Hello:
I´m planning to buy a Mac, for my animation projects, how compatible is blender with mac, i even bought i few books about blender and now i´m wondering if they´ll be helpful, once i start using mac… thank you for your concern
Blender is identical in all OS.
I think it works well, but with some qualifications.
The main system-wide thing you’ll have to change is that you have to disable or remap your F1-F12 keys. Apple defaults to using that for system stuff (volume, brightness, spaces) but you’ll want those hotkeys for Blender’s. I think there’s a switch that sets all of the F-functions to require holding the Function key down as well, but there’s still others you’ll need to track down and turn off. Case in point, you will be driven insane by the realization that Shift F5 or something turns on Speech, and then you’ll have to remember how to turn it off :mad:
Keyboard requirements: specify/upgrade to the keyboard with a numberpad. The default keyboard they package with the mac doesn’t have a numberpad, and it’s a big part of Blender’s interface.
Mouse requirements: You might need to buy a different mouse. The last version of mac mouse (came with a new mac I got in January 2010) has three functions: Left Click, Right Click, middle scroll. It does NOT have Middle Click. This severely hinders Blender, and although you can switch to “emulate 2 button mouse,” I think it’s sucky. If you’re used to a Blender interface with three buttons it’s not an enjoyable shift. Be prepared to be frustrated with your mouse-buying options as well; many of the ideal mice do not come with Mac drivers, but if you google it there’s some hack programs that will make the mouse recognized and the buttons mappable.
Those are the main things I’d watch out for. They’re annoying but fixable, so don’t be discouraged.
Lastly, a quick Mac joke I just heard…
Q: How do you know when someone owns an Apple product?
A: They tell you 
Yes. Blender controls are really more dedicated on windows based keyboards.
No one ever worked on blender controls to make them work on any kind of mice and keyboards right from the box. Maybe as a separate keyboard layout you could choose on the splash.
Personally, i think it’s best if the default controls are polished out. But people don’t want these kind of drastic changes. So it’s best if someone could make a separate layout for mac.
Just my opinion.
But people don’t want these kind of drastic changes
The first I did, my friends also. LOL
I agree, but this is only true for the iMac. Fortunately, they don’t charge for this upgrade.
If you are getting a laptop for Blender, always have these two things in your bag: a USB numpad, and a 3 button mouse.
Also, I gave away the Magic Mouse that came with my Mac Pro because I couldn’t stand the way it worked with Blender. I went back to my old, cheapo Logitech mouse. Just a personal prefence; your mileage may vary.
Knelloton why dont u use the emulate numpad option and use the numbers for views
and use the layer cube icons for the layers. In practise you switch between views
more often and this way you left hand can do it all. with the numpad you right hand
must switch between mouse and numpad.
BTW no problem with a mac here - but since they can dual boot I also work on both sides often.
A nice benefit.
I started with Blender 2.5 a few months ago on Mac and everything works great.
I use Blender on iMac and Mac Pro and the only thing i’ve done is changed the render key to F15 since that key is free on the Mac keyboard.
And i of course use a normal (non Apple) mouse.
I’ve used Blender a little in windows and can’t see that Blender is any different in OS X or Win.
i use two apple laptops and one problem i’ve come across is that you can you can only have one blender project open at a time. this might be frustrating if you like doing a lot of things at once. like linking in a character in a scene and trying to change him on the fly