitsu Libertouch and the Realforce I got.
When you say "Topre keys are louder than cherry", I guess you're excluding the clicky cherries. I have a Filco with blue cherries at work, and it's much louder than my Realforce.
Now I've just got to get an MSP430 programmer and see if I can fix this braindead no-scancode "FN" key.
I'd get a Kinesis but they're so huge and 90s looking.
Most promising looking device is the Keyboardio, but that'll be a year or so.
I really wish they would offer the full-size in addition to the Compact models. I have big hands and the full-size are much more comfortable for me. Any of the hipster micro-keyboards are obviously right out as well, sadly.
My main work keyboard is a black M13 with the TrackPoint II. The TrackPoint has a very slow cursor speed is not very useful on modern high-res screens. I'd much rather have the new type of TrackPoint that Unicomp offers. It's OK if you turn the pointer speed all the way up, but then you lose resolution and it's hard to use a mouse with that speed.
So far I haven't found a working app that lets you use different pointer speeds for different mice. Some claim to do it but I couldn't make them work. I may bang something out at some point that latches into high-speed mode if you type and drops to low-speed mode after a few seconds without typing or moving the cursor. Or maybe I could do more fine-grained control on Linux.
I recently had to send mine (a PC 122 layout unit) back to Unicomp when the left Alt key stuck internally at the pressed position. The pictures of the disassembly of a Model M didn't look too encouraging, so I thought it'd be best to send it back to the factory so someone familiar with the design could repair it. Would you like to point to some resources so I can do it myself the next time it fails?
Also, their USB firmware sucks. Sometimes it won't work during bootup (say, if I want to go into the BIOS or pick something from the GRUB menu), and only gets properly initialised when I get into linux or windows. This only happens sometimes. Other keyboards work consistently, and the problem disappears if I plug the unicomp into a KVM switch that actually shows up as its own HID device instead of just switching the USB ports around. I've seen other keyboards with similar problems but for such an expensive keyboard, it's really quite annoying.
Now I wonder if they're just using the original circuit with a tacked on converter... might have to open it up to check.
Oh and it is missing functions keys which means I could never use this.... The kinesis has crappy function keys but at least it has them. Can't program with an IDE without then.
There are 5 rows of keys on each hand, just like a standard QWERTY keyboard with a function key row, you just have to place them along the bottom row instead of the top. The problem, I guess, is that there's only 10 keys along the bottom row, but you could place F11 and F12 on one of the many extra keys. Keep in mind they're programmable, and you can have different layers and modifiers that just exist in the keyboard itself.
Biggest peeve is that I frequently hit the arrow keys on the bottom row by accident. Not being very good at using them on purpose, this completely throws me off for a second or two.
Minor annoyance is that the modifier keys sometimes stick. I don't think they're physically stuck; more like a firmware glitch, so that it's as if Caps Lock is on (mine's remapped to Ctrl), or I get accented characters as if Alt is stuck.
I still have trouble switching between the straight matrix layout of the Kinesis and the staggered layout of traditional keyboards, which I continue to use at home. Nothing major, but definitely some reduced accuracy.
So my experience is decidedly mixed. I'll keep at it until the end of the year at least, but I'm not convinced it's any better ergonomically. In fact, I've had some soreness in my left thumb that may be related to the new keyboard.
I actually flossed it and added some padding, so now it's slightly less loud, but I still got one complaint...
But eventually I decided that I can't make everyone happy. So I just rattle away in blissful enjoyment instead.