I’ve long been a user of mechanical keyboards using Cherry MX mechanical switches. My favorite to date is a TKL (Tenkeyless) keyboard with Cherry MX Brown switches (CM Storm QuickFire Rapid). These provide nice tactile feedback and are not super loud. This keyboard (used at my primary standing workspace) is almost ten years old and has some visible wear on the keys, but it still works as well as the day it was new.
I also have a QuickFire Rapid with Blue switches at my “sitting” workspace which I use for meetings, screencast recording, etc. However, the blue switches are much too loud and are disruptive to the meeting or recording. After searching around a bit, I found that Cherry (the maker of the MX switches) also manufactures keyboards, mice, microphones, etc. They have a “Stream” series of keyboards that have SX Scissor switches in them.
These switches are fairly quiet but still provide good tactile feedback. So far, this keyboard is working well – keys provide nice tactile feedback and feel sturdy. The audio control buttons at the top work perfectly in Arch Linux/KDE. At $22, this is a very good value.
The TKL (Tenkeyless) is a nice form factor – especially if you have learned to touch-type numbers on the main keyboard. Removing the number pad frees up some desk space.
Hopefully, I’ll get fewer comments now about my “loud” keyboard 