Windows on Mac, made easier
I use VMWare Fusion to run Windows (multiple versions) on my iMac, and it’s great, but one thing I’ve always found a pain in the ass is the key-mapping issues. Basically you have the annoyance of the slightly different layout of [FN][CTRL][ALT][⌘] versus [CTRL][⌘][ALT], along with a totally different attitude about function keys and a need for some key commands to go to the host OS instead of the virtual machine. Even though I’ve been trying to get used to it for years I still fumble badly with keyboard shortcuts in Visual Studio, so I finally decided to just give up and get a second keyboard to use when I’m working in a Windows environment.
I really don’t like the spongey action and loudness of these plastic things compared with the super low profile and near silence of Apple’s aluminium keyboard, but it’s worth it to not constantly be skipping backwards in iTunes when I’m actually trying to do a build, or bringing up a control panel when I’m trying to alt-F4 a window closed. With this second keyboard the whole minimalist vibe is lost but I no longer feel like a total klutz when coding in Windows (and I can use all the same keyboard shortcuts I’ve been using in Visual Studio for more than a decade!). While I’m using the Logitech one the Apple keyboard just serves as my media/volume/brightness controller.
PS How shit it is that the Windows key still uses an actual Windows logo, for which there is no near typographic equivalent. So I can’t type it. What a total pain in the ass for documentation! Apple sensibly removed their logo from the keyboard key some years back and replaced it with an actual typographic symbol ⌘ (which is defined in the character map as ‘place of interest sign’).
Haha. Once you start looking for a better keyboard, you will go insane!
Personally, I hate low travel (short throw) switches, but that’s OK, because it means that I still have all the good options: Alps clone (Matias Tactile Pro and Quiet Pro), Cherry MX (WASD, Filco, Leopold, CoolerMaster and so many other brands), and Topre (Topre Realforce, PFU HHKB).
Mac OS X can use a PC keyboard easily — use the keyboard control panel to remap the modifiers. I was using a vintage 1980s PC/XT-AT (switchable) keyboard on my Mac recently — stiff, clicky Type IV Alps clone switches. Not the most comfortable board to type on, but my Mac keyboard (a Matias Tactile Pro 3) was at work.
Apple haven’t made a single decent keyboard since the Extended Keyboard II.
Maybe there is some sort of driver that can remap/override the mac keys. There’s certainly such things for Windows since some gamers don’t like accidentally hitting Windows-key so one can disable that.