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Comment by BoxOfRain | Hacker News Reader

Finding a good Mac-layout mechanical keyboard that I liked was a total chore, I eventually got the Vinpok Taptek which I'm really pleased with but I can't find replacement keycaps for the life of me.

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One good source of Mac mechanicals is Matias, e.g. https://matias.ca/quietpro/mac/. In fact, it's the only company I've found that makes a true Mac layout: that is, a full symmetric set of command, option, and control keys on each side.

I had one of the Matias wireless keyboards with the numeric keypad. I bought it because at the time, Apple didn't make a wireless version of its full Magic Keyboard.

It was good for about a year. Then i started having connectivity problems. The Letter in the keys wrote off quickly. And a few of the keys started becoming less responsive. The quality just wasn't there.

Luckily, by then Apple came out with its version, and it's been flawless for a few years now. It's worth the extra money to go with Apple, if you're getting that kind of keyboard.

I... don't understand this. I've been using exclusively mechanical keyboards since the very early 90s, and I've been using nearly-exclusively Macs since the very early 2000s. I've never had an issue here. Mechanical keyboards, as a general rule, are programmable, and have swappable keycaps. It's a simple matter to swap the keycaps if you are adjusted to the Windows mandated keyboard layout ordering and how that's mapped automatically in macOS, or slightly more work to remap the keys /and/ change the keycaps. That's not even considering that some of the greatest pre-built mechanical keyboards in the 90s and early 2000s were Mac specific, like options using Alps key switches for instance.

There are many many many many mechanical keyboard options to use with a Mac. If you're legitimately having difficulty finding a solution, feel free to reach out to me via the contact information in my profile and I'll be happy to make some specific recommendations.

Judging by yours and the sibling comments it would appear that my research into the subject of mechanical keyboards a couple of years ago was somewhat lacking!

I recently picked up a keychron k3, and am mostly satisfied.

https://www.keychron.com/pages/keychron-k3-wireless-mechanic...

Also, for low profile keycaps you can get them on Novel Keys. I don't think anyone else makes low profile compatible keycaps, but that's one of the trade-offs for using low profile switches.

I use a standard US layout TKL mechanical keyboard and remap the keys with karabiner. Are you looking for things beyond that?

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