> Note that the Thinkpad X1 does not have Ctrl in the bottom left, instead its the Fn key. On the plus side, the X1 kept Home and End keys up top, with dedicated PageUp/PageDown near the arrow keys.

For the most part, Lenovo's Thinkpads have a BIOS setting that allows you to switch the Fn and Ctrl keys. This has been around for a while now and is still an option on newer Thinkpads (although, I can't confirm that this option exists in the X1).

Not just that, but on any computer running Linux, you can just use loadkeys.

You can also use xmodmap, but that's not going to work outside X11 (if you tend to do much work without X)

The Fn key is not sent to the OS at all, this would not be remappable via OS mechanisms.

That depends on the laptop. On my Thinkpad X220, pressing the Fn key triggers a normal KeyPress event with keycode 151, so no problem remapping.

On my T41 too, with the same keycode, but not on my old Samsung. Considering I almost exclusively use ThinkPads, I just left Fn where it is.

> For the most part, Lenovo's Thinkpads have a BIOS setting that allows you to switch the Fn and Ctrl keys. This has been around for a while now and is still an option on newer Thinkpads (although, I can't confirm that this option exists in the X1).

I have both a Dell and a Thinkpad, and it's definitely much more convenient to have Ctl readily accessible with the left pinky than Fn, which you get on the Thinkpad.

I also own a Thinkpad and while the Fn/Ctrl position is annoying I haven't been using the default left Ctrl key in a while anyway, simply because I map Caps-Lock as a Ctrl key.

The Ctrl key is so often used by developers, especially when one uses Emacs shortcuts (not only in Emacs itself, but also in Readline-enabled shells or other software), that you can easily get RSI. Remaping Caps-Lock as a Ctrl is a necessity and once you use it you'll never want to go back to the default left Ctrl.

I've adapted my environment to my preferences: most of the stuff I use has vim shortcuts (+ Windows key modifier for XMonad). Besides, you don't have many things you need to access in a hurry with Fn anyway (since you have proper home/end/etc. keys).

The Ctrl is still readily accessible with the left pinky. I've never had problem with this om my Thinkpad. It just took some time to getting used to. They keyboard was phenomenal compared to cheap asus books I've tried (both feel and horrible layout were a cause).

Then I got Dell (E6400) and liked the keyboard even more. The feel was better. Only thing I missed was the light from Thinkpad. While the keyboard was backlit, I found the top light to be more convenient.

> The Ctrl is still readily accessible with the left pinky.

What I meant is that it's easier to access on a Lenovo keyboard than on a non-Lenovo keyboard, since it's closer. I have a hard time hitting Left Ctrl on the Dell keyboard than on my Lenovo keyboards.

I can confirm this. It's also a setting in the Lenovo toolkit (in Windows) if you want on top of the BIOS setting.

Is it only me or are the half-size arrow keys a really big problem? I use the arrows to get around a lot, in basically everything but vi, making them half the size has always annoyed me (at least on whatever Chromebook I've used).

Dell's Vostro V131 has my favorite keyboard I've ever used on a laptop, it's been perfect for me since whenever I got it. http://images.anandtech.com/galleries/1486/dell-vostro-v131-...

I prefer the x230's keyboard [1], which extends the arrows downward into the unused palm rest area. I've used a similar keyboard as the vostro, and I found myself frequently fatfingering home instead of pageup and end instead of pagedown.

[1] http://cdn.gottabemobile.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/thin...

The funky Fn/Ctrl placement is a Thinkpad thing[1].

IMO, the classic thinkpad layout nailed it. Unfortunately, this has been replaced by the chicklet layout. I love the big delete button on the x220[2].

[1] http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2011/01/500x_l...

[2] http://cdn-static.zdnet.com/i/story/30/40/092594/thinkpad_x2...

Recently started using the chicklet one. The layout is ok, but not as good as the classic, for me, mainly because the home/end keys are harder to find and they are quite useful. Apart from that, it's not bad, although I preferred having a menu button on my thumb than a print screen button.

I preferred the feel slightly on the classic thinkpad keyboards, but these keys feel bigger in use which is nice too. Having the arrow keys separated slightly is a big win. So yeah, while I do slightly prefer the classic keyboard, I don't think there's much in it, and the underlighting is quite nice.

    >The funky Fn/Ctrl placement is a Thinkpad thing

Mac as well. Small Mac keyboards has this, big has ctrl in the "correct" position. On the Mac there is no setting "bios" or otherwise to remap it though.

>On the Mac there is no setting "bios" or otherwise to remap it though.

That might be literally true for some sense of the word "setting", but its certainly misleading: in the lower levels of OS X, the function key can almost certainly be remapped to control.

The only reason I had to add the qualifier "almost certainly" is that I never had to learn how to use OS X's analog to loadkeys or xmodmap because for my purposes it sufficed for Emacs to swap function with control.

But since Emacs has access to the "raw scancode" for the function key, OS X must have it, too.

In other words, the Mac is not like one of those PC laptops where the interpretation of "the function modifier bit" takes place at a level lower than the OS. Consequently I would be shocked if there were no way to swap function with control OS-wide if one is willing to research the question on the net.

On the other hand, you can trivially remap CapsLock to control, and then why would you care about the bottom-left control when you've got a big one right in the (vertical) center of the left-hand side?

Probably because those of us who grew up with PC keyboards instead of workstation keyboards are used to pressing Ctrl with our pinky or palm. Still, Caps Lock remains an essentially useless key ripe for remapping.

> pressing Ctrl with our palm.

Probably the piece I was missing. I grew up on PC keyboards but never hit Ctrl with my palm (I can't even figure out how I'd do it). And thus never understood the love some have for a control key in the bottom-left corner (with Fn between Alt and Control): even without the Caps remap, Ctrl next to Alt (as on thinkpads and macs) means easier pinkie travel (almost solely vertical versus an awkward stretch to the bottom and side) compared to a Ctrl stuffed in the far corner.

I guess it's not exactly my palm that I use, but the first joint where the pinky meets the hand. It's more difficult to do this on a laptop keyboard than my Model M.

> I guess it's not exactly my palm that I use, but the first joint where the pinky meets the hand.

Yes, that's how I figured it'd work (as the palm would require having the fingers over the top of the keyboard), but I still find it odd.

Then again, my "desktop" keyboard has been an MS Natural Ergo 4000 for the last decade or so, so it's got a very small control key with precious little definition compared to the surrounding keys, can't help either.

I'm sitting here in front of an X1 loaded with Ubuntu and the experience so far isn't great.

The build quality wouldn't be quite ok for a $1000 laptop and is infuriating for a $1700 one. And the screen is just ok

About the linux experience: I don't mind the placement of the left ctrl key, but PrtScr sitting next to right alt is extremely annoying in Ubuntu.

Battery life in Linux is quite shorter than in Windows, wake up from suspension randomly takes longer than a full boot and there's quite a lot of battery drain while suspended.

And I just manually upgraded to the new 3.8 kernel to see if some new driver version there fixes the random full freezes i've been getting.

So I kinda wish I had waited for the Dell. I knew it was coming but got tempted by the black sexyness of this thing.