[carise]

I splurged and got myself a used Happy Hacking Pro 2 keyboard, just to see what the hype was all about. It's quiet, blank, and very fun to type on.

I also have a Leopold Otaku with Cherry MX brown keys. It's not as quiet as the HHK but I like the tactile feedback. I like the tenkeyless form factor better than the HHK because I use arrow keys sometimes.

And before those 2 expensive ones, I had a MS Natural ergonomic 4000 which was a good, inexpensive and comfortable keyboard. I had the one with the very stiff space-bar but I think the newer versions' keys were less stiff.

Good luck on your search. My dream keyboard would be one with the MS 4000 ergonomic layout and the keys of the HHK. But I've spent enough on keyboards for awhile. :)

[textread]

MS 4000 with mechanical keys is my dream keyboard too,

Is the market for such a niche product large enough for a kickstarter project ?

[carise]

It looks like it. There is the Ergodox (https://ergodox-ez.com) and the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard (https://ultimatehackingkeyboard.com/), which were/are both crowdfunded and have an ergo layout. I've also seen in a forum where someone hacked their Ms4000 to have Cherry MX keys.

[miguelrochefort]

The Kinesis Advantage is a lot more ergonomic than the MS 4000, and has Cherry MX Brown switches.