Does Type by Zaweba work on Mac or Linux?

Yes. Type by Zaweba has a Mac and Linux version alongside the Windows one, with the same lessons. It runs on Windows 10 and 11 (64-bit), on macOS 12 or later on both Apple silicon and Intel Macs, and on 64-bit Linux on x86 and ARM machines.

That makes it easy to use in a household or classroom with a mix of computers. Type is free software under the EULA, it works offline, and it has no adverts, accounts or telemetry on any of them.

What you get on every system

The heart of Type is the course of 30 lessons, and that is the same wherever you run it. The home row comes first in lessons 1 to 4, then the top row, the bottom row, capitals and punctuation, numbers and symbols, and finally four lessons of speed and stamina that finish with a classic passage and a final challenge. Each lesson opens when you pass the one before at 90 percent accuracy, or 85 percent in kid mode, and earns up to three stars.

Around the lessons you'll find the rest of the app: the on-screen keyboard that lights the next key, the optional hand diagram, Smart drill on your five weakest keys, the problem-keys heatmap, the Progress page with its graphs, the 13 classic passages, practice on your own pasted text, and the two games, Falling words and Ghost race.

Speed is worked out the same standard way everywhere: every five characters count as a word, and each error left uncorrected takes off one. A net speed on a Mac means exactly what it means on a Windows PC.

Choosing your layout

Type offers UK QWERTY (the default), US QWERTY, Dvorak and Colemak. The Dvorak and Colemak layouts are the US-style versions. Lessons are written in key positions rather than letters, so the whole course works on every layout: lesson 1 is A S D F on QWERTY, A O E U on Dvorak and A R S T on Colemak.

Pick the layout that matches the keyboard in front of you. The on-screen keyboard is drawn to scale as an ISO or ANSI keyboard, so a UK board shows its L-shaped Enter key and the pound sign in its usual place.

Profiles and kid mode

Each person gets a profile from the Who's typing? picker, with their own lessons, stars, key history, sessions, race ghosts and settings. Profile data is kept as one JSON file per profile, so two people on the same computer keep completely separate progress.

Kid mode is a setting on each profile. It brings larger text, simpler words, cheerful feedback, no clocks by default, mistakes that wait for the right key, shorter lessons and only kid-friendly passages, which suits a young child on a family laptop whatever it runs.

Privacy on every machine

Type reads keys only through its own window's normal input events. It has no keyboard hooks and no global hotkeys, and nothing typed into other programs reaches it. A test in the source checks that no hook or synthetic input is used. That matters to parents and schools on any system, and it is the same promise on a Mac or a Linux machine as on Windows.

Getting going on a new computer

Download the version for your system from the Zaweba site and open it. Make a profile, choose your keyboard layout, and start lesson 1. If you are already a confident typist, the Open every lesson setting in Profile settings lets you start anywhere in the course rather than working through it in order.

The View menu lets you switch between light and dark themes, with Ctrl+T as the shortcut, and show or hide the keyboard and hands. Help has a guide to using the app and a page on how speed is worked out.

So whichever computer is on the desk, Type by Zaweba can teach on it, with the same lessons and the same honest numbers.