JMB's post was so thorough I don't have anything better to add. Only that I was a clicky kb lover like you and eventually gave up several years ago and settled on the least of other evils, ironically a Microsoft keyboard. Since then, I've lost my clicky snobiness and am more willing to deal with various types, even the frankly too-tiny one on my Dell Mini 9. The only keyboard I refuse to use is the one on my wife's Macbook. It's the worst I've ever used. I'm still convinced there's something physically wrong with it, so will eventually bring it in before the 3-yr AppleCare expires. Actually, the worst keyboard ever is one I was given at the office a couple of years ago. I think it was a Kensington and it had these weird diamond-shaped keys, probably trying to be more "natural" angled or something. It was so bad, I went out and bought my own, which is what I'm typing on right now: another MS keyboard. Despite any other qualms with MS, I stand by their input devices as some of the best around. Where I remain a snob is with my MS Trackball Explorer, which like the old IBM keyboards has become a fetish item on eBay, with good-conditioned ones often going for 2-3x original price. (Despite that, I have a spare that I refuse to sell, just in case one of mine breaks.) Why MS discontinued them -- or rather why they didn't bring them back after the groundswell of aftermarket buzz -- we'll never know.
Don, thanks for replying. There is no "snobbishness" as you put it. It's all to do with being a touch-typist and ergonomics.
As well as working today I put in another solid hour on this k/b research and some of the results were fascinating. Irrelevant to me, but fascinating. For instance, one manufacturer does a keyboard which you can strap around your forearm so that typing can be done while hanging off a mountain, ice-pick in the same arm, I suppose. I read a review of this product, which was: "Yeah it does look like a piece of military equipment".
The same firm makes keyboards which are TOUGH and RUGGED and built for HARD conditions. Like underwater? Or on top of Everest? Or outdoors in Antarctica? Amazing.
Other k/bs on the market are floppy, roll up, can be washed, and can therefore be sloshed with red wine or presumably vomit, and will still work! Amazing.
Not what I'm in the market for though, regrettably.
