Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop Confort Edition
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This is a modified version of the Microsoft Natural Keyboard. This one additionally includes a "side panel" with "Internet buttons" which are:
Home website (AKA open up default browser and go to default location)
Calendar
E-mail
Messenger (did they really had to add such a button??)
My Documents
A slider with "High definition" optical technology to zoom in and out the desktop.
The top portion of the keyboard spans the "standard" set of Multimedia keys just above the function keys, along 5 buttons for "favorite" applications (I wanted to map those for the different dekstops on GNOME) plus a star one which I ignore its function on Windows (unless useful to set the preferred applications.
To the right hand side, just above the numeric keypad and beside the F-Lock key (pretty much useless in Linux) there are three additional buttons where the "regular" LED lights should be. These are: Calculator, Close Session, Suspend.
Of all the "extra" buttons (21 in total +slider) I have been able to successfully map about 11 of them. All the multimedia buttons and the "Internet" buttons do produce events which can be programmed with GNOME's preferences for keyboad commands. For the lack of a better choice in this section of GNOME's preferences, I only mapped 3 of them (missing are the calendar and messenger buttons). All the favorites buttons cannot be mapped (do not produce any catchable events that I have seen, anyway) and the slider (though could be terribly useful in Cinelerra for fast forward and rewind) I have not yet figured out a way to map it.
The remaining three buttons to the righ hand side are not entirely mappable. I've been only able to map one of those: Suspend, and I did so to launch the end session screen in GNOME. The other two buttons do not produce any events whatsoever.
This keyboad has one disadvantage, though: It produces a LOT of messages about atkbd.c and the mapcode. These are harmless messages, of course, but they DO flood dmesg and syslog.
The mouse is one of those with a tilt wheel. It pretty much works alright with the standard IMPS/2 driver, I'm tempted to try it with a 5 button mouse configuration for Xorg to see if the at least the "tilt clicks" could produce events resembling the forward and back buttons of the Intellimouse Explorer.
Overall, this is a nice keyboard, very comfotable to the touch, soft and smooth with a nice design, and the fact that at least some of the keys can be configured, at least on GNOME, is a plus.
For some reason I had trouble when I connected the receiver to the USB port only, I had to connect the minidin PS2 connector in the keyboard connector of my motherboard for the keyboard to produce any keystrokes in once Linux booted (with BIOS input in GRUB or BIOS configuration, it worked just fine with the USB connection, though).
Would you recommend the product? yes | Price you paid? (in USD): None indicated | Rating: 0
Kernel (uname -r):
Distribution:
You can get the extra functions keys working with keyTouch. Because keyTouch doesn't support this keyboard yet, you will have to create a keyboard file for it. This is done easily by using keytouch-editor. Documentation for keytouch-editor is found here: http://keytouch.sourceforge.net/keytouch_editor/
Send your keyboard file to marvinr(at)users(dot)sourceforge(dot)net so that other users do not have to create a keyboard file.
Would you recommend the product? no | Price you paid? (in USD): None indicated | Rating: 1
Kernel (uname -r):
2.6.12-10, 2.4.31, others
Distribution:
Ubuntu Breazy, Slackware 10.2
This product does not function at all over USB and you must use the PS/2 connector to allow it to function. There does not apear to be any solution to this problem. If you have PS/2 great for you, if you don't then you are SOL with this product.
Would you recommend the product? yes | Price you paid? (in USD): $80.00 | Rating: 8
Kernel (uname -r):
Distribution:
Mepis
worked like a charm while I was putting together a new system for my living room. In addition to the massive amount of messages as was previous mentioned, my only complaint is the somewhat short range of the mouse. I can comfortably sit on the couch and use the keyboard, but the mouse needs to be about 4 feet closer before it registers. I'm only about 8-10 feet from the receiver which I figured would be well within the range. I haven't used the extra keys yet, so not sure how useful/convienient they are yet.
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