Granted windows has a few, they are mostly OS specific, like windows-e to open explorer. on OSX even something as standard as ctrl-c / ctrl-v uses the cmd key.
I have much less difficulty switching between windows and ubuntu than to mac when it comes to shortcuts.
macOS has a handy setting though where you can reassign the modifier keys which helps to ease the pain when switching between platforms often:
System Preferences => Keyboard, on the Keyboard tab click the "Modifier Keys..." button in the bottom right corner.
I can understand the frustration moving between systems, but I think whichever one feels "right" is largely due to where you spend most of your time.
On the Mac, the preference for the Command key is stated explicitly in the human interface guidelines:
• Prefer the Command key as the main modifier key in a keyboard shortcut.
• Prefer the Shift key as a secondary modifier when a shortcut complements another shortcut.
• Use the Option key as a modifier sparingly.
• As much as possible, avoid using the Control key as a modifier.
https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline...
We may like or dislike this, but Apple's preference is pretty clear.
https://unicheck.com/blog/who-invented-copy-and-paste
"The person most widely credited with Copy and Paste, Larry Tesler, did work for Apple starting in 1980. However, he created the command while working for Xerox Palo Alto Research Center at some point between 1973-1976 "
So, the Ctrl + c was BEFORE the Apple way.
[1] http://www.digibarn.com/friends/curbow/star/keyboard/index.h...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gypsy_(software)
Before the Mac, all the computers I remember used function keys or their own various commands. Even after, IBM published “Common User Access” using ctrl-insert and shift-insert. Apple, as far as I know, introduced the familiar ZXCV shortcuts.
"The IBM Common User Access (CUA) standard also uses combinations of the Insert, Del, Shift and Control keys. Early versions of Windows used the IBM standard. Microsoft later also adopted the Apple key combinations with the introduction of Windows, using the control key as modifier key. For users migrating to Windows from MS-DOS this was a big change as MS-DOS users used the "copy" and "move" commands."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut,_copy,_and_paste#Populariz...
No Control key involved.
For a new tab in chrome Ctlr + T is easily done on Linux/Windows. On macOS for Cmd + T you need to weirdly bend your thumb under your hand while also hitting T somehow.
Or you need to move your entire hand 2 columns of keyboard layout to the right to be able to hit cmd with your pinky.
With Apple keyboards the Cmd key is easy to access, I only had that problem using Windows keyboards. The Win key is not used much so some manufacturers make it smaller.
I use Macs since 2007 and it “feels natural” to me, but this is because I’m used to Apple keyboards. For me the Ctrl key feels far away, and hitting Cmd plus key comes as the first reflex.
Eventually they relented and put the dots under F and J like the rest of the PCs.
PCs have a lot of crimes to answer for.
Let's see.
Unix - Ctrl + c
Linux - Ctrl + c
Win - Ctrl + c
Mac - Option + c
Clearly the standard and natural way is the Apple way of doing things...
Ctrl-c/v is a essentially a kludge introduced into Windows because the IBM Model M keyboard and similar didn't have a Meta key. It wasn't until Windows 3.1 that we see Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V being a 'thing'. Before then it was all about IBMs CUA. Apple had CMD-C/V/X on the Lisa 9 years before. I'm not sure what Xerox did on the Alto or if it even used keyboard shortcuts, but they did refer to the operation as Copy/Paste (coined by Larry Tesla who went on to work at Apple).
I think this another benefit of the Mac using Command-C for copy: when the UNIX-based Mac OS X was introduced you could copy from termainl windows without accidentally stopping the running program!
Which Unix would that be? The closest thing to a common Unix desktop environment, the Common Desktop Environment, didn't steal Control because they had enough sense to know that people needed it to type control characters.
> Linux - Ctrl + c
The Linux desktop crowd has always been obsessed with cloning Windows.
The Command keys on Mac keyboards are wider and closer to the center than the Alt or Windows keys on PC keyboards.
Ctrl is the uncomfortable key. Requires bringing the pinky in to play.
In the standard I rely on continually, ctrl-c and ctrl-v are control characters.