I got a das keyboard at home and at work. Its awesome, and I'd recommend a mechanical to anyone who works on a keyboard for a living. I would never buy anything like this from Atwood, though. His 'expertise' in software, personal attacks on other developers and tedious self-promotion don't really convince me that he's got the know-how to get into hardware production, but rather that he's found a way to make money off his sycophantic fan-base of mediocre programmers who take his word as gospel.
> rather that he's found a way to make money off his sycophantic fan-base of mediocre programmers who take his word as gospel.
From all I know, he was making a decent living from his blog alone before he started StackOverflow. And let's just assume for a moment that SO made him a bit more. Alledging he's doing this for the money is... surprising. Being needlessly offensive doesn't really help your point either.
Just wanted to put in my reccomendation for WASD. I got the Cherry MX brown switches (tactile bump). I love the ability to completely customize each key. I've had mine for about 2 years now and I really dig it.
> His 'expertise' in software, personal attacks on other developers and tedious self-promotion...
> convince me that he's got the know-how to get into hardware production
Please, make claims based on things that are related topics.
If you were convinced that he was great at software, attacked nobody and never promoted himself, would you then be justified with evidence that he could get into hardware? Of course not.
I agree with you that this moves are money-motivated, which makes sense as I see him as a businessman first and foremost, but what you've said detracts from that point.
I too have a das keyboard. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone. I just got mine less than a year ago. One of the keys started getting sticky and would not jump back after a key press (the command key.) They haven't answered my email asking for any solution to this.
I saw similar complaints from other recent customers. It seems as though they have shifted production to a new Chinese facility which is causing more of these problems.
It works great, but breaks down quick. If you are in the middle of a coding project or something big, nothing can be more annoying: an awesome keyboard suddenly dying on you and absent customer service.
Well, if it makes you feel better, the new code keyboard also uses Cherry switches, so they may hit the same issues. AFAIK cherry's the only mechanical switch key maker left.
ALPS still makes mechanical keyswitches and I think Filco makes their own, don't they? Also, Unicomp makes "buckling spring" keyswitches for their own use.
ALPS hasn't made their keyswitches for a long time, but Matias [1] has put a slight variant back into production.
(ALPS switches are probably best known from the Apple Extended and other Apple keyboards of that era.)
Interesting! I thought Matias was using ALPS switches, rather than producing their own "ALPS-like" switches -- although that makes sense. I own a Matias Tactile Pro and liked it initially, but over the course of a few weeks I realized it made my fingertips sore in a way that I didn't remember old Apple keyboards doing (or my TRS-80 Model 4 keyboard, way back when, which turned out to use ALPS keyswitches). My favorites now seem to be Unicomp's buckling spring, although the Cherry Blue switches are a close second. (I haven't been able to try any of the other Cherry switches.)
Matias did use ALPS switches until the latest models. (Actually the ALPS production was taken over by another company, and finally discontinued in 2012.)
There were various changes to the ALPS line over the years, presumably to reduce costs, and many (including me) believe quality suffered. The Apple keyboards used the earliest, so-called ‘complicated long’ version, while Matias keyboards before the latest used the final ‘simplified’ version. (All these had various tactile and clicky variations.)
The switches in the big Apple keyboards had rubber bumpers to reduce the impact of bottoming out, which might have been the reason they were easier on your fingers. (On the other hand, buckling springs trigger low and land hard, so maybe not.) The latest Matias Quiet keyboard re-introduces the rubber bumpers. (I haven't tried them.)
I imagine most big name guitarists don't have much expertise in building guitars, but that doesn't stop manufacturers making custom signature models. The end result is usually a pretty impressive piece of hardware that's tailored to the way the artist plays. The manufacturers gets the PR of having the guitarists attached to their brand, and the guitarist gets their dream guitar. I'm pretty sure the same thing is going on here.
I briefly owned a das keyboard: loved the touch response of it, but the wacky USB hubs they had built into it caused me no end of trouble on some more niche operating systems due to some non-standard implementation choices.
Also, I hated the high-gloss easily marred plastic on it.
I returned it shortly after purchase and said "never again".
Yeah, I have 2 DAS keyboards as well. Got em a few years back and they are so much better to type on. Mine have no letters on the keys so people that can't type don't just come to my desk and "Hop on my machine"
It sounds really cool, but in practice having unlabeled keys has just been tiresome for me. The numpad symbols and F keys always mess me up, and I'm hopeless when it comes to trying to print screen. Also the Cherry MX Blue switches are amazing for typing but not that great for gaming since there's so much dead space between subsequent taps of the same key.
The point is, don't just buy a Das keyboard to hop on the bandwagon. They do have disadvantages.
I have had one too for several years and it's one of the best decisions I've made. It's still holding up quite well and no letters on the keys is great. Though I still, after all these years, have a little trouble being able to type the number keys without the labels on them.
Most people are intimidated by the absense of labels, but my daughter takes it as a challenge and does pretty well without them.
(remember Arringtons tablet, anyone?)