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If you are using the GNOME desktop use gconf-editor to set /desktop/gnome/interface/gtk_key_theme to "Emacs". As far as I can tell, everything works (like I am now typing ctrl-A on firefox to go to the beginning of this line)

There is also Alt, and Meta, and you can set your own keymaps in X.

Actually, one of the reasons I didn't like the mac is the lack of flexibility in this area (like re-mapping ctrl and caps lock). Doable but not as simple as in Linux.

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Actually, re-mapping Caps Lock to Ctrl is a very simple change in the system preferences (but not so if you want to map it to Esc). You can remap Cmd/Option/Ctrl/Caps-Lock to any of those 4 keys, and you can do it specifically for different keyboards (so you can have your laptop keyboard mapped differently than the external keyboard you have plugged in; especially nice for connecting a PC keyboard to your laptop).

Cocoa by default already has some of the Emacs-style keyboard shortcuts (CTRL-A/E/P/N/B/F/K/T/Y/etc), and these are partially supported in Firefox 3.0. And it looks like remapping keys for Cocoa apps is very flexible and powerful, but I haven't messed with it personally yet (though I plan to try to get things even more Emacs-like, which appears to be pretty doable).

Of course you can't beat the flexibility that's achievable in the open source desktops/window managers.

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