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Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards
- gumballindie 3y agoSouth Park needs a “Put AI in it and make it lame” episode.
- mrweasel 3y agoSeems a little premature and locked to a specific use case that isn't yet really established.
- orthecreedence 3y agoI'm sorry to differ with you, sir, but Copilot has always been here. I should know, sir. I've always been here.
- melagonster 3y agoguess I miss a lot of news of Copilot...when is it becoming a personal assistant? what happens when I click Copilot button but I don't have money in Microsoft account?
- stonogo 3y agoIt falls back to launching Windows Search: https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2024/01/04/introducing-a-new-copilot-key-to-kick-off-the-year-of-ai-powered-windows-pcs/ https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2024/01/04/intro...
- kotaKat 3y agoAnother copy of Candy Crush gets automatically installed.
- throw1234651234 3y agoAnd they said the antichrist isn't real.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- yoyohello13 3y ago1 social demerit.
- jjordan 3y agoThe way Microsoft is pushing AI literally everywhere now feels reminiscent of circa 2001 when literally everything was branded '.NET'. Eventually they scaled it back, but it was complete overkill and diluted what the brand was supposed to represent.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- tenebrisalietum 3y agoWhat is Microsoft suppsed to represent? I'm not sure their brand has ever been anything more concrete over its total existence other than BASIC/MS-DOS in the beginning, a few long running products (Windows, Office, Xbox, Azure) and that it is involved with user-facing technology.
- jen20 3y agoThe brand in question there was ".NET" not "Microsoft".
- bbor 3y agoMicrosoft represents a solid, stable, enterprise-friendly, conservative, but still somewhat “innovative” (whatever that means) company. Or at least that’s their brand. Given that a huge part of their value is their long term sales relationships, I’d say they are an extremely brand-reliant company.
- lallysingh 3y agoYou could argue the same for bic (the pen/lighter company). Solid, stable, enterprise friendly (100 packs!) and still somewhat innovative (new kinds of pens, white out, etc).
- edgyquant 3y agoThere are lots of companies you could say this about
- ryanklee 3y agoRelated, from yesterday https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38864958 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38864958
- asasidh 3y agoMy 2020 Macbook Pro has a function row - touchbar with a "button" for siri.
- kpozin 3y agoWhat about the MS Office key and Emoji key? Those were definitely added after 1994. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/using-the-office-key-df8665d3-761b-4a16-84b8-2cfb830e6aff https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/using-the-office-k...
- paxys 3y agoRandom keys are added to keyboards all the time. In this case Microsoft is requiring it from all their PC vendors.
- troebr 3y agoOof. This should be more like a media key than a required key. I view it like a "Volume up/down" key, it's nice but not essential. Although it's probably much less useful than a volume key.
- regularfry 3y agoYou could say the same about the Windows key itself. Many did.
- number6 3y agoYou mean the super key or command key...
- bityard 3y agoThis should really be the top comment in the whole thread because almost all of the comments I've read so far are missing this point. Yes, _keyboard manufacturers_ are allowed to add/remove any keys that they want. But most PC users are not buying keyboards from third-party vendors. They are buying them as part of the whole PC from OEMs like Dell, HP, and Lenovo. And the Windows OEM license agreements for those vendors state (to paraphrase), "If you want to ship Windows on your systems, you have to include the Windows and Copilot keys on the keyboard." And it follows that keyboard manufacturers _want_ to have their keyboards include all the same keys as the OEMs so that they can claim complete compatibility with the OEMs, possibly to the point of calling the keyboards Microsoft Windows(TM) Compatible on the box.
- zeroxfe 3y agoWired/wireless keyboard manufacturers are going to go nuts with a whole new product line :-)
- LeifCarrotson 3y agoWhat happens when you plug this keyboard into a Linux box? Is it just another Meta/Super key, except one that doesn't support combinations? Is it using one of the reserved USB HID keyboard scan codes? Or is it a separate device driver just for that one key?
- bombcar 3y agoThe "Office Key" which I have never seen just did CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+WIN together. It would be nice if this key somehow was actually usable.
- scrps 3y agoI would imagine it is just another key completing a circuit, no additional magic so it should be as remappable as any other key.
- takeda 3y agoI have feeling it will be the menu key with a different keycap.
- jerf 3y agoIt'll do whatever they spec it to do. The good news is, whatever they spec it to do will be available to Linux and other OSes because there's really no practical way to spec something Linux couldn't handle as well as Windows without risking antitrust action over something far too stupid to justify such a thing. The bad news is that people do sometimes do dumb things with keyboards for no reason. I'm using a Dell laptop here. I'm used to the common Fn key on the laptop keyboard mapping the Left Arrow to Home and the Right Arrow to End. Instead this keyboard maps Fn-F11 to Home and Fn-F12 to End. No problem I sez to myself, I'll just map Fn-Left and Fn-Right myself. I've got a number of keyboard customizations already set up anyhow. Alas. The Fn key is supermagical bullshit, and according to XWindows, Fn-Left is nothing. Not an undefined keycap or something suprising... it's just plain nothing. I haven't dug any deeper to see if maybe something lower than X is eating it because I don't care enough (I remapped Windows-Left and Window-Right, retrained my fingers, and called it a day), and I judge the probability that the keyboard hardware is literally emitting no key events for this event too high to be worthwhile. So, they could spec the Copilot key to be a super magical key that doesn't let you play with others and blocks all other keystrokes while it is held down or something. The good news is, I doubt they'd even want to do that; they're going to want to be able to tell people "Use Copilot+X" to do things themselves, even if they don't have anything for that on day one. They could in principle do something like my Fn key, though, and rigidly insist that only certain defined shortcuts could be used and everything else results in no events, and that is at least an outside chance. Hopefully they don't do anything like that, though, it's honestly more work than just letting it be an otherwise normal key.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- CrypticShift 3y agoThe placement of the key will vary, but in some cases, it will replace the right CTRL key or Menu key, a Microsoft spokesperson told BI [1] [1] https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-ai-button-pc-keyboards-windows-copilot-2024-1 https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-ai-button-pc-keybo...
- whynotmaybe 3y agoWell, if they replace the "menu" key with anything else, that won't have any impact on me as I never use it.
- sedatk 3y agoI use right Ctrl only for Ctrl-Break, but still I’d be furious if it disappeared.
- a13o 3y agoI remember when I was working on Facebook games, every product manager wanted their new feature to have one-click access from the main game screen. So each new feature created a new wart on the UI. This is that, but for hardware. Let's call it a Thirsty Feature
- potatolicious 3y agoI love the term "Thirsty Feature". I've seen this happen many a-time and it's always a sign of poor product management :/ Metrics looking dire? Did you ship the wrong product? Do users express little interest in what you have made? No worries - juice your metrics and secure that promo by forcibly throwing your feature at users' faces in an existentially inescapable way, like an out of control t-shirt cannon!
- dharmab 3y agoThis is the entire Amazon store page for me.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- dijit 3y agoI get so tilted at the idea of a specific OS vendor having a dedicated keyboard button on all non-apple computers. And now they are doing it again, wild.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- arp242 3y agoI'm not a huge fan it has a Windows logo printed on it, but there are good usability reasons for the key, even on non-Windows systems, and there was just a big hunk of empty space between Ctrl and Alt before. So nothing is really lost for non-Windows users. It seems to me there are more pressing matters to get angry about than the logo on a keyboard. And whether we like or not not, Windows is the dominant desktop OS, so "OS operations key" having the Windows logo i not entirely nonsensical really. Almost every non-technical person uses Windows, and even within the technical crowd Windows is probably the most common system. Bit less of a case for the "Copilot key", although it remains to be seen if "becomes mandatory over time" will come to pass.
- dijit 3y agoI knew someone would bring up the utility of the key as a meta-modifier.[0] Sun keyboards had a diamond to mark that key, which is better to my mind than a third party commercial OS logo. I wouldn't even mind if it was the keyboard manufacturer logo. [0]: https://deskthority.net/wiki/File:Suntype7sf.jpg https://deskthority.net/wiki/File:Suntype7sf.jpg
- everforward 3y agoI got custom keycaps for unrelated reasons that have that on the super key and I wondered what it was. Comically to me, it has both the diamond and Apple's command key logo. Windows is the only one missing.
- chuckadams 3y agoOriginally that diamond was the Sun logo, which was diamond-shaped.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- elwell 3y agoShould last as long as Mac's Touchbar
- scrps 3y agoBecause everyone loves brand marketing on their keyboards... Microsoft would incur far less wrath if they would stop letting their marketing department run their company.
- nindalf 3y agoYou’re going to get shocked when you find the Windows key on most keyboards.
- scrps 3y agoSorry, I assumed the implied word 'more' was obvious to everyone who has used a computer keyboard in the last 30 years.
- paulddraper 3y agoAnd an Apple key on a bunch of others.
- duskwuff 3y agoIt hasn't been an "Apple key" since 2010 or so. On all recent machines, it's just labeled as "Command", with the ⌘ symbol.
- paulddraper 3y agoAh yes, the well-known U+2318 Place of Interest Sign :D
- duskwuff 3y agoThey've been using that symbol on the Command key for the last 40 years. It's probably safe to call it "well-known" by now. (Early Apple keyboards didn't have an Apple logo on the command key either! That was added in 1986 on the first ADB keyboard -- it was added for compatibility with the Apple IIgs.)
- roody15 3y agoHmm hope this isn’t the version that mixes in web results and web advertisements into its AI response. Hope it’s not limited to certain number of back and forth responses and essentially sanitized and neutered.
- Zandikar 3y agoHonestly, my initial reaction to this was my typical jaded, cynical, anti-MS self, but after consideration - and the key fact that they're replacing a key, not adding one necessitating a new layout - I'm honestly okay with this. does anyone use the menu key (the key that allegedly this will replace)? It's certainly one of the first to go in enthusiast keyboards using non standard 100% layouts, As long as it's not some stupid propreitary implementation and can be remapped to something useful for those of us not interested in a copilot hotkey, I'm fine with this. Sidenote, what do people do for push to talk, because if I can disable the copilot trigger and just make this a PTT key then that's great, but I suspect a proper PTT button is one those things everyone else has solved and I've just been under a rock. EDITED for clarity
- kunwon1 3y agoMy initial reaction was similar. I use the menu key, but rarely. I will certainly never use a copilot key.
- Sebguer 3y agoMouse side button. Caps lock if I'm using a mouse that doesn't have one - but like, it depends on the context you're using PTT in. I only use it while gaming, really.
- Ajedi32 3y agoSoon we'll be living in the future Scotty envisioned. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hShY6xZWVGE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hShY6xZWVGE
- denton-scratch 3y ago> but does anyone use the menu key? I've never used the menu key. I don't really know what it does (what menu it's supposed to pull up). I object to software vendors dictating unnecessary features in peripherals their software isn't even going to run on.
- Zandikar 3y ago
- zamadatix 3y agoI hope this is implemented as an additional modifier instead of a macro type key combo. The more modifier keys on typical keyboards the merrier!
- taftster 3y agoHa ha, I'm just already thinking of the possibilities... Shift-CoPilot-C Clippy resurrects, "how may I help you today?"
- pjbk 3y agoI honestly thought this was a joke since the key icon seemed like a female menstruation pad to me. Oh, how times have changed.
- amlib 3y agoAt least it will have a new purpose once the AI bubble bursts...
- orthecreedence 3y agoYeah, we can map it to "order a 500-pack of tampons on Amazon Prime."
- QuercusMax 3y agoLooks more like a band-aid to me. Either way, now that you've said that i'll never un-see it.
- bonton89 3y agoReally? Terrible marketing design from Microsoft has always been something you can set your watch too. Most people would just put a picture of an airplane on there and call it a day but that would be missing an opportunity for pointless over-branding that people have come to expect when trying to use their Windows PC.
- bunderbunder 3y agoTranslation: Someone at Microsoft is already getting very, very worried about the return on all this investment they've put into generative AI.
- atleastoptimal 3y agoEven with dozens of silly integrations like this they'll still make their investment back handily
- tester756 3y agoI disagree, as I see there's huge momentum to push AI onto edge like "AI PC" initiative between SW & HW companies
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- bunderbunder 3y agoEven if generative AI does see huge uptake, that does not guarantee that Microsoft's implementation is the one that everyone uses. And, even if Microsoft's is the one that everyone uses, that does not guarantee that they make money of of it. For further examples of money-losing products that changed the world, see the entire history of our crazy industry.
- myself248 3y agoAnd they have no useful levers to pull, so they invent a useless one and yank it as hard as they can. We all know exactly what's causing this, and we all know exactly how it'll turn out. How do we collectively tell them to knock it off? The industry needs some mechanism to stage an intervention, perhaps once they've cooled down a little from their present mania.
- user_7832 3y ago> How do we collectively tell them to knock it off The “easiest” might be an antitrust suit. Forcing or bundling (or apparently advertising) one product with another runs afoul of anti-bundling laws, and there’s an argument to be made for windows and openAI/copilot to both be monopolies. Now, who has a dozens of millions lying around to fund such a suit?
- gtirloni 3y ago> Microsoft is adding a new key to PC keyboards Not to mine. > A quick Microsoft demo video shows the Copilot key in between the cluster of arrow keys and the right Alt button, a place where many keyboards usually put a menu button, a right Ctrl key, another Windows key, or something similar I barely use any of those keys, especially the menu key. Just Microsoft's marketing department doing what they have alwasy done.
- ActionHank 3y agolooks like it takes the place of the menu key?
- accrual 3y agoI'd rather they take the right Win key. Sometimes I'm able to do quite a bit of work without using a mouse, and having the Menu/right-click key is useful. There's got to be cases were menus are only available via right-click.
- pests 3y agoYou can turn on mouse keys which let's you move move and click the mouse (left and right) using the numpad.
- int_19h 3y agoShift+F10 is the standard shortcut to open the context menu in Windows regardless of presence/absence of the Menu key.
- accrual 3y agoThanks for this! I'll keep it with another handy shortcut, Ctrl + Esc, which is an alternative to the Win key for keyboards that may not have one (e.g. IBM Model M).
- WarOnPrivacy 3y ago> I barely use any of those keys, especially the menu key. I need it in situations where I don't have a working mouse. eg: new virtual machine without extensions or where where I'm debugging mouse issues.
- stetrain 3y agoAh good, I'm sure that will age as well as the Cortana button.
- proactivesvcs 3y agoAnd the MSN Messenger button on the headset that I'm wearing :-)
- lylejantzi3rd 3y agoAnd the Bixby button on my Samsung Galaxy.
- asdff 3y agoNothing quite like taking your hands off the controller to waive at your kinect in an fps game. MS hardware engineers really are interesting to say the least.
- TedDallas 3y agoOK MS. The first thing I'll do is rebind it to run llamafile.exe
- evbogue 3y agoI somehow misread the title and thought Microsoft was going to require an AI keylogger be built into every keyboard. Then I realized that it is a key to turn on the keylogger!
- gumballindie 3y agoThe key-logger is already in.
- keyme 3y agoKeyboard layouts should be legally required to be standard.
- anticensor 3y agoThey are, but nobody cares about that standard, not even government agencies.
- nolist_policy 3y agoNo thanks, I'll just buy a Chromebook. Which all have the same keyboard layout.
- NoZebra120vClip 3y agoWhat's really refreshing for me about the Chromebook is a clean keyboard layout that's not encumbered by legacy placements or requirements. They were able to sweep away the Windows modifiers, the Fn key, F1-F12, and even Caps Lock! In their place, they've established a nice selection of quick-action keys, and the replacement of "Win" with "Search" is intuitive and efficient. Using a Chromebook for Google properties at work has really accelerated my productivity. Knowing lots of keyboard shortcuts, and being able to efficiently use chords in place of dedicated keys (such as PgUp, PgDn, Home, End) is a joy. The biggest reward is an uncrowded keymap which affords generous surface area for each keycap. In contrast, my Lenovo's keyboard has many keys I simply don't use, and all of them are small and cramped, I am continually looking down to see where my fingers should go.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- l0c0b0x 3y agoWhy not just rebrand the 'Windows' key with 'Copilot', and make either the start menu or copilot launch based on one key press or a key hold?
- catboybotnet 3y agoThat's cool and all, but when are we getting a dedicated LinkedIn key? I'm getting tired of hitting the shortcut everytime...
- doodpants 3y ago"On an up-to-date Windows PC with Copilot enabled, you can currently do the same thing by pressing Windows + C. For PCs without Copilot enabled, including those that aren't signed into Microsoft accounts, the Copilot key will open Windows Search instead" Just tried Windows + C on my Win 10 machine; it brings up a dialog that helpfully informs me "Cortana in Windows as a standalone app is deprecated."
- tech234a 3y agoOn Windows 10, Windows + S opens search.
- c0wb0yc0d3r 3y agoIs that different then just pressing the windows key? I just poured the windows key and start typing a query.
- tech234a 3y agoI usually just press the Windows key as well. That said, Windows + S displays recent searches.
- steve1977 3y agoI guess Windows 10 is not considered up to date per se…
- theultdev 3y agoTip: you can use https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher to make it open the clock instead. (just built a new PC and Windows 11 was quite awful w/ stock UX)
- rnd0 3y ago>Just tried Windows + C on my Win 10 machine; it brings up a dialog that helpfully informs me "Cortana in Windows as a standalone app is deprecated." smirks I'm sure this button will share the same fate come 2030, 2034. That said, I'm curious what GNOME and MATE will do with it -if anything.
- twic 3y agoThis is awesome! I'll be able to map that to window manager functions in Cinnamon, and they won't conflict with any application's keystrokes.
- layer8 3y agoMaybe you wont, it wasn’t possible with the “Office” key, because that just mapped to Shift+Ctrl+Alt+Win (I’m not joking). The Copilot key may just be hardcoded to map to Win+C or similar.
- regularfry 3y agoThis should already be the case with the Meta key (which some platforms will insist on calling "Win"), shouldn't it? I think the model of having a key which is only ever used for workspace management, and never by the applications themselves, is so obviously correct that the MacOS Command key actively baffles me.
- layer8 3y agoI’m one of the apparently few people who use the Menu key [0] at that location all the time. I find it frustrating that this key location is constantly being repurposed for other functions, if the key isn’t omitted altogether. It wouldn’t be so bad if the key could be remapped back to Menu, but it often either has a keyboard-local function like Fn, or is hardcoded to a key combination, or uses some out-of-band USB protocol instead of sending a normal scancode. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menu_key https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menu_key
- RedShift1 3y agoI'm ok with this if I can remap to the right click key that has disappeared over the years. I use that one a lot on laptops.
- thefuersty 3y agoWonder if the Co-pilot feature will map to a "normal" keystroke; similar to how you can pull up the Start Menu on a keyboard without the Start button with a Ctrl-Escape. Bing AI says it's not yet settled if that will be an option.
- nbzso 3y agoI gave my friends the following advice. Push yourselves away from AI trend tools and learn what is what before falling into this trap. In the era of AI those who can think, draw, write, code and be the best in their craft without it will rule the rest. Simple and clear. Prompting is not a skill which will differentiate (except for AI devs, as a part of fine-tuning the model's output). The real danger of AI is not getting agency ang killing us (yet). The real danger, in my view, is normalization and trust into technology which "hallucinates" and obtains a formidable property with a name "The Black Box". Don't get me starting on privacy.:)
- IshKebab 3y agoTerrible advice. This is like telling people not to use an IDE because auto-complete isn't always right. Or not to use document templates because they aren't finished. Github Copilot can - in some domains - make me 30% more productive. Once it becomes commonplace and the legal issues are sorted, luddites who refuse to use it will be left in the dust.
- gumballindie 3y agoGood analogy - people that only know how to code using an ide are usually the worse. Those who thrive are those that know and understand things. If 30% of your job can be done by a procedural generator then your work is worthless. Probably because you do stuff you dont understand, and will be freed to focus on more important things - such as luddites or who killed biggie.
- IshKebab 3y agoThere are at least four issues with your comment: 1. The weird implication that people who use tools are doing so to make up for lack of skill. This is so obviously misguided I'm not sure where to start. 2. Dismissing AI as "a procedural generator". It's clearly much more than that. 3. Assuming that the 30% of my job that AI does is the valuable bit. It isn't. AI mainly relieves the tedious stuff at the moment (looking stuff up, typing semi-repetitive code, etc.). 4. Trying to make yourself feel better by asserting that people who use IDEs are worse than you, or that I don't understand my work. Rather pathetic.
- everforward 3y agoThe responses here feel a little jaded to me. I'm not a fan of the corporate-driven nature of the change, but I do think "could we do something more useful with the menu key?" is a fair question and the answer is almost certainly yes. AI has limitations and yada yada but use cases for the Menu key seem slim, and I'd get more mileage out of an "answer a stupid question where I'm okay with a probability of it being right" button. How long would it take to swim from Florida to France? Why is the hole on cans of soda indented? Why do some fundraisers collect tabs from cans instead of the whole can? I'm sure you can configure a keyboard to do that now (and likewise, you can likely restore Menu's former function), but for the average user who doesn't even know that's an option Menu is a waste of space. AI might not even be the best option to replace Menu, but I do think it's worth talking about replacing it.
- manicennui 3y agoPeople are jaded because of MS's history. Some of us didn't realize that they are still forcing OEMs to do nonsense like this.
- crabmusket 3y ago> "could we do something more useful with the menu key?" I think the answer is "open PowerToys Run"
- everforward 3y agoOoh, I've never seen that before. That would make perfect sense; I'd probably use it more than the AI. The current keycaps even still make sense.
- neilv 3y agoDecades later, the Win95 keys are still making my life a little bit worse, throughout each day. (Jammed into the laptop keyboards that I use all day, when I only want Ctrl and Alt there.)
- neilv 3y ago> Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards, though not yet. Is there an antitrust angle on this?
- jzb 3y agoHere I am, still buying old Microsoft Natural ergonomic keyboards from the 90s off eBay and using them with Linux. To date, I haven’t found a better keyboard. And I don’t expect I’ll miss the Copilot key anytime soon.
- egberts1 3y agoAudibly speaking: "Cortana, bring back Mr. Clippy."
- nateb2022 3y agoPreviously: A new Copilot key to kick off the year of AI-powered Windows PCs https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38864958 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38864958 (85 comments)
- elric 3y agoGreat way to mess up muscle memory again. The original addition of the windows (or meta, if you're so inclined) key wasn't too bad, as most keyboards had a blank space there. But then people pushed the Fn. And the menu key. And the bottom row became a mess. With some keyboards having Fn>Ctrl>Win>Alt, while others have Ctrl>Fn>Win>Alt, or a permutation without an Fn key. None of my keyboards have a menu key. And none of my laptop keyboards have a right Win key. There really isn't any room for another garbage key there. Don't get me started on how the home/end/insert/delete/pgup/pgdown cluster got massacred and merged with the arrow keys. Some keyboard designers really have no respect for the people who actually use their products.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- pests 3y agoJust don't buy them?
- elric 3y agoThanks for that super actionable advice. /s I'm sure you've noticed that (especially) laptops have virtually no keyboard customization options. Once MS starts pushing this, every laptop peddler will be including them on every keyboard. Which means that once again, the majority of laptop keyboards will get objectively worse. It's hard enough finding a laptop with all the keys in the right place these days. Adding more pointless keys is just going to make things worse. Thank goodness for keys being reassignable in sensible operating systems. External keyboards aren't that big of an issue, I can just build my own and call it a day, but I haven't seen anyone build any custom laptop keyboards.
- pests 3y agoYeah, it sucks. But to call it not actionable advice is just hilarious. You are 100% able to not buy keyboards that don't work for you or you don't agree with. This is actionable. You might have to bring an external keyboard with you everywhere if you can't find a laptop one that works. Having values requires making sacrafices sometimes. Here is how Richard Stallman reads the web: "For personal reasons, I do not browse the web from my computer. (I also have not net connection much of the time.) To look at page I send mail to a demon which runs wget and mails the page back to me. It is very efficient use of my time, but it is slow in real time."
- anticorporate 3y ago> Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards To point out the obvious, no, it won't. Microsoft does not define what a PC is. Sure, they can make up whatever fanciful hardware requirements for their own operating system that they want to, and they can force whatever absurdities they want into contracts with manufacturers. But I guarantee my PC will not have a keyboard with this key.
- manuelabeledo 3y ago> But I guarantee my PC will not have a keyboard with this key. ... And 99% of PCs around the world, will, which is indistinguishable from "requiring" it.
- jl6 3y agoThey do have enough weight in the PC market to create some kind of “Made for Windows” program which would stand a good chance of swaying the keyboard manufacturers, who would no doubt love an excuse to get everyone to buy a new keyboard.
- bsimpson 3y agoI wonder if there's some deal attached to the use of the Windows logo on the Super key - to put a Windows logo on one, you have to put the Copilot logo on the other. I also wonder how wired Windows users are to the Windows logo on the key. Being a Mac guy, I actually don't know the history of the Windows key.
- pests 3y agoI grew up using Windows and switched to Linux in my late teens. I've hopped back and forth for personal desktop while servers have always been Linux too. I honestly use the windows key 1000 times a day and I don't understand comments in here saying they don't. So many keyboard shortcuts. Plus it opens the task and search to launch programs. I'm pretty keyboard heavy, I can go hours sometimes without touching the mouse.
- godelski 3y ago
- Buttons840 3y agoTangentially: The reason Windows is more popular than Linux is because of momentum / existing familiarity and because Microsoft employees are paid to do the annoying work needed to finish that last 5% of the user experience. As we approach the entire OS being accessible and controllable through a voice interface / LLM, well, that's pretty fun and sexy and is something that open source contributors are more willing to work on. If the Windows interface is "just talk to the computer", and the Linux interface is "just talk to the computer", why wouldn't people switch to Linux? If Grandma can use Linux as well as Windows, why not use Linux? Sometimes it feels like were converging on AGI faster than we are a universal GUI library. (Insert joke about the year of Linux.)
- paulddraper 3y ago> The reason Windows is more popular than Linux The reason Windows is more popular than Linux is the mountain of software and device drivers developed for it. Which I realize is chicken-and-egg, but also...it's a really big chicken.
- wnevets 3y agoWhy stop there? Lets add a quibi key next.
- godelski 3y agoThis impression feels dishonest. They link a video from microsoft[0] which shows a copilot key on the bottom row left of the arrow keys. Here's a diagram ... [space bar] [alt] [copilot] [left arrow] ... Every keyboard I own already has a key here that I don't use. Right of spacebar: on my logi keyboard I have [cmd/alt] [fn] [opt/ctrl]; on my Code keyboard I have [alt] [blank] [fn] [ctrl]; on my actoo international I have [lang switch] [alt] [fn] [menu] [ctrl]; on my Air I have [cmd] [option]. I can dig out more if this isn't sufficient. Only in rare circumstances have I ever used any of these keys. I rarely ever use the windows key on the left side either (tbf I mostly am mac or linux but even on work computers I don't). The title, subtitle, and article make it sound like there's going to be a keyboard layout change when really all I'm getting is that they're going to change a keycap. Doesn't seem insane to me, especially considering a lot of the comments around here. [0] https://youtu.be/S1R08Qx6Fvs?t=5 https://youtu.be/S1R08Qx6Fvs?t=5
- calamari4065 3y agoAll AI arguments aside, this is just another run at the "internet" buttons on late 90s keyboards. I'm sure it will go over just as well as the last time
- soultrees 3y agoThe game here is to get as many of your users as possible and keep them chatting with the LLM (copilot) to get the human / machine back and forth. When everything has been scraped already then the only advantage you can have is more chat logs. I suspect that we will see every large tech company start to push their own models (or skins) just as hard for that same reason. OpenAI is sitting on some of the most valuable data from their user base, and the long targeted conversations they have.
- flembat 3y agoIf we are adding a copilot key the keyboards also need additional hallucination warning LEDs.
- ginko 3y agoI hate how Microsoft thinks they have the authority to dictate keyboard layouts. They're a software company and should keep out of hardware. Bad enough that it's hard to find a keyboard without a windows key.