I see, thank you for clarifying. Having used all versions of Windows up until 8[1] and 8+ years of ubuntu, I'm surprised I never realized this standard existed. It makes perfect sense that it does - I just didn't know it. I agree that it's unfortunate it's not as well supported on Linux as it should be.

Coming from the other side of things, I had a lot of trouble when I was lent a brand new Macbook Pro for travel during my last job. It seemed some things worked using cmd and others using ctrl. I don't remember the specifics, as I didn't use it often enough, except that I'd find myself mashing keys on occasion trying to figure out the right combination.

It was far worse when I dual booted with ubuntu. The keys made no sense to me there either. Finally, I replaced OSX completely and the keys were "normal" again (ctrl+* for everything).

1: Also lots of DOS, but I don't even remember what versions. I had managed lots of desktops and servers running DOS for a few years in IT a couple lifetimes ago.

You've got the causality reversed. The Apple Lisa introduced the command-Z/X/C/V keyboard equivalents for undo/cut/copy/paste, and they were kept with the Macintosh and Apple IIgs.

IBM CUA and Microsoft Windows adopted them afterwards, adapted to the PC keyboard; I think Windows only adopted them with Windows 95 and NT4.

No, they were already there in Windows 3.x