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All I want in life is a Linux distro with a package repo full of meticulously reworked & reconfigured packages that make all the keyboard shortcuts across the e

All I want in life is a Linux distro with a package repo full of meticulously reworked & reconfigured packages that make all the keyboard shortcuts across the entire system and every application be like and be as consistent as my old Macs. I've been full-time Linux (Kubuntu) for a few years now, and I've hobbled together something that only irritates me to death about 30% of the time rather than the 100% of the time it used to before spending days and days fiddling with a bunch of different flavors of remapping at nearly every layer of the system. If I'm ever fabulously wealthy, I already know I'm just going to finance an open source fastidious spiritual successor to MacOS 10.6 I'm going to give Pop_Os a try, but I suspect I'm going to run into the same problems I always do. The trouble with Linux as a desktop for me isn't weather it's beautiful or not. The problem is how disintegrated everything is and the thousand papercuts ways in which it works. That said, I absolutely consider it basically an incredible miracle that the experience is as good as it is, frankly. So, I keep at it.

johndoughy 5y ago
Couldn't agree more about consistent keyboard shortcuts. It's crazy to me that mere copy/paste doesn't have a consistent keyboard shortcut across the system (eg terminal uses ctrl-shift-c or something). And if copy/paste isn't consistent, there's little hope for other shortcuts.
- pessimizer 5y ago
  Ctrl-C is a break signal. When you're in the UI, ctrl-c, ctrl-x, and ctrl-v work like you would expect. How do you send a break on a mac terminal? I didn't think it was any different.
  - kitsunesoba 5y ago
    Ctrl-C is break on mac terminals too, but it’s not a problem since for Mac applications the primary modifier is command — so instead or Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V for copy and paste, it’s Cmd-C and Cmd-V for everything, including the terminal.
  - TacticalCoder 5y ago
    > Ctrl-C is a break signal and you can change that if you want in your terminal emulator. I modified some of my xterm's defaults using stty (I didn't change ctrl-c though, but you can change it).
- rbreaves 5y ago
- bmn__ 5y ago
  Not a problem in KDE.
somenewaccount1 5y ago
Lol. I came here to say the only thing that matters is that copy and paste in Linux is 'cntrl+shift+c'. You can try changing it, but your still fucked in most terminals, and then you end up with two key combos depending on context. It's a nightmare, and I'm really glad you have the top comment. Clearly I'm not alone.
- howdydoo 5y ago
  Are there any apps other than terminals that don't use ctrl-c? I can forgive that in a terminal app because it conflicts with SIGINT, but it would be very weird if a normal app like vscode did it differently.
  - GekkePrutser 5y ago
    Not really no. It seems to be only terminals. Mind you, Mac has a similar annoyance with its command-C/V. If you work with Linux (+BSD) , Windows and Mac every day, as I do, be prepared to be frustrated a LOT. I'd love if keyboards just had dedicated keys for this. It's used enough to warrant them (much more than other obscure functions like SysRq that do get their own key, or Apple's 19 function keys). I guess this is because I'm the DOS single task days there wasn't much of a need for copying and pasting.
  - medo-bear 5y ago
    alt+w is ctrl+c in emacs. moreover you can enable emacs-like key bindings in most terminals so alt+w can work there too without conflict
  - somenewaccount1 5y ago
    You would think, but I'm a sys admin and 1) live in the terminal. 2) copy and paste to/from the terminal often 3) do not like accidentally cancelling a command when I just meant to copy something.
- xedrac 5y ago
  Why bother implementing ctrl+c and ctrl+v in Linux when highlighting text copies it, and middle click pastes it? Ctrl+c feels like the dark ages in comparison.
twarge 5y ago
For me, getting the keybindings right is the killer feature Elementary OS provides. Sadly it doesn't actually install on any of the old MacBooks I have, so I don't actually use it.
- spindle 5y ago
  How old are your MacBooks? It works fine on a pre-Retina 2012 MacBook Pro.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
askvictor 5y ago
Having recently moved back to Linux (PopOS) from Windows, the one biggest annoyance is not being able to configure two-finger touchpad swipe to be browser back/forward. This is the default in Mac, easily configurable in Windows (perhaps it's the default?), and default in ChromeOS. But simply not an option in any Linux I've tried. The Epiphany Browser does it, but that lacks extension support so is a no-go for me. Any extensions or workarounds I've tried only support three-finger swipes. So, along with consistent keyboard shortcuts, I'd like to add consistent and configurable mouse/trackball actions (some apps scrollwheel goes up/down, others it zooms, some support pinch zoom, some don't).
- commoner 5y ago
  Touchpad gestures for Linux apps are being worked on: - Latest update (December 2021): https://www.gitclear.com/blog/linux_touchpad_update_december_2021 https://www.gitclear.com/blog/linux_touchpad_update_december... - HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29555822 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29555822 So far, pinch-to-zoom has been implemented in Firefox. (If you are using X11 instead of Wayland, then the environment variable MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1 needs to be set.) Gestures for back/forward navigation have not been implemented yet (Firefox Bugzilla issue: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1539730 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1539730). The project aims to support gestures in other Linux apps, too. If you would like to help fund this project, the developer has a GitHub sponsor page here: https://github.com/sponsors/gitclear https://github.com/sponsors/gitclear
  - askvictor 5y ago
    What I don't quite get is why this needs a project; it just needs configuration options; for example, two-finger swipes currently map to mouse buttons (buttons 6 and 7 for left/right swiping) which most apps interpret as scrolling (in every direction). I'm about to write a script to remap those to browser back and browser forward actions (after a delay to prevent repeated actions), but I'm so surprised it's not baked into the desktop environment. But thanks for the link, I'll check it out
    - 5y ago
_fzslm 5y ago
yup yup yup. i would pack my bags from Mac land and move to that distro right away. (if i had adobe too, lol…) having a global menu interface that presents a uniform structure for navigating applications to the end user with sane default keyboard shortcuts (but universally configurable) would be a -game changer- it also opens the doors to novel ideas up like Command Palette-like UX paradigms. imagine changing the resolution of a graphic document with about ten keystrokes, and being able to work so seamlessly in all of your apps! it’s almost like a universal command interface that works in GUI apps… okay, maybe i’m getting ahead of myself. > If I'm ever fabulously wealthy, I already know I'm just going to finance an open source fastidious spiritual successor to MacOS 10.6 i, for one, root for your financial success ;)
- kitsunesoba 5y ago
  The global menubar is such a big thing for me that it’s tempting to try to maintain forks of various things that ensure that global menubars like those in KDE and XFCE (w/extension) work properly — that is, the menubar in the app window hides (if present) and in apps that don’t have a menubar normally (like GNOME stuff) also populate global menubars.
  - _fzslm 5y ago
    unfortunately the line of work i’m in demands i have immediate access to Adobe CC, which is notoriously borked on linux thru wine (for now!) if and whenever i’m able to make the jump though, i would absolutely love to do the same. i would love to help organise and coordinate efforts towards it
- intothemild 5y ago
  I think you'd like Gnome. Im a former Mac person and I really like it. Ticks all the boxes you've just said.
  - _fzslm 5y ago
    i love Gnome and it’s always my choice when i’m in Linux land (40 was a great step forward, with a much more elegant virtual desktop workflow for one) but as far as i can see, there’s no universal interface for global menus (that is exposed on the UI anyway, there may well be something exposed on dbus…) incidentally, KDE apps sometimes do expose global menus, and there is a shell extension for this on Gnome, but it didn’t work in 40 last i checked. but yes, it is the perfect jumping point for the kind of workflow i desire :)
taeric 5y ago
I find this funny, in that I struggle with Mac all the time. The worst grievance lately is that I don't know how to just pop back and forth between three windows. Something about the way command tab works just kills my ability to reason about what the window stack currently is. And, for the life of me, I never get copy paste from a terminal to work like I want it to.
- vosper 5y ago
  You might like to try rcmd? No affiliation, and I’ll add that it didn’t work on my external MS Natural keyboard, so I stopped using it. But I like the idea. Perhaps it would work for you? https://lowtechguys.com/rcmd/ https://lowtechguys.com/rcmd/
- TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
  Window switching on mac has always driven me mad. I cut my teeth on windows so that is probably why. Why can’t one switch between windows of the same application on MacOS with a modifier+tab combination?
  - ladberg 5y ago
    It's Cmd-`, which is close enough to tab that I find it very handy
- Steltek 5y ago
  Headed in the other direction (Linux at home to Mac at work) for years now, I can't understand what the fuss is about with Mac keyboard shortcuts. In my experience, I don't find them consistent, useful, or pleasant to use. You hit the nail on the head with alt-tab. alt-tab is universal. Hell, alt-tab works on Android if you hook up a keyboard to it. Mac is the only thing where alt-tab falls on its face. Even if you remind yourself that you're on Mac and use cmd-tab, it cycles between apps, not windows. You need to use cmd-` for that. I often find myself in a cycle of using 3 windows across 2 apps and it drives me bonkers.
  - saurik 5y ago
spindle 5y ago
best comment ever (well, to be more precise, best consumer software comment ever)
spindle 5y ago
Why doesn't someone use kmonad or libinput or something to make a utility that holds a database of the most-used applications and, whenever the user focuses a window, remaps the keyboard to some set of consistent system-wide bindings? I don't think that exists, does it? EXWM comes close, but it doesn't have the database. I know, I know, I just said "someone" when I should do it myself.
- rbreaves 5y ago
  There are 3 options here. https://github.com/mooz/xkeysnail https://github.com/mooz/xkeysnail https://github.com/k0kubun/xremap https://github.com/k0kubun/xremap https://github.com/autokey/autokey https://github.com/autokey/autokey My advice is to skip the last one unless you need something truly complicated and a config syntax that is just insane regardless of your level of complexity imo. Of course if you just want mac based keybinds to be done for you then use my kinto app. https://github.com/rbreaves/kinto https://github.com/rbreaves/kinto
  - Fnoord 5y ago
    I use AutoHotKey in Wine, and that works for me.
    - rbreaves 5y ago
      Really? I’ve never seriously considered trying AHK in wine.. just kinda assume that won’t work lol. Am curious now how well that works via xrdp then as xkeysnail & other uinput methods don’t.
      - Fnoord 5y ago
        Let me describe you my use case and workflow. It works within the Wine bottle. My AHK setup is IIRC 1:1 from Windows and does check for window titles, I did not verify it works on Linux applications (I do need to verify this given the IIRC). So what I have is I run WoW within Wine, and then I run within the same Wine bottle AHK (I use repeater features so I don't have to mash buttons ie. not for botting). Unfortunately the latency feels noticeably worse and it also feels I have lower FPS than native Windows plus WoW plus AHK so I run it now in Proxmox + Windows + AHK as passthrough. For WoW addons I use a CLI Python tool called CurseBreaker which uses Curseforge API though Curse got sold to Overwolf and they are closing the API to push their proprietary app (in past, Curse would work in Wine I suppose Overwolf would, too). I also use FirefoxPWA to run Netflix/Prime/Disney+ on Windows which should work on Linux as well. I might retry how the latency is. Cause I do prefer a Linux desktop like Sway or Gnome over Windows though with Powertoys, Windows Terminal, Scoop, and perhaps your tool etc it becomes bearable. (I use macOS as daily driver.) FWIW, I adapted my AHK script to FFXIV which I recently started playing and on Proxmox + Windows it works. No idea if and how well (latency) it would work on native Windows or native Linux. The killer for me is if/when my mouse doesn't work well enough or latency spikes if video card, so I ended up for the Proxmox setup to use PCIe Aorus NVMe card with two NVMe in RAID0 instead of SATA or PCIe. Now it works reasonably well. I think its related to my board having 20 PCIe lanes, 16 of which used for GPU. But we've come a long way I/O wise for PC (x86-32). On another note, Blizzard might ban me for Proxmox usage since they changed policy when GeForce Now became a thing (they never did for AHK and I used it for about 10 years now, some of which I played the game intensive but they did do banwaves). Who knows what Square Enix policy is going to be. If they ban me I will appeal, tell them my setup, show them my script, and that I have a swollen nerve on my hand (work related injury). If a human reads it and believes me, at least they'll shake tbeir head concerning their policy. Or so I hope. On macOS I use Hammerspoon and Karabiner Elements but that machine isn't used for gaming. Similar tools, different purpose. Though I do always rebind caps lock...
eitland 5y ago
> and be as consistent as my old Macs. Would it help if I point out that this is just rose tinted glasses? ;-) Or at least, when I used Mac full time back in 2009 - 2012, it was the least consistent thing I ever used: even such basic shortcuts as moving a word forward or backwards was inconsistent. Same with home/end: in one app it would be CMD + arrow left/right, in another it would be fn + arrow left/right. In Safari CMD + left meant back which kind of made sense but was hugely annoying when I filed out a web form in Oracle Enterprise Manager or something, wanted to select to the start of the line and ended up leaving the form, discarding half an hours work. (Yes, bad web application. Feel free to tell Oracle that.) That said, I kind of like Apple when they aren't messing up keyboards physically or logically and aren't busy snooping in my pictures. I've convinced my wife to use iPhone and switched most of my kids phones to iPhones and even use one myself and have bought a Mac mini lately - it is good as long as one can take it slowly, one careful step at a time - definitely not something I'd want to deal with in anger or if my life or the customers data depend on it. And consistent - it is not!
- nickcox 5y ago
  It's been a while since I used a Mac but my recollection is that the same Emacs style key bindings were available for all text fields pretty much without exception. https://jblevins.org/log/kbd https://jblevins.org/log/kbd
  - eitland 5y ago
    Thanks, this might come in useful at some point. That said, on Windows and in Linux this is extremely much simpler and more consistent, I can write it down right here and now, it doesn't need a full web page: arrow keys: move ctrl + arrow left/right: move left/right to next word boundary. shift + arrow left/right: select a character to the left/right. ctrl + shift + arrow left/right: select to next word boundary.
    - throwaway675309 5y ago
      There's a pretty popular macOS key bindings file that remaps shortcuts to be more in line with what you would find on a Windows machine particularly with respect to word boundaries and text editing, which is pretty much a must install on any new Mac for me.
meremortals 5y ago
https://github.com/rbreaves/kinto https://github.com/rbreaves/kinto comes close for keyboard shortcuts
- heavyset_go 5y ago
  Came here to post this. The developer seems to take macOS keyboard shortcuts on Linux seriously.
  - rbreaves 5y ago
    I do. Guilty as charged.
- rbreaves 5y ago
  Thanks for the mention. Am a little surprised they wouldn't list it. I know mmstick at Pop_OS! is aware of it because I mentioned it to him at some point when I felt it had become mature enough. Although it really is not properly packaged into a deb install file just yet, been a bit busy, but also just trying to make heavy use of my own app for my own dev purposes as well without doing daily or weekly development on Kinto at this point. (I have made over 1,000 commits in a 2yr span just on Kinto. Even went from it being written in C to Python.) I suspect once I package it properly and make it available in various repos and app stores that it will get more coverage. Also Kinto is feature complete as far as I am concerned, only changes that happen now are mostly minor. May do a rewrite of some parts of it to make updates go smoother and allow users to retain their own changes easier but no major functionality changes or additions are planned at this time.
- firecall 5y ago
  Huge upvote for Kinto! Works flawlessly on Windows and Ubuntu for me :-) Makes life worth living! ;-)
zamalek 5y ago
I watched a pretty old Q&A with Linus, and he called out distros for breaking "app space" all the time as the main reason why the Linux Desktop hasn't happened. I think he's definitely identified one of the bigger issues (but not all of them). NixOS, by accident or intention, inherently circumvents this problem. It also has actual non-existent UX: you need to manage your own home-manager configs (for now, I want to change that). The maintainers have put good effort into being able to express tons of preferences in your nixfile (to the degree of Firefox plugins). You may get nerdsniped by it.
rbreaves 5y ago
Could try my Sorun.me script.. built for Ubuntu Budgie and installs a lot of dev goodies (can be read in a basic yaml config file before installing) and yes consistent shortcuts from my meticulously built Kinto.sh app. https://github.com/rbreaves/sorun https://github.com/rbreaves/sorun Have fun!!! The config file for the curious. https://github.com/rbreaves/sorun/blob/main/configs/ubuntu_budgie.yaml https://github.com/rbreaves/sorun/blob/main/configs/ubuntu_b...
michaelmrose 5y ago
I haven't tried but it seems like you could use a keybinding daemon to effectively remap any application by changing layer in response to window focus changes. See Ktrl + alt or Kmonad https://github.com/ItayGarin/ktrl https://github.com/ItayGarin/ktrl https://github.com/ItayGarin/alt https://github.com/ItayGarin/alt https://github.com/kmonad/kmonad https://github.com/kmonad/kmonad KDE apps are also universally very remappable
rtpg 5y ago
My strategy has been to stick to everything Gnome on Ubuntu. In gnome tweaks you can even turn on ctrl-a and ctrl-e! Everything feels consistent Really wish Linux followed macs example of using super instead of ctrl for copy/paste/etc in general though…
- toastal 5y ago
  Many window managers, especially tiling, use super key extensively for shortcuts. This feels more like an acquired taste/habit than anything. Making applination-level shortcuts follow Windows make more sense for onboarding. Many keyboards have dip switches to swap the keys if you really cared.
  - rtpg 5y ago
    I just disagree on this front, at least as a power user. Mac is able to have window manager shortcuts as well!! The problem is that I want to have copy/paste and I want to have my emacs-style movement keys, but because of Linux DMs choosing to use the same key for both we end up with ctrl-shift-c
firecall 5y ago
Kinto is the best solution I've found for a Mac keyboard and key-bindings on both Linux and Windows!

johndoughy 5y ago

Couldn't agree more about consistent keyboard shortcuts. It's crazy to me that mere copy/paste doesn't have a consistent keyboard shortcut across the system (eg terminal uses ctrl-shift-c or something). And if copy/paste isn't consistent, there's little hope for other shortcuts.

pessimizer 5y ago
Ctrl-C is a break signal. When you're in the UI, ctrl-c, ctrl-x, and ctrl-v work like you would expect. How do you send a break on a mac terminal? I didn't think it was any different.
- kitsunesoba 5y ago
  Ctrl-C is break on mac terminals too, but it’s not a problem since for Mac applications the primary modifier is command — so instead or Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V for copy and paste, it’s Cmd-C and Cmd-V for everything, including the terminal.
- TacticalCoder 5y ago
  > Ctrl-C is a break signal and you can change that if you want in your terminal emulator. I modified some of my xterm's defaults using stty (I didn't change ctrl-c though, but you can change it).
rbreaves 5y ago
bmn__ 5y ago
Not a problem in KDE.

somenewaccount1 5y ago

Lol. I came here to say the only thing that matters is that copy and paste in Linux is 'cntrl+shift+c'. You can try changing it, but your still fucked in most terminals, and then you end up with two key combos depending on context. It's a nightmare, and I'm really glad you have the top comment. Clearly I'm not alone.

howdydoo 5y ago
Are there any apps other than terminals that don't use ctrl-c? I can forgive that in a terminal app because it conflicts with SIGINT, but it would be very weird if a normal app like vscode did it differently.
- GekkePrutser 5y ago
  Not really no. It seems to be only terminals. Mind you, Mac has a similar annoyance with its command-C/V. If you work with Linux (+BSD) , Windows and Mac every day, as I do, be prepared to be frustrated a LOT. I'd love if keyboards just had dedicated keys for this. It's used enough to warrant them (much more than other obscure functions like SysRq that do get their own key, or Apple's 19 function keys). I guess this is because I'm the DOS single task days there wasn't much of a need for copying and pasting.
- medo-bear 5y ago
  alt+w is ctrl+c in emacs. moreover you can enable emacs-like key bindings in most terminals so alt+w can work there too without conflict
- somenewaccount1 5y ago
  You would think, but I'm a sys admin and 1) live in the terminal. 2) copy and paste to/from the terminal often 3) do not like accidentally cancelling a command when I just meant to copy something.
xedrac 5y ago
Why bother implementing ctrl+c and ctrl+v in Linux when highlighting text copies it, and middle click pastes it? Ctrl+c feels like the dark ages in comparison.

twarge 5y ago

For me, getting the keybindings right is the killer feature Elementary OS provides. Sadly it doesn't actually install on any of the old MacBooks I have, so I don't actually use it.

spindle 5y ago
How old are your MacBooks? It works fine on a pre-Retina 2012 MacBook Pro.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

askvictor 5y ago

Having recently moved back to Linux (PopOS) from Windows, the one biggest annoyance is not being able to configure two-finger touchpad swipe to be browser back/forward. This is the default in Mac, easily configurable in Windows (perhaps it's the default?), and default in ChromeOS. But simply not an option in any Linux I've tried. The Epiphany Browser does it, but that lacks extension support so is a no-go for me. Any extensions or workarounds I've tried only support three-finger swipes. So, along with consistent keyboard shortcuts, I'd like to add consistent and configurable mouse/trackball actions (some apps scrollwheel goes up/down, others it zooms, some support pinch zoom, some don't).

commoner 5y ago
Touchpad gestures for Linux apps are being worked on: - Latest update (December 2021): https://www.gitclear.com/blog/linux_touchpad_update_december_2021 https://www.gitclear.com/blog/linux_touchpad_update_december... - HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29555822 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29555822 So far, pinch-to-zoom has been implemented in Firefox. (If you are using X11 instead of Wayland, then the environment variable MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1 needs to be set.) Gestures for back/forward navigation have not been implemented yet (Firefox Bugzilla issue: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1539730 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1539730). The project aims to support gestures in other Linux apps, too. If you would like to help fund this project, the developer has a GitHub sponsor page here: https://github.com/sponsors/gitclear https://github.com/sponsors/gitclear
- askvictor 5y ago
  What I don't quite get is why this needs a project; it just needs configuration options; for example, two-finger swipes currently map to mouse buttons (buttons 6 and 7 for left/right swiping) which most apps interpret as scrolling (in every direction). I'm about to write a script to remap those to browser back and browser forward actions (after a delay to prevent repeated actions), but I'm so surprised it's not baked into the desktop environment. But thanks for the link, I'll check it out
  - 5y ago

_fzslm 5y ago

yup yup yup. i would pack my bags from Mac land and move to that distro right away. (if i had adobe too, lol…) having a global menu interface that presents a uniform structure for navigating applications to the end user with sane default keyboard shortcuts (but universally configurable) would be a -game changer- it also opens the doors to novel ideas up like Command Palette-like UX paradigms. imagine changing the resolution of a graphic document with about ten keystrokes, and being able to work so seamlessly in all of your apps! it’s almost like a universal command interface that works in GUI apps… okay, maybe i’m getting ahead of myself. > If I'm ever fabulously wealthy, I already know I'm just going to finance an open source fastidious spiritual successor to MacOS 10.6 i, for one, root for your financial success ;)

kitsunesoba 5y ago
The global menubar is such a big thing for me that it’s tempting to try to maintain forks of various things that ensure that global menubars like those in KDE and XFCE (w/extension) work properly — that is, the menubar in the app window hides (if present) and in apps that don’t have a menubar normally (like GNOME stuff) also populate global menubars.
- _fzslm 5y ago
  unfortunately the line of work i’m in demands i have immediate access to Adobe CC, which is notoriously borked on linux thru wine (for now!) if and whenever i’m able to make the jump though, i would absolutely love to do the same. i would love to help organise and coordinate efforts towards it
intothemild 5y ago
I think you'd like Gnome. Im a former Mac person and I really like it. Ticks all the boxes you've just said.
- _fzslm 5y ago
  i love Gnome and it’s always my choice when i’m in Linux land (40 was a great step forward, with a much more elegant virtual desktop workflow for one) but as far as i can see, there’s no universal interface for global menus (that is exposed on the UI anyway, there may well be something exposed on dbus…) incidentally, KDE apps sometimes do expose global menus, and there is a shell extension for this on Gnome, but it didn’t work in 40 last i checked. but yes, it is the perfect jumping point for the kind of workflow i desire :)

taeric 5y ago

I find this funny, in that I struggle with Mac all the time. The worst grievance lately is that I don't know how to just pop back and forth between three windows. Something about the way command tab works just kills my ability to reason about what the window stack currently is. And, for the life of me, I never get copy paste from a terminal to work like I want it to.

vosper 5y ago
You might like to try rcmd? No affiliation, and I’ll add that it didn’t work on my external MS Natural keyboard, so I stopped using it. But I like the idea. Perhaps it would work for you? https://lowtechguys.com/rcmd/ https://lowtechguys.com/rcmd/
TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
Window switching on mac has always driven me mad. I cut my teeth on windows so that is probably why. Why can’t one switch between windows of the same application on MacOS with a modifier+tab combination?
- ladberg 5y ago
  It's Cmd-`, which is close enough to tab that I find it very handy
Steltek 5y ago
Headed in the other direction (Linux at home to Mac at work) for years now, I can't understand what the fuss is about with Mac keyboard shortcuts. In my experience, I don't find them consistent, useful, or pleasant to use. You hit the nail on the head with alt-tab. alt-tab is universal. Hell, alt-tab works on Android if you hook up a keyboard to it. Mac is the only thing where alt-tab falls on its face. Even if you remind yourself that you're on Mac and use cmd-tab, it cycles between apps, not windows. You need to use cmd-` for that. I often find myself in a cycle of using 3 windows across 2 apps and it drives me bonkers.
- saurik 5y ago

spindle 5y ago

best comment ever (well, to be more precise, best consumer software comment ever)

spindle 5y ago

Why doesn't someone use kmonad or libinput or something to make a utility that holds a database of the most-used applications and, whenever the user focuses a window, remaps the keyboard to some set of consistent system-wide bindings? I don't think that exists, does it? EXWM comes close, but it doesn't have the database. I know, I know, I just said "someone" when I should do it myself.

rbreaves 5y ago
There are 3 options here. https://github.com/mooz/xkeysnail https://github.com/mooz/xkeysnail https://github.com/k0kubun/xremap https://github.com/k0kubun/xremap https://github.com/autokey/autokey https://github.com/autokey/autokey My advice is to skip the last one unless you need something truly complicated and a config syntax that is just insane regardless of your level of complexity imo. Of course if you just want mac based keybinds to be done for you then use my kinto app. https://github.com/rbreaves/kinto https://github.com/rbreaves/kinto
- Fnoord 5y ago
  I use AutoHotKey in Wine, and that works for me.
  - rbreaves 5y ago
    Really? I’ve never seriously considered trying AHK in wine.. just kinda assume that won’t work lol. Am curious now how well that works via xrdp then as xkeysnail & other uinput methods don’t.
    - Fnoord 5y ago
      Let me describe you my use case and workflow. It works within the Wine bottle. My AHK setup is IIRC 1:1 from Windows and does check for window titles, I did not verify it works on Linux applications (I do need to verify this given the IIRC). So what I have is I run WoW within Wine, and then I run within the same Wine bottle AHK (I use repeater features so I don't have to mash buttons ie. not for botting). Unfortunately the latency feels noticeably worse and it also feels I have lower FPS than native Windows plus WoW plus AHK so I run it now in Proxmox + Windows + AHK as passthrough. For WoW addons I use a CLI Python tool called CurseBreaker which uses Curseforge API though Curse got sold to Overwolf and they are closing the API to push their proprietary app (in past, Curse would work in Wine I suppose Overwolf would, too). I also use FirefoxPWA to run Netflix/Prime/Disney+ on Windows which should work on Linux as well. I might retry how the latency is. Cause I do prefer a Linux desktop like Sway or Gnome over Windows though with Powertoys, Windows Terminal, Scoop, and perhaps your tool etc it becomes bearable. (I use macOS as daily driver.) FWIW, I adapted my AHK script to FFXIV which I recently started playing and on Proxmox + Windows it works. No idea if and how well (latency) it would work on native Windows or native Linux. The killer for me is if/when my mouse doesn't work well enough or latency spikes if video card, so I ended up for the Proxmox setup to use PCIe Aorus NVMe card with two NVMe in RAID0 instead of SATA or PCIe. Now it works reasonably well. I think its related to my board having 20 PCIe lanes, 16 of which used for GPU. But we've come a long way I/O wise for PC (x86-32). On another note, Blizzard might ban me for Proxmox usage since they changed policy when GeForce Now became a thing (they never did for AHK and I used it for about 10 years now, some of which I played the game intensive but they did do banwaves). Who knows what Square Enix policy is going to be. If they ban me I will appeal, tell them my setup, show them my script, and that I have a swollen nerve on my hand (work related injury). If a human reads it and believes me, at least they'll shake tbeir head concerning their policy. Or so I hope. On macOS I use Hammerspoon and Karabiner Elements but that machine isn't used for gaming. Similar tools, different purpose. Though I do always rebind caps lock...

eitland 5y ago

> and be as consistent as my old Macs. Would it help if I point out that this is just rose tinted glasses? ;-) Or at least, when I used Mac full time back in 2009 - 2012, it was the least consistent thing I ever used: even such basic shortcuts as moving a word forward or backwards was inconsistent. Same with home/end: in one app it would be CMD + arrow left/right, in another it would be fn + arrow left/right. In Safari CMD + left meant back which kind of made sense but was hugely annoying when I filed out a web form in Oracle Enterprise Manager or something, wanted to select to the start of the line and ended up leaving the form, discarding half an hours work. (Yes, bad web application. Feel free to tell Oracle that.) That said, I kind of like Apple when they aren't messing up keyboards physically or logically and aren't busy snooping in my pictures. I've convinced my wife to use iPhone and switched most of my kids phones to iPhones and even use one myself and have bought a Mac mini lately - it is good as long as one can take it slowly, one careful step at a time - definitely not something I'd want to deal with in anger or if my life or the customers data depend on it. And consistent - it is not!

nickcox 5y ago
It's been a while since I used a Mac but my recollection is that the same Emacs style key bindings were available for all text fields pretty much without exception. https://jblevins.org/log/kbd https://jblevins.org/log/kbd
- eitland 5y ago
  Thanks, this might come in useful at some point. That said, on Windows and in Linux this is extremely much simpler and more consistent, I can write it down right here and now, it doesn't need a full web page: arrow keys: move ctrl + arrow left/right: move left/right to next word boundary. shift + arrow left/right: select a character to the left/right. ctrl + shift + arrow left/right: select to next word boundary.
  - throwaway675309 5y ago
    There's a pretty popular macOS key bindings file that remaps shortcuts to be more in line with what you would find on a Windows machine particularly with respect to word boundaries and text editing, which is pretty much a must install on any new Mac for me.

meremortals 5y ago

https://github.com/rbreaves/kinto https://github.com/rbreaves/kinto comes close for keyboard shortcuts

heavyset_go 5y ago
Came here to post this. The developer seems to take macOS keyboard shortcuts on Linux seriously.
- rbreaves 5y ago
  I do. Guilty as charged.
rbreaves 5y ago
Thanks for the mention. Am a little surprised they wouldn't list it. I know mmstick at Pop_OS! is aware of it because I mentioned it to him at some point when I felt it had become mature enough. Although it really is not properly packaged into a deb install file just yet, been a bit busy, but also just trying to make heavy use of my own app for my own dev purposes as well without doing daily or weekly development on Kinto at this point. (I have made over 1,000 commits in a 2yr span just on Kinto. Even went from it being written in C to Python.) I suspect once I package it properly and make it available in various repos and app stores that it will get more coverage. Also Kinto is feature complete as far as I am concerned, only changes that happen now are mostly minor. May do a rewrite of some parts of it to make updates go smoother and allow users to retain their own changes easier but no major functionality changes or additions are planned at this time.
firecall 5y ago
Huge upvote for Kinto! Works flawlessly on Windows and Ubuntu for me :-) Makes life worth living! ;-)

zamalek 5y ago

I watched a pretty old Q&A with Linus, and he called out distros for breaking "app space" all the time as the main reason why the Linux Desktop hasn't happened. I think he's definitely identified one of the bigger issues (but not all of them). NixOS, by accident or intention, inherently circumvents this problem. It also has actual non-existent UX: you need to manage your own home-manager configs (for now, I want to change that). The maintainers have put good effort into being able to express tons of preferences in your nixfile (to the degree of Firefox plugins). You may get nerdsniped by it.

rbreaves 5y ago

Could try my Sorun.me script.. built for Ubuntu Budgie and installs a lot of dev goodies (can be read in a basic yaml config file before installing) and yes consistent shortcuts from my meticulously built Kinto.sh app. https://github.com/rbreaves/sorun https://github.com/rbreaves/sorun Have fun!!! The config file for the curious. https://github.com/rbreaves/sorun/blob/main/configs/ubuntu_budgie.yaml https://github.com/rbreaves/sorun/blob/main/configs/ubuntu_b...

michaelmrose 5y ago

I haven't tried but it seems like you could use a keybinding daemon to effectively remap any application by changing layer in response to window focus changes. See Ktrl + alt or Kmonad https://github.com/ItayGarin/ktrl https://github.com/ItayGarin/ktrl https://github.com/ItayGarin/alt https://github.com/ItayGarin/alt https://github.com/kmonad/kmonad https://github.com/kmonad/kmonad KDE apps are also universally very remappable

rtpg 5y ago

My strategy has been to stick to everything Gnome on Ubuntu. In gnome tweaks you can even turn on ctrl-a and ctrl-e! Everything feels consistent Really wish Linux followed macs example of using super instead of ctrl for copy/paste/etc in general though…

toastal 5y ago
Many window managers, especially tiling, use super key extensively for shortcuts. This feels more like an acquired taste/habit than anything. Making applination-level shortcuts follow Windows make more sense for onboarding. Many keyboards have dip switches to swap the keys if you really cared.
- rtpg 5y ago
  I just disagree on this front, at least as a power user. Mac is able to have window manager shortcuts as well!! The problem is that I want to have copy/paste and I want to have my emacs-style movement keys, but because of Linux DMs choosing to use the same key for both we end up with ctrl-shift-c

firecall 5y ago

Kinto is the best solution I've found for a Mac keyboard and key-bindings on both Linux and Windows!