Apple - Can I use a non-Apple keyboard with OS X?

Macs work just fine with non-Apple keyboards. Alt becomes option, and the Windows key becomes the command key. And if you want to rearrange them, you can easily do so in the System Preferences:

alt text

However, I prefer to use Apple keyboards with my Mac as they have buttons on the top to control expose, volume, and pause/rewind/fastforward of media playback. Apple keyboards also have the command key better positioned for keyboard shortcuts than the Windows key is on regular keyboards.


If the keyboard is USB, it should be fine. That USB thing is important though - there are no PS2 ports on a Mac. I was able to use my cymotion keyboard with no hassle, but as Kyle pointed out, I needed to remap one or two keys.


I use a PC keyboard with my MacBook Pro and I just recently ran into a problem. I'd like a quick keyboard shortcut to sleep the computer without a popup. There is a shortcut that uses the "eject" button, but my keyboard has no "eject" button. There doesn't seem to be any way to redefine the shortcut, or any way to emulate the "eject" button.

So that's a data point for you.