Maybe one day I'll break down and just order the Tactile Pro. I've literally never been able to find another mechanical keyboard with an actual honest Mac layout.
Is it the Mac keys you want? I just replaced my manually silenced cherry MX brown keyboard with a rubber some from BTC. They are probably the snappiest rubber domes you can find, and they are MX mount so you can order a Mac keycap set.
Total cost for that is bound to be something like 50 bucks, mostly keycaps. A BTC 5100-series board is easy to find for under 20 bucks.
Because apart from the keycaps, everything is configurable in the OS and isn't a feature of whatever keyboard you are using? Or is there a requirement I am not aware of?
I implore you to Google what the full-size Apple keyboard looks like and then look at what your average mechanical keyboard looks like. If nothing else helps, count the keys.
I'm just trying to help. I didn't think people actually used Mac function keys since apple hides most of them under the function layer.
If the extra keys are necessary, why not just get a macro pad? Keyboard-wise a focus FK-9000 will probably cost you less than a Matias board and give you 20 something more keys. No need to treat me like I am a friggin idiot for not guessing your rather fringe needs.
>No need to treat me like I am a friggin idiot for not guessing your rather fringe needs.
No, I'm treating you like an idiot because you come suggesting things to me that you have no idea about. You're still wrong about what a Mac keyboard layout is. It's not just "some extra function keys". There's a very distinct and different layout in which the keys are, which is evident if you just look at one, which is why I'm referring it my needs as "Mac layout" and not "keyboard with some Mac stickers".
If you can't "guess what someone's rather fringe needs" are, then don't make recommendations. If someone is looking for a mechanical keyboard with a Mac layout, don't just suggest a keyboard with some stickers on it just because you don't understand what they want (and then get upset that the person's needs are "rather fringe" just because you have no idea).
This is like the 100th time that this same exact pattern happens. You're not even the first person in this thread to regurgigate what I've seen online for years. I don't know what it is about mechanical keyboards that makes everyone an expert regardless of what they know. If I was looking for a car with room for three child seats, I doubt I'd be showered with random suggestions ("I have a Honda Civic and it's a good car. Get a Honda Civic!").
Well, then enlighten me: what is so special about the Mac layout? I am sitting with one magic keyboard and a BTC5140 right now and I can't see any difference apart from 4 extra keys above the numpad.
The biggest difference which basically no mechanical keyboard out there has right, is the bottom row. Full-sized Mac keyboards have a perfectly symmetrical bottom row with just Control, Option and Command.
The Function key has absolutely no place on the bottom row on a full-sized keyboard (and even in a condensed keyboard, it's never in the right place) and should be where the Insert key is on every mechanical keyboard. Some "Mac" keyboards are such lazy hackjobs that they actually include the Insert key. Some are a bit less lazy and stick the Eject button there. Why? Because they're not making a Mac keyboard, they're just switching the keycaps on their generic keyboard (which doesn't stop them from advertising their keyboards as "designed for Mac").
And of course, the top row includes F13~F19 in addition to the eject button.
It can also be argued that a proper Mac keyboard would have pretty much equal width modifier keys on the bottom row. I've seen some keyboards that basically have 1.5x Control and Command keys and 1x Option key, which looks downright perverse on a Mac keyboard. The Matias keyboards, despite being the best one at making a mechanical keyboard with a Mac layout, have it and it looks rather bad.
I stand by what I said: you can get very close to this using just about any mechanical keyboard, some Mac keycaps and software. A 20s googling got me a varmilo 110% keyboard. That, some custom caps and karabiner (which you should be using anyway if you have as high keyboard demands as you seem to have) gives you an equalish-width bottom row with 1 key too many, 19 function keys but no eject key.
Congratulations, you spent 20 seconds in Google and have once again arrived at the wrong answer. Actually, you have now reached multiple wrong answers: you can't recreate a Mac layout with just some stickers and I have zero need for Karabiner.
Just because you can put a round peg in a square hole doesn't make it a square peg.
Well, the only thing missing from that solution is the eject key, but considering you thought a Matias tactile pro was decent enough I am not really sure if that mattered to you, as that one replaces f19 with the eject key I thought it was a compromise you were willing to make.
What I am saying is a Mac layout can be recreated with stickers and software. It is not like a Mac keyboard sends magic signals to your computer. It is a regular USB keyboard without the context key and 4 extra FN keys.
