Here[2] is a photo of my keyboard. The coloured keys are sold as WASD/escape keys but I used them for playing Skyrim - the green one on the right is especially handy for gaming as i don't have my fingers on the home row when playing games rather than typing. The blurred circuit board is a development version of the Midifighter 3D[3] as the photo was taken before they were announced.
[1] http://www.daskeyboard.com/model-s-ultimate-silent/
[2] https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/100355674716107842386/alb...
[3] http://www.djtechtools.com/2012/02/27/introducing-the-midi-f...
I've been really satisfied with it, and would definitely recommend it to anybody looking for a nice mechanical keyboard.
Well, mine is quieter than other keyboards I've used, eg a Dell keyboard[1] as long as you don't bottom the keys out, though I do get the occasional loudish click when the keys snap back, usually from the space bar, though if I slow down when typing I can make it almost completely silent (obviously thats not normal typing though).
[1] I did have a Saitek eclipse a few years ago that was quieter.
Mostly keep my vim key-binding mappings small, so I'm not confused when working with it with default settings. Mostly use <Ctrl>-c to get out of insert mode though, escape is so far.
The only thing I wish is that the keys were in a flat grid rather than staggered, but it seems very very hard to find any keyboard like that, so no biggy. I've considered getting a Kinesis for years now too, but since I got the DAS, I've had no plans of switching any time soon.
I haven't completely worked out my vim bindings since I've been doing a lot of Qt development in QtCreator lately and just used that without vi mode. I use Colemak for my layout so some of the default keys are a little less than optimal, but I also don't want to change them too much. With one or two simple key swaps it seems quite usable though.
On windows (where I don't use vim) I did map alt-gr to some common programmer symbols; mapped caps lock to control and control to backspace. On my laptop I use vanilla colemak though (including caps lock as backspace, though I'm likely going to change that some time).
If you're looking for a good place that does boot shaped enter keyboards then you can use Unicomp's Model M. You can rearrange the keys as you wish and they'll even print key caps with anything you want on them with the home row indicator tab, so you can put one on the h key.
The only problem with your layout that I see is the right shift key -- you lose a key because it's covered by two fingers. I'm definitely going to give it a try.
They have tons of choices of blue, black, and brown Cherry switches (I think), you just have to match up their terminology with the right color.
They ship from England too, fyi.
