[mcint]

I use a Das keyboard, full with Cherry MX Brown switches, that I bought most of a decade ago, early on in college. I've tried a variety of mechanical keyboards, from friends and at a student-run computer lab, so I know the sensations available, in terms of actuation force and tactile and linear variants.

I bottom out hard, and feel knuckle-, eventually wrist-pain, when typing intently for more than half an hour on Apple external keyboards. In the long run, it keeps typing more comfortable, so it's a kind of survival advantage.

To reduce noise, it's my current practice to put a thin hand towel under the keyboard, both at home and at co-working spaces. It eliminates some of the deeper more noticeable noises. This helps lessen annoyance, or at least comments, from friends, roommates, and partners, and so is again, a survival (of on-going use of my current setup) advantage.