I too have a das keyboard. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone. I just got mine less than a year ago. One of the keys started getting sticky and would not jump back after a key press (the command key.) They haven't answered my email asking for any solution to this.
I saw similar complaints from other recent customers. It seems as though they have shifted production to a new Chinese facility which is causing more of these problems.
It works great, but breaks down quick. If you are in the middle of a coding project or something big, nothing can be more annoying: an awesome keyboard suddenly dying on you and absent customer service.
Well, if it makes you feel better, the new code keyboard also uses Cherry switches, so they may hit the same issues. AFAIK cherry's the only mechanical switch key maker left.
ALPS still makes mechanical keyswitches and I think Filco makes their own, don't they? Also, Unicomp makes "buckling spring" keyswitches for their own use.
ALPS hasn't made their keyswitches for a long time, but Matias [1] has put a slight variant back into production.
(ALPS switches are probably best known from the Apple Extended and other Apple keyboards of that era.)
Interesting! I thought Matias was using ALPS switches, rather than producing their own "ALPS-like" switches -- although that makes sense. I own a Matias Tactile Pro and liked it initially, but over the course of a few weeks I realized it made my fingertips sore in a way that I didn't remember old Apple keyboards doing (or my TRS-80 Model 4 keyboard, way back when, which turned out to use ALPS keyswitches). My favorites now seem to be Unicomp's buckling spring, although the Cherry Blue switches are a close second. (I haven't been able to try any of the other Cherry switches.)
Matias did use ALPS switches until the latest models. (Actually the ALPS production was taken over by another company, and finally discontinued in 2012.)
There were various changes to the ALPS line over the years, presumably to reduce costs, and many (including me) believe quality suffered. The Apple keyboards used the earliest, so-called ‘complicated long’ version, while Matias keyboards before the latest used the final ‘simplified’ version. (All these had various tactile and clicky variations.)
The switches in the big Apple keyboards had rubber bumpers to reduce the impact of bottoming out, which might have been the reason they were easier on your fingers. (On the other hand, buckling springs trigger low and land hard, so maybe not.) The latest Matias Quiet keyboard re-introduces the rubber bumpers. (I haven't tried them.)
I saw similar complaints from other recent customers. It seems as though they have shifted production to a new Chinese facility which is causing more of these problems.
It works great, but breaks down quick. If you are in the middle of a coding project or something big, nothing can be more annoying: an awesome keyboard suddenly dying on you and absent customer service.