*Microsoft hardware "rock solid"?    Do me a favour.   Two Microsoft keyboards in quick succession packed up on me completely.    They had rather a lot in common with rocks, to be honest.   I had to resort to a quaint, old DELL thing, which plugged into the back of the system unit and is still going strong.   The MS mouse, though, I grant, is also still in business.

*well I've ha 2 keyboards in 10 years. both M$. the first, was a first edition Ergonomic. which was third hand when I got it in 2000... the only reason I'm not using it now is because a  kitten dumped a can of ginger ale into it and burnt the membrane.

the keyboard I'm on now is a M$ comfort 1 wireless... and nothing wrong with it at all. solid reliable and very easy on the batteries.

I suppose it's like all things. your experience may vary....

(before I got M$ keyboards I went through several Cherry and Logitech Keybaords. they never lasted more than a coupla months.)