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Every time I use desktop Linux (I've only tried Ubuntu), it's an exercise in frustration simply because cut and paste is such an incredible pain. I use cut and

Every time I use desktop Linux (I've only tried Ubuntu), it's an exercise in frustration simply because cut and paste is such an incredible pain. I use cut and paste every few minutes. The keys are not compatible with MacOS - why not? Surely this is an obvious need. I seem to recall the cut and paste keys aren't even compatible with Windows. The cut and paste doesn't even seem to work consistently across applications. Instead of just using the GUI, I have to constantly break my workflow to think about what keys I'm pressing - that's not a great way to enable switching to Linux from another OS. If cut and paste is painful then we're a long way from desktop Linux being viable for me personally. It seems such an easy thing to get right, but that's the essence of desktop Linux - 20 years down the track and the first thing you do cuts your finger. I'd be pleased to hear if some other distro has nailed this or if it's a universal issue.

kraftman 5y ago
Could you describe the issue more? I've been using ubuntu for years and I've had plenty of issues, but cut and paste isn't one of them. It behaves exactly the same as windows for me.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
xur17 5y ago
> The keys are not compatible with MacOS - why not? Surely this is an obvious need. I seem to recall the cut and paste keys aren't even compatible with Windows. The cut and paste doesn't even seem to work consistently across applications. Do you mean that they're not compatible with a macbook keyboard? control-c / x / v work fine on all of my Ubuntu computers, but I might be misunderstanding what issue you are running into.
- DarmokJalad1701 5y ago
  Now try doing that in the terminal.
  - yoyohello13 5y ago
    ctrl+shift+c / x / v
    - xur17 5y ago
      Bingo. This is the trick GP is likely looking for.
    - DarmokJalad1701 5y ago
      Does this work outside of the terminal on linux?
  - jcelerier 5y ago
    but that's the readline shortcuts which are the same no matter which Unix terminal you are using, on macOS, Linux, cygwin, git bash, WSL... https://github.com/chzyer/readline/blob/master/doc/shortcut.md https://github.com/chzyer/readline/blob/master/doc/shortcut.... I don't know if I'm an oddball but I'm switching all day long between Mac, Windows and Linux machines and I'd die if I had to use a different set of terminal shortcuts every time.
    - leafmeal 5y ago
      The terminal in JetBrains apps is smart enough to know when ctrl-c means copy and when it means abort. It's definitely a solvable problem.
- bastardoperator 5y ago
  MacOS uses cmd + c/v/x versus ctrl.
  - handrous 5y ago
    One thing I like about the Mac style for those is that there's less wrist movement (nice if you've got some RSI pain you'd rather not aggravate), and I can hit them while leaving 3 of 4 home-row fingers in place.
    - 3r8Oltr0ziouVDM 5y ago
      I've never worked on a Mac, but I have Ctrl and Alt swapped and I agree that it's much more comfortable.
    - Steltek 5y ago
      I'm not sure non-Mac systems preclude this. In fact, I never had RSI or wrist pain issues until my boss pressured me into using a MacBook. I now use a standard (= Windows) keyboard and remapped several keys. On the topic of keys, Mac users often fail to mention the reverse situation. Coming to a Mac from other environments, the keymaps are not intuitive to me and often leads to frustration, especially if you're frequently switching between work (Mac) and personal (Linux) machines.
      - handrous 5y ago
        > In fact, I never had RSI or wrist pain issues until my boss pressured me into using a MacBook. Extended (hours, over several days) trackpad use is the first thing that's ever given me serious RSI, in over 20 years of computing. I think the action of click-n-dragging is the main cause. And MacBooks are the only laptops I've used where I don't hate having to use the trackpad for more than a couple minutes, so....
teekert 5y ago
I don’t understand this comment, you can select and then middle click to paste or you can ctrl-c ctrl-v… what does not work for you? This does not sound familiar to me (a decades long Linux user).
- handrous 5y ago
  Two possible issues the poster may be encountering: 1) Copy-paste shortcuts are different in terminals, on Linux, than they are everywhere else. They are the same, on macOS. 2) Much like drag-n-drop, reasonable support for copy-paste of things that aren't plain text is less common on Linux than on macOS, and attempting it is more likely to either not work or have unexpected effects.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
willismichael 5y ago
Elementary OS is the only distro I'm aware of in which the default terminal uses C-x C-c C-v for cut, copy, and paste.
gravypod 5y ago
What about cut and paste is painful? Is it the keys it's bound to? Cut and paste for me is cntrl+x and v. If you want to change the location of this button you can configure that in Ubuntu.
- nomdep 5y ago
  But in the terminal they are mapped to Ctrl+Shift+c and Ctrl+Shift+v so the muscle memory breaks and is super annoying
nathias 5y ago
the point of linux is making it your own, take the time to customize it ...
madars 5y ago
You might be getting bitten by Linux having two clipboards https://codeyarns.com/tech/2017-01-18-the-two-clipboards-in-linux.html https://codeyarns.com/tech/2017-01-18-the-two-clipboards-in-... . If you use a clipboard manager (e.g. gpaste or parcellite) they can be configured to synchronize the two. Windows uses Control-C for copying and that will for sure not be compatible with, say, terminal emulators (hence Shift-Control-C is very common). No idea about the waffle key.
hk1337 5y ago
Fedora 35+ is the closest I have come to really enjoying Linux. Fedora always seems a lot more polished and less edgy. I cannot really get into any of the other distros for the UI. I like using Debian for all command line.
- yoyohello13 5y ago
  Same. I've tried many, many distributions. Fedora definitely feels the most polished. Ironically, I find Ubuntu to be one of the worst, and it seems to be the default most people try. (P.S. Fedora 34 is the most current released version)
- 3r8Oltr0ziouVDM 5y ago
  I've tried Fedora recently. The package manager didn't pass my stress test: 1. Did a minimal installation without a GUI. 2. Installed Gnome. 3. Installed KDE. 4. Uninstalled Gnome and KDE. The system ended up in a broken state: many important packages were deleted, I couldn't connect to the network, and the package manager stopped working.
  - mickotron 5y ago
    I tried the same in OpenSUSE, I was horrified.
MarcScott 5y ago
One of the things I actually liked about macOS was the ability to use ctrl+k and ctrl+y in almost every application (looking at you Microsoft), as that was what my muscle memory had me doing from using a terminal and emacs on Linux anyway.
jp_sc 5y ago
I complained about that for years until one day I founded you can actually remap Ctrl+C in your terminal, and the usual kill signal will still work when nothing is selected. https://jpscaletti.com/p/5/til-remap-copy https://jpscaletti.com/p/5/til-remap-copy
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
globular-toast 5y ago
Copy and paste works. 100%. You are doing something wrong. There might be subtle differences in behaviour and you might have to change settings, or get used to the new defaults. Remember, the old defaults are just something you learnt once. There's nothing special about them.
CRConrad 5y ago
> The [cut and paste] keys are not compatible with MacOS - why not? Surely this is an obvious need. "Obvious"? Typical conceited Mac user. It's not as if the Mac were dominant in the computer or OS market. > I seem to recall the cut and paste keys aren't even compatible with Windows. Depends: Your whine doesn't mention what these "incompatible" keys you're whining about actually are. If they're [Ctrl]-[Ins], [Shift]-[Ins], and [Shift]-[Del], then those are actually the Windows CUA standard ones. The silly [Ctrl]-[C|V|X] alternatives copied from Apple are not standard.

kraftman 5y ago

Could you describe the issue more? I've been using ubuntu for years and I've had plenty of issues, but cut and paste isn't one of them. It behaves exactly the same as windows for me.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

xur17 5y ago

> The keys are not compatible with MacOS - why not? Surely this is an obvious need. I seem to recall the cut and paste keys aren't even compatible with Windows. The cut and paste doesn't even seem to work consistently across applications. Do you mean that they're not compatible with a macbook keyboard? control-c / x / v work fine on all of my Ubuntu computers, but I might be misunderstanding what issue you are running into.

DarmokJalad1701 5y ago
Now try doing that in the terminal.
- yoyohello13 5y ago
  ctrl+shift+c / x / v
  - xur17 5y ago
    Bingo. This is the trick GP is likely looking for.
  - DarmokJalad1701 5y ago
    Does this work outside of the terminal on linux?
- jcelerier 5y ago
  but that's the readline shortcuts which are the same no matter which Unix terminal you are using, on macOS, Linux, cygwin, git bash, WSL... https://github.com/chzyer/readline/blob/master/doc/shortcut.md https://github.com/chzyer/readline/blob/master/doc/shortcut.... I don't know if I'm an oddball but I'm switching all day long between Mac, Windows and Linux machines and I'd die if I had to use a different set of terminal shortcuts every time.
  - leafmeal 5y ago
    The terminal in JetBrains apps is smart enough to know when ctrl-c means copy and when it means abort. It's definitely a solvable problem.
bastardoperator 5y ago
MacOS uses cmd + c/v/x versus ctrl.
- handrous 5y ago
  One thing I like about the Mac style for those is that there's less wrist movement (nice if you've got some RSI pain you'd rather not aggravate), and I can hit them while leaving 3 of 4 home-row fingers in place.
  - 3r8Oltr0ziouVDM 5y ago
    I've never worked on a Mac, but I have Ctrl and Alt swapped and I agree that it's much more comfortable.
  - Steltek 5y ago
    I'm not sure non-Mac systems preclude this. In fact, I never had RSI or wrist pain issues until my boss pressured me into using a MacBook. I now use a standard (= Windows) keyboard and remapped several keys. On the topic of keys, Mac users often fail to mention the reverse situation. Coming to a Mac from other environments, the keymaps are not intuitive to me and often leads to frustration, especially if you're frequently switching between work (Mac) and personal (Linux) machines.
    - handrous 5y ago
      > In fact, I never had RSI or wrist pain issues until my boss pressured me into using a MacBook. Extended (hours, over several days) trackpad use is the first thing that's ever given me serious RSI, in over 20 years of computing. I think the action of click-n-dragging is the main cause. And MacBooks are the only laptops I've used where I don't hate having to use the trackpad for more than a couple minutes, so....

teekert 5y ago

I don’t understand this comment, you can select and then middle click to paste or you can ctrl-c ctrl-v… what does not work for you? This does not sound familiar to me (a decades long Linux user).

handrous 5y ago
Two possible issues the poster may be encountering: 1) Copy-paste shortcuts are different in terminals, on Linux, than they are everywhere else. They are the same, on macOS. 2) Much like drag-n-drop, reasonable support for copy-paste of things that aren't plain text is less common on Linux than on macOS, and attempting it is more likely to either not work or have unexpected effects.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

willismichael 5y ago

Elementary OS is the only distro I'm aware of in which the default terminal uses C-x C-c C-v for cut, copy, and paste.

gravypod 5y ago

What about cut and paste is painful? Is it the keys it's bound to? Cut and paste for me is cntrl+x and v. If you want to change the location of this button you can configure that in Ubuntu.

nomdep 5y ago
But in the terminal they are mapped to Ctrl+Shift+c and Ctrl+Shift+v so the muscle memory breaks and is super annoying

nathias 5y ago

the point of linux is making it your own, take the time to customize it ...

madars 5y ago

You might be getting bitten by Linux having two clipboards https://codeyarns.com/tech/2017-01-18-the-two-clipboards-in-linux.html https://codeyarns.com/tech/2017-01-18-the-two-clipboards-in-... . If you use a clipboard manager (e.g. gpaste or parcellite) they can be configured to synchronize the two. Windows uses Control-C for copying and that will for sure not be compatible with, say, terminal emulators (hence Shift-Control-C is very common). No idea about the waffle key.

hk1337 5y ago

Fedora 35+ is the closest I have come to really enjoying Linux. Fedora always seems a lot more polished and less edgy. I cannot really get into any of the other distros for the UI. I like using Debian for all command line.

yoyohello13 5y ago
Same. I've tried many, many distributions. Fedora definitely feels the most polished. Ironically, I find Ubuntu to be one of the worst, and it seems to be the default most people try. (P.S. Fedora 34 is the most current released version)
3r8Oltr0ziouVDM 5y ago
I've tried Fedora recently. The package manager didn't pass my stress test: 1. Did a minimal installation without a GUI. 2. Installed Gnome. 3. Installed KDE. 4. Uninstalled Gnome and KDE. The system ended up in a broken state: many important packages were deleted, I couldn't connect to the network, and the package manager stopped working.
- mickotron 5y ago
  I tried the same in OpenSUSE, I was horrified.

MarcScott 5y ago

One of the things I actually liked about macOS was the ability to use ctrl+k and ctrl+y in almost every application (looking at you Microsoft), as that was what my muscle memory had me doing from using a terminal and emacs on Linux anyway.

jp_sc 5y ago

I complained about that for years until one day I founded you can actually remap Ctrl+C in your terminal, and the usual kill signal will still work when nothing is selected. https://jpscaletti.com/p/5/til-remap-copy https://jpscaletti.com/p/5/til-remap-copy

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

globular-toast 5y ago

Copy and paste works. 100%. You are doing something wrong. There might be subtle differences in behaviour and you might have to change settings, or get used to the new defaults. Remember, the old defaults are just something you learnt once. There's nothing special about them.

CRConrad 5y ago

> The [cut and paste] keys are not compatible with MacOS - why not? Surely this is an obvious need. "Obvious"? Typical conceited Mac user. It's not as if the Mac were dominant in the computer or OS market. > I seem to recall the cut and paste keys aren't even compatible with Windows. Depends: Your whine doesn't mention what these "incompatible" keys you're whining about actually are. If they're [Ctrl]-[Ins], [Shift]-[Ins], and [Shift]-[Del], then those are actually the Windows CUA standard ones. The silly [Ctrl]-[C|V|X] alternatives copied from Apple are not standard.