I just received my new Corsair Vengeance K90 keyboard. It was a Christmas present from my sister. She bought my wife and I both one. Of course, she let me pick them out. I’m using mine to type this post and I can say that I’m pleasantly surprised by the board. I’m experiencing some weird behavior from it in Linux, but it really is designed for Windows and gaming.
The keyboard has the strangest feel to it that I’ve ever experienced. The top of the keys have a rubber coating which doesn’t feel anything like the hard plastic of most keyboards. The linear Cherry MX Red switches don’t have the tactile feedback or click that one would find on Cherry MX Blue switches. I’m coming from a buckling spring keyboard so the keyboard is very different from it.
I feel that the action on the keyboard is much faster than the buckling spring design, however. Once I get used to it, I’m sure I’ll be able to type faster. I hammer on keys pretty hard typically and that went along well with the buckling springs. They require a lot more force to depress than these Cherry MX Reds. I will need to retrain myself on typing with this keyboard. I shouldn’t bottom out as much as I presently do. However one of the bad things about the Cherry MX Reds is that they don’t have the tactile bump that lets you know that the key is engaged. However, it takes very little actuation of the key to engage it. So, you can barely touch the keys and they will register.
On Linux, you lose a few of the features that the keyboard comes with, from what I can tell. I’m not sure there’s a way to get the macros to work with it. Also, the caps lock and num lock indicators don’t seem to work correctly in Linux. I may just need to reboot, as I plugged the keyboard in and started using it. I’ll revise this post if that fixes the problem.
I’m using this keyboard on Linux as well, Ubuntu 11.10 to be exact. I have the same issues, where the Lock key indicators don’t light up correctly. The only one that turns on is the Num Lock indicator which gets stuck in the on position. Also, with the first press of the light button, from off to low, the result is the opening of the calculator, which is really strange. These issues aren’t really major, and I still love the typing of this keyboard, but I’d love to know what your current opinion is of this keyboard. Whether or not you’re still enjoying it, and if you’ve found any fixes to the problems on Linux.