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Comment by jkrems | Hacker News Reader

Wonder why they didn't go with Cmd+C/Cmd+V for copy&paste. As a developer, that's one of the reasons I really enjoy working on macOS. There's no chance to confuse Ctrl+C and Cmd+C - both of which are shortcuts I use frequently.

P.S.: Not to mention that I appreciate using my thumb for the primary meta key instead of my little finger.

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In another thread on keyboards I was criticized for identifying this as an important reason for not switching to Windows.

That and Karabiner is simply too good and has no real Windows alternative.

Try AHK (Auto Hot Key). It is much more powerful than Karabiner.

https://autohotkey.com/docs/misc/Remap.htm

You know keyboard remapping can be done natively just using tweaking your Windows registry.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/disable-caps-lo...

http://www.ghacks.net/2010/06/06/the-ultimate-guide-to-keybo...

Also if you want a program with gui read the following article.

http://lifehacker.com/5883003/the-best-key-remapper-for-wind...

I tried to tweak my work Windows-laptop to have the sane cmd+q, cmd+w and cmd+h shortcuts.

Windows feels like a mess. Sometimes it's alt+f4, sometimes it's ctrl+f4. I gave up.

What method did you use?

Using AHK requires thorough knowledge of how keyboard work. There is already lot of keyboard remapping samples available on GitHub or on their own website, check that out.

https://github.com/stroebjo/autohotkey-windows-mac-keyboard

https://autohotkey.com/docs/scripts/index.htm

No, it's always ctrl+f4 for closing the current window and alt+f4 to close the whole application.

The only reason I used karabiner in macOS was for TouchCursor. But TouchCursor is originally a windows app, so when I transitioned to windows I didn't miss any of karabiner. OTOH I haven't found yet something like that for linux.

Totally agree. A decade ago when I was planning my switch from Windows, I tried BeOS / yellowTAB which had the Apple-like shortcuts, and it was one of my favorite things about using it. It was significantly more comfortable.

(BeOS actually used Alt+C and Alt+V, but in the days of Model-M keyboards without a Windows button, Alt was very similar to Command in terms of ergonomics.)

I might be wrong, but I think it has something to do with applications themselves explicitly looking for key combinations that involve the ctrl key.

So no matter how much Pantheon (elementary OS' desktop environment) and elementary OS' default applications use the meta key for copying and pasting and other functions, applications themselves would have explicitly be updated to listen for meta key presses.

But yes, I agree, I prefer Cmd+C/Cmd+V for copying/pasting, just that no matter how much I complain, and how much the elementary OS team could nod in agreement with us, it would take a major shift in momentum on all application vendors to prepare an entirely separate build, specifically intended to match Pantheon's idioms (favouring meta key instead of the ctrl key).

> it would take a major shift in momentum on all application vendors

This is probably why people like OS X. Apple can and does pull this off.

Before the Linux CADETs took over with goal of cloning Windows, X11 programs routinely had configurable key bindings; poke around in /etc/X11/app-defaults (or your system's equivalent) for a few stragglers. Unix workstation keyboards typically had some form of Meta key (e.g. Sun's diamond keys) because they could think a quarter step ahead and realize that screwing up established uses of Control (i.e. ASCII) was a bad idea.

I think Qt / KDE is probably the best hope today. Since Qt got ported to OS X, there's an internal flag to use the GUI key for shortcuts instead of Control. If this flag were user-configurable it would solve a large part of the problem; perhaps the latest MacBook ‘Pro’ will generate enough refugees to make it happen. In the interim, KDE apps at least have individually configurable key bindings.

Because most of the users come from other Linuxes or Windows I guess.

A lot of people remap Caps lock to ctrl, you may want to try this.

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