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Most Windows PC users are unaware of the use of either the Windows key or the contextual menu key, and some PC hardware makers refused to add the keys to their

by there 16y ago

Most Windows PC users are unaware of the use of either the Windows key or the contextual menu key, and some PC hardware makers refused to add the keys to their keyboards, the most notable being IBM. i seem to recall ibm refusing to do this because of the old windows/os/2 warp battle. as soon as lenovo bought ibm's thinkpad line, they started putting windows keys on the keyboards.

Kadin 16y ago
That doesn't make a ton of sense; late-model IBM (consumer) computers were clearly designed to run Windows. While there may be people still bitter about the OS/2 thing, I think the company as a whole has moved on. I think that IBM's engineers just thought that the Windows key was dumb, something that users were unlikely to care about or miss, and not worth redesigning their keyboards for. So they didn't. Given that the keyboards on some IBM products (esp. Thinkpads) were one of their defining features, I can't blame them for not wanting to mess around with it. Personally I'm in favor of more modifier keys on keyboards, just generally; although the Windows key is lame in the sense that it's underutilized and gauche (putting the Windows logo on it), it's nice to have 3 modifiers on a keyboard in addition to shift. (Plus any hardware modifiers that you need to simulate a full 101 keys on a laptop.)
- glhaynes 16y ago
  The Windows key came into being around Windows 95, right when Windows and OS/2 were at the height of competition. IBM didn't implement it then (while most of the rest of the industry did) and then, even once OS/2 was dead, just never got around to making the change.
m0nastic 16y ago
I doubt that's why they didn't put a Windows key on their keyboards. Maybe it was a licensing issue (as Microsoft required keyboard manufacturers to license the key), or maybe it was something else, but I'd be surprised if they held out that long over OS2. For me, the Windows key was always known more colloquially as the "crash CounterStrike" key.

by there 16y ago

Kadin 16y ago

That doesn't make a ton of sense; late-model IBM (consumer) computers were clearly designed to run Windows. While there may be people still bitter about the OS/2 thing, I think the company as a whole has moved on. I think that IBM's engineers just thought that the Windows key was dumb, something that users were unlikely to care about or miss, and not worth redesigning their keyboards for. So they didn't. Given that the keyboards on some IBM products (esp. Thinkpads) were one of their defining features, I can't blame them for not wanting to mess around with it. Personally I'm in favor of more modifier keys on keyboards, just generally; although the Windows key is lame in the sense that it's underutilized and gauche (putting the Windows logo on it), it's nice to have 3 modifiers on a keyboard in addition to shift. (Plus any hardware modifiers that you need to simulate a full 101 keys on a laptop.)

glhaynes 16y ago
The Windows key came into being around Windows 95, right when Windows and OS/2 were at the height of competition. IBM didn't implement it then (while most of the rest of the industry did) and then, even once OS/2 was dead, just never got around to making the change.

m0nastic 16y ago

I doubt that's why they didn't put a Windows key on their keyboards. Maybe it was a licensing issue (as Microsoft required keyboard manufacturers to license the key), or maybe it was something else, but I'd be surprised if they held out that long over OS2. For me, the Windows key was always known more colloquially as the "crash CounterStrike" key.