On Windows (which I left almost two decades ago) the keyboard has always been a nightmare. Typing Alt+126 may solve the issue with tilde, but you can't possibly

On Windows (which I left almost two decades ago) the keyboard has always been a nightmare. Typing Alt+126 may solve the issue with tilde, but you can't possibly learn tens or hundreds of codes you might need if you happen to do any significant work on the keyboard. The Character map provides some relief, but the keyboard is a second-class citizen on Windows IMHO. On Linux, quite comfortably, thanks to the power of Alt modifiers (which I first got acquainted with on the Amiga), tilde is just Alt+"ì". BTW I don't have to recall ASCII codes of accented characters or leave the keyboard unless I have to type some really odd ones. I just type Alt+<accent symbol>. Thus I can type foreign words like Åland or Khazad-dûm in a fraction of a second with ease from the comfort of my keyboard... Würstels, crême caramel... È facile. Yes "È". Italian users on Windows always have issues typing uppercase accented characters... you can easily spot Italian Linux users by their uppercase text: PERCHÈ È COSÌ FACILE? Most (Windows) users will instead type: PERCHè è COSì. The most intrepid ones might even resort to "'" - PERCHE' E' COSI'. So sad. My ~2 cents.