News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Using Windows after 15 years on Linux by tomrod on Thursday April 07, 2022 @04:07PM (#30949737)
MacOS is missing the common use of the control button.

I just need control, alt, and a meta button ("Windows" button).

What is this option and command nonsense?

Re:Using Windows after 15 years on Linux by GeneralMaximus on Friday April 08, 2022 @03:15AM (#30954202)
That's what the default Mac keyboard layout has been for decades. Just because Microsoft/IBM won the desktop OS wars and forced everyone to use their keyboard layout doesn't mean Mac users have to comply.

I'm used to switching between Mac and PC layouts every day, but I personally prefer the Mac keyboard layout. Command is easier to press with a thumb compared to Ctrl, which requires the pinkie. Option allows you to input special characters with far more ease compared to any PC operating system (e.g Opt + Shift + - for an em-dash compared to some crazy incantation on Windows). Control is still available as an additional modifier if you want it.

A great side-effect of using Cmd as the primary modifier is that shortcuts inside your terminal become simplified. E.g Cmd + C to copy rather than Ctrl + Shift + C, or Cmd + T to open a new tab rather than Ctrl + Shift + T.

In an ideal world, Windows would switch to using the Win key as its primary modifier instead of Ctrl. That would make life so much simpler.

Re:Using Windows after 15 years on Linux by dcchambers on Thursday April 07, 2022 @05:18PM (#30950452)
That was one of the hardest things for me to get used to when I moved primarily from Linux --> Mac (and it still makes switching between Mac and Windows annoying). Keyboard remapping helped at first but I was getting tired of inconsistencies so I just forced myself to relearn the modifier keys.

Funnily enough, the command key and many of those popular shortcuts (eg cut copy paste) predates windows by several years. The story goes that windows wanted to use the same shortcuts, but PC keyboards lacked a command key - so they used control instead. Since windows was backwards compatible with lots of hardware, they couldn't require a key that didn't exist on most keyboards.

Prior to that of course, Control has a long history of interacting with command-line based applications in Unix/family (eg Ctrl-C to cancel a running CLI app). Of course those same things still work in MacOS like they did in the older Unixes.