3 ms·

I have tried several times to go Linux-only as my personal and work platform. It's never the lack of programs that kills the experiment for me. It's the total

I have tried several times to go Linux-only as my personal and work platform. It's never the lack of programs that kills the experiment for me. It's the total lack of consistency in the keyboard shortcuts and the fact that when they emulate something at all... they emulate Windows shortcuts, which are terrible. If I could configure a Linux desktop environment to mimic Mac-style keyboard shortcuts across the board, I'd have already switched to Linux full-time a couple years ago when I finally got sick of waiting for Apple to release a new MacBook Air. I have a Vaio Pro 13, a Gen 3 X1 Carbon, and Dell XPS 13 in my closet as casualties of my failed attempts to switch to Linux. :-(

giancarlostoro 10y ago
When I first used Linux I installed Slackware which used the KDE Desktop environment which asked me which key binding layout style I wanted: Mac, Windows or a more Linux centric style. Not sure why I never see those options when I setup a desktop environment anymore but Linux has several. I highly recommend KDE because it is highly customizable just don't know where those options disappeared off to. I always remembered it because I thought it was so considerate.
- kagamine 10y ago
  Installed KDE Neon yesterday (which is a distro, not a DE) and even coming from a different Linux flavor I was surprised at how easy it was to set up shortcuts in KDE. Really impressed with the quality of KDE Neon.
- im_down_w_otp 10y ago
  I actually got closest to my desired state in Linux using the latest Kubuntu precisely because KDE at least provided the interface and facilities to rebind pretty much all the shortcuts... at least in so far as KDE/Qt5 applications were concerned. The problem that I had was 1) it still wasn't super consistent in operation (due to the layering of control and interaction between shortcuts for the DE and for the WM), and 2) only a subset of the applications were proper KDE/Qt5 ones, and the most commonly used ones (Firefox & Chrome most decidedly didn't conform). So in the end, while I got to a 70-80% solution, there were still so many irritating exceptions so often that it almost made the situation worse. Because now I could get some applications to behave the way I wanted, but I'd still be stuck with the default shortcuts in some applications, and I ended up having to be extra vigilant of keeping track of which application I was actively using and whether or not I could use my muscle-memory or not. KDE is by far the most complete architecture for layering in and overriding keyboard shortcuts in a coherent centralized way relative to everything else I could get my hands on. I really wish that the system for doing things like that was actually an interoperability standard vis-a-vis the Freedesktop.org or something.
realusername 10y ago
I guess we come from different backgrounds, what puts me off on a mac is the inconsistency between Control and Command shortcuts which makes it even worse on a terminal app, I prefer the Linux ones.
- im_down_w_otp 10y ago
  I'm of exactly the opposite opinion. The fact that on the Mac (and old UNIX-proper systems) decoupled the modifier key for GUI-shortcuts (Command/Meta) from the modifier key for terminal control sequences is one of the absolute best parts of the Mac-style of shortcuts to me. It means I get to have Modifer-C and Modifier-V and Modifier-Z always do the same things no matter what program I'm in. In Linux-land I always have to do some extra finger gymnastics in the terminal. Because Ctrl-C will kill processes rather than copy text for instance. Ctrl-Z will pause a process and push it to the background rather than undo, etc.

giancarlostoro 10y ago

When I first used Linux I installed Slackware which used the KDE Desktop environment which asked me which key binding layout style I wanted: Mac, Windows or a more Linux centric style. Not sure why I never see those options when I setup a desktop environment anymore but Linux has several. I highly recommend KDE because it is highly customizable just don't know where those options disappeared off to. I always remembered it because I thought it was so considerate.

kagamine 10y ago
Installed KDE Neon yesterday (which is a distro, not a DE) and even coming from a different Linux flavor I was surprised at how easy it was to set up shortcuts in KDE. Really impressed with the quality of KDE Neon.
im_down_w_otp 10y ago
I actually got closest to my desired state in Linux using the latest Kubuntu precisely because KDE at least provided the interface and facilities to rebind pretty much all the shortcuts... at least in so far as KDE/Qt5 applications were concerned. The problem that I had was 1) it still wasn't super consistent in operation (due to the layering of control and interaction between shortcuts for the DE and for the WM), and 2) only a subset of the applications were proper KDE/Qt5 ones, and the most commonly used ones (Firefox & Chrome most decidedly didn't conform). So in the end, while I got to a 70-80% solution, there were still so many irritating exceptions so often that it almost made the situation worse. Because now I could get some applications to behave the way I wanted, but I'd still be stuck with the default shortcuts in some applications, and I ended up having to be extra vigilant of keeping track of which application I was actively using and whether or not I could use my muscle-memory or not. KDE is by far the most complete architecture for layering in and overriding keyboard shortcuts in a coherent centralized way relative to everything else I could get my hands on. I really wish that the system for doing things like that was actually an interoperability standard vis-a-vis the Freedesktop.org or something.

realusername 10y ago

I guess we come from different backgrounds, what puts me off on a mac is the inconsistency between Control and Command shortcuts which makes it even worse on a terminal app, I prefer the Linux ones.

im_down_w_otp 10y ago
I'm of exactly the opposite opinion. The fact that on the Mac (and old UNIX-proper systems) decoupled the modifier key for GUI-shortcuts (Command/Meta) from the modifier key for terminal control sequences is one of the absolute best parts of the Mac-style of shortcuts to me. It means I get to have Modifer-C and Modifier-V and Modifier-Z always do the same things no matter what program I'm in. In Linux-land I always have to do some extra finger gymnastics in the terminal. Because Ctrl-C will kill processes rather than copy text for instance. Ctrl-Z will pause a process and push it to the background rather than undo, etc.