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Comment by basedbertram | Hacker News Reader

Oh wow, do people really bring mechanical keyboards to the office? I thought that was generally considered a no-no.

I thought so too, so I brought my 1989 Model M and asked everyone around me if they were okay with it, and that the first complaint I heard about it I would get rid of it.

Slowly after that, people started bringing in all kinds of mechanical keyboards.

My cube mates threatened to shove it where the sun don't shine if I dared used the one I brought to show off at work.

The nice thing about the Model M, and still more so the Model F, is that in addition to being a keyboard, they're very effective melee weapons.

Indeed! Thought I dont like the layout of the Model F, and I dont get the folks who really want a Model F.

If you think that's bad, wait until you hear about these people (sales, customer service, project managers) who actually talk on the phone while in the office.

You'll miss the sound of cherry mx blues in no time.

When i joined my current company, IT asked me what keyboard i wanted, and when i asked for a mechanical one, they told me my manager would need to sign off on that!

It depends on if they're quiet or not. My modded HHKB Pro2 is not any louder than the usual laptop keyboards are. MX Blue switches should be banned from offices though.

Mechanical != loud.

Yeah, pretty interesting! I had no idea there were all of these different offerings for the switches.

Silent MX Blacks are uncomfortably quiet when you type on them. I find the Zilent 67g to be my favorite switch. It hits all the right check boxes for sound and comfort.

I’ve got a keychron at the office. No one bats an eye and it’s not like I pound the thing.

The fact that "no one bats an eye" doesn't mean they're not internally annoyed by the key sounds. In my office, there was this person who used a cheap noisy keyboard. It bothered us, for sure, but we didn't bring it up to his attention.

Yeah, like, I'm not going to ask anyone to use a different keyboard. I'm an adult, I can deal with it.

But I do think mechanical keyboards are way too loud, way overpriced, and way overhyped. (But that's just my opinion. I'm sure people would say the same thing about some of the stupid stuff that I'm into.)

Different keyboards are different, as are workplaces. I would never bring a keyboard with clicky switches to a shared workplace. There are also ways to make mechanical keyboards as silent as a classic office keyboards.

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