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A comment on Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user. Parent comment

Re:Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user by overcast on Thursday June 14, 2018 @04:59PM (#17315300)
A lot of us use multiple environments every single day. Linux/Unix/Windows for a variety of server environments, MacOS for daily life / photo editing / web dev / IOS dev, Linux for web development, Windows for gaming. Switching between them isn't really much of an issue at this point, unless you're trying to literally move your entire life to a new environment. I use each for their suitable tasks.
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Re:Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user by bcheung on Thursday June 14, 2018 @10:14PM (#17317037)
I have both Mac and Windows 10 running simultaneously in my office at home and I keep getting Ctrl-W and Cmd-W confused when I try to close a browser tab. Maybe I'll get used to it eventually. I hope so.
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Re:Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user by dingo_bat on Thursday June 14, 2018 @10:16PM (#17317046)
Why does Mac os even have Ctrl? Why not do everything with Cmd? The Ctrl key is really unused on Mac.
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Re:Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user by icedchai on Friday June 15, 2018 @09:54AM (#17319767)
I'm guessing you don't use the command line much.
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Re:Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user by dingo_bat on Friday June 15, 2018 @10:18AM (#17319931)
I use it all the time! Why would you think so?
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Re:Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user by icedchai on Friday June 15, 2018 @10:50AM (#17320149)
You asked about the control key. Have you ever used "control-c" or "control-d" from a Unix command line?
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Re:Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user by dingo_bat on Friday June 15, 2018 @01:18PM (#17321547)
Yeah. Of course. And that's what I was referring to. There is no reason for a separate cmd key to exist. Some stuff is switched to cmd (copy, paste, select all) and other stuff stays with ctrl (ctrl+c, ctrl+d). See now I can't even remember how to close a tab in chrome. Is that cmd+w or ctrl+w? All of this is really arbitrary.
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Re:Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user by icedchai on Friday June 15, 2018 @04:03PM (#17323067)
Yes, but you originally said there was no reason for a control key to exist.

The modifiers serve two different purposes: control+something is sent to the remote host, cmd+something is handled by the application.

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Re:Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user by dingo_bat on Saturday June 16, 2018 @01:04AM (#17325949)
So if I run a long running grep and terminate it using Ctrl+c, which remote host am I sending the command to?
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Re:Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user by icedchai on Saturday June 16, 2018 @05:34AM (#17326734)
It would be sent to whatever process is attached to the current pseudo terminal. (When I said "remote" I was more referring to the SSH scenario, but the mechanism is the same...)
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Re:Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user by dingo_bat on Saturday June 16, 2018 @10:09AM (#17327475)
Ok, so that means the remote vs local logic doesn't apply. In fact none does. The demarcations are arbitrary. Cmd is randomly used and ctrl is randomly used. Even if there is a remote vs local rule, why not make ctrl do something for local programs? Do you use a separate keyboard for your ssh and another one for email? No. The keys switch contexts according to the active program.
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Re:Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user by bcheung on Monday June 18, 2018 @09:50PM (#17343185)
Unix programs use it quite frequently. Photoshop requires multiple modifier keys, you can't get away with just a single modifier because there are too many keyboard shortcuts.
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