I'm not a programmer. I'm a lawyer and a blogger, so my keyboard use is primarily for the typing of straight text. However, I've been touch typing since I was in high school, way too many decades ago, and I've since found that touch typing is easier and more accurate on a clicky keyboard, which is why I prefer them. At the request of +Eric Raymond, I'm reviewing my new clicky keyboard, the Leopold FC900.

You can see a zoomable picture of the FC900 keyboard here: https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1395  It comes with a keycap puller, extra Cntl keycaps in case you choose to adapt your keyboard to use different key locations (such as Caps Lock) for the Cntl function, and an adapter in case you need to use the keyboard with a non-USB machine.

The FC900 has brown cherry switches, and the manufacturer's website claims that it gives the same feedback as a regular clicky keyboard but without the noise. That was the reason I bought it; I figured that it would be useful for me to have a keyboard that I could type on during conference calls without imposing keyboard noise on the other parties to the conversation. Unfortunately, that's not quite the case. Although the FC900 is not as noisy as a regular clicky style keyboard, my FC900 makes plenty of key sound during typing.

Setting aside that disappointment, the FC900 has failed to impress me. It gets the basic job of typing done, but I've noticed that I seem to type a little less accurately than I did on the recent model Unicomp keyboard I used to have. That makes me think that the brown cherry switches the FC900 uses may not quite give a true "clicky" response. If you're a fanatic about having a keyboard that gives you true, buckling-spring-style clicky feedback, this probably isn't the keyboard for you.