The function of the power button on the Apple Wireless Keyboard

My main answer:

Apple deems this a feature, as documented in their knowledge base. Apple does not document how to disable the delay.

In my experience, if you remap the caps-lock key on Mac OS X (in System Preferences .. Keyboard .. Modifier Keys), and e.g. map it to Control, then the delay goes away while I am logged into Mac OS X. So as koiyu suggests in the comments here, it seems like there is some variation available between the hardware and the keyboard driver.

Remaining questions:

My own problem is that the delay remains when I boot into Ubuntu Linux, and in that context, even when I remap the Caps Lock key to Control, the delay is still present. So the vanilla keyboard driver provided on Ubuntu Linux still suffers from the delay.

So my questions at this point:

• How is it that the standard Windows 7 driver has no delay and the Linux driver does have the delay?

• How can one replicate disabling the delay in the context of a Linux installation atop the laptop?

Resetting the SMC should be able to fix the issue. Note that this will reboot the MacBook, so you will lose any unsaved work.

• Shut down the computer.
• Plug in the MagSafe power adapter to a power source, connecting it to the Mac if its not already connected.
• On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time.
• Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.
• Press the power button to turn on the computer.

Note: The LED on the MagSafe power adapter may change states or temporarily turn off when you reset the SMC.