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Comment by gempir | Hacker News Reader

Also most Linux/Windows shortcuts feel way more natural than on macOS

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.

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In this forum you're going to get very very downvoted with anything that goes against Apple.

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...

Got nothing to do with it. Computing wasn't invented in 1990.

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).

But on Unix and Linux pressing Ctrl-C in a terminal will send SIGINT (unless special measures are taken by your terminal emulator).

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!

> Unix - Ctrl + c

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.

Option-c types a ç character; the Mac doesn't (by default) use Option alone as a shortcut modifier key. You're thinking of Command.

Keyboards have modifier keys on both sides because you would have to stretch or move your fingers out of position to type most combinations with one hand.

The Command keys on Mac keyboards are wider and closer to the center than the Alt or Windows keys on PC keyboards.

Spy from another planet with no opposable thumbs detected.

Cmd T is super comfortable. What do you mean somehow? The T is right there next to F, the default resting area for your index finger.

Ctrl is the uncomfortable key. Requires bringing the pinky in to play.

I think that “feels natural” is not the right adjective to describe that it breaks your habits.

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.

My favorite “feels natural” thing on Apple keyboards was putting raised dots on D and K, on the Keyboard II and Extended Keyboard II. This goes under the middle finger, just like on the numeric keypad.

Eventually they relented and put the dots under F and J like the rest of the PCs.

Apple also, along with Sun, used to put the control key in the correct location. They finally caved and put caps lock there.

PCs have a lot of crimes to answer for.

The Apple IIplus Keyboard looked a lot like the ADM3a keyboard on the left side. Also in the placement of symbols.

Putting the Caps Lock key above the Shift key came from typewriters, where it was a "Shift Lock" key (it physically locked the Shift key below it in the pressed position). If you have to blame something, blame typewriters.

Jef Raskin's 1994 article Intuitive equals familiar remains worth reading.

I felt the same when I initially shifted to macOS but even though I don't like a lot about macOS, this has grown on me. Cmd key is more centrally located on the keyboard and requires less flex in your hand to reach.

I was a late switcher, only after 20ish years of Windows, Linux, and a little BeOS. I now wish everyone else would just copy apple’s layout exactly for their default English keyboard & system shortcuts. It’s way, way better. Let dwm users and such remap if they like, of course, but that should be the default. It’s so good it’s fair, so long as no one else has copied it (why not!?) to call it a feature, and one providing significant “stickiness” for their platform (ditto Preview—sometimes, it’s the little things that matter, if they’re done exceptionally well)

What? The Command key is instantly and reliably accessible with your thumb. The Control key is what's super awkward.

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