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Things I learned from reading this blog post: There are people who use their thumbs to press Alt (or cmd on a mac). That would never have occurred to me (eith

Things I learned from reading this blog post: There are people who use their thumbs to press Alt (or cmd on a mac). That would never have occurred to me (either to do, or that anybody had ever done so). I imagine that explains why keyboard manufacturers are so happy to put garbage keys I don't care about right next to my Shift, Ctrl and Alt keys. Personally, my ideal keyboard would have those expanded and the windows and fn keys removed off to the right side of the spacebar (or to the underside of the computer for the amount of use they actually get).

CatMtKing 13y ago
:O What finger do you use instead? The pinky?
- jasonkester 13y ago
  All the keys in the lower left corner get the pinky, unless the pinky is already holding the shift or ctrl (in which case, hey! I hit it with my thumb! Who knew...) The ones in the lower right can go their entire lives unpressed.
SkyMarshal 13y ago
Fwiw I use the Windows key all the time, on Linux no less. It's either bound to a launcher (Synapse, Gnome-Do), or used in hotkey sequences like Linux control commands ([Win]-[l] = screen lock, etc).
doktrin 13y ago
> * There are people who use their thumbs to press Alt (or cmd on a mac). That would never have occurred to me (either to do, or that anybody had ever done so).* What finger do you use for your left alt key? The thumb has always felt very natural to me, since the use of any other finger would require a significantly longer (and more awkward) travel distance, given the other 4 fingers are somewhere near the home row.
com2kid 13y ago
I use my thumb to press alt, ctrl, and shift! I have a big thumb. :) Also those "garbage keys" are very useful. The Menu key on the right side of your keyboard is, in Windows, a right click button. If I want to spell check something that is marked erroneous (such as "erroneous" when I tried to just spell it!) I can arrow over to it and use my Menu button to pop up a context menu that lets me select the correct word. The Windows keys are also awesome, there are a ton of useful shortcuts bound to them already, and you can always feel free to bind even more! Especially if you are in unix land, where binding keys is easier than on Windows. On Windows, the Windows key is reserved for system commands such as Window management. Win-arrow for docking, win-d to minimize everything, etc. Heck Win-# switches between applications in the order they are open on my task bar! Except for a few misbehaving apps (and the bloody web!), those extra keyboard keys mean the Windows UI is pretty much keyboard driven. I find it funny that people come over to Windows land from *nix and complain about how mouse driven things are! Of course you take take your favorite X windows manager and do all of the remapping yourself to get similar functionality. If you are using one of the keyboard based window managers already, think of it as a way to avoid the need for double bucky key-bindings. The FN key on laptops does suck, but for a lot of smaller laptops with reduced keyboards, there is no other way to access a lot of functionality. Things like back-light controls, external monitor settings, and so forth, are all vital and accessed through fn key combinations. They aren't /often/ used, but they are used often enough!

CatMtKing 13y ago

:O What finger do you use instead? The pinky?

jasonkester 13y ago
All the keys in the lower left corner get the pinky, unless the pinky is already holding the shift or ctrl (in which case, hey! I hit it with my thumb! Who knew...) The ones in the lower right can go their entire lives unpressed.

SkyMarshal 13y ago

Fwiw I use the Windows key all the time, on Linux no less. It's either bound to a launcher (Synapse, Gnome-Do), or used in hotkey sequences like Linux control commands ([Win]-[l] = screen lock, etc).

doktrin 13y ago

> * There are people who use their thumbs to press Alt (or cmd on a mac). That would never have occurred to me (either to do, or that anybody had ever done so).* What finger do you use for your left alt key? The thumb has always felt very natural to me, since the use of any other finger would require a significantly longer (and more awkward) travel distance, given the other 4 fingers are somewhere near the home row.

com2kid 13y ago

I use my thumb to press alt, ctrl, and shift! I have a big thumb. :) Also those "garbage keys" are very useful. The Menu key on the right side of your keyboard is, in Windows, a right click button. If I want to spell check something that is marked erroneous (such as "erroneous" when I tried to just spell it!) I can arrow over to it and use my Menu button to pop up a context menu that lets me select the correct word. The Windows keys are also awesome, there are a ton of useful shortcuts bound to them already, and you can always feel free to bind even more! Especially if you are in unix land, where binding keys is easier than on Windows. On Windows, the Windows key is reserved for system commands such as Window management. Win-arrow for docking, win-d to minimize everything, etc. Heck Win-# switches between applications in the order they are open on my task bar! Except for a few misbehaving apps (and the bloody web!), those extra keyboard keys mean the Windows UI is pretty much keyboard driven. I find it funny that people come over to Windows land from *nix and complain about how mouse driven things are! Of course you take take your favorite X windows manager and do all of the remapping yourself to get similar functionality. If you are using one of the keyboard based window managers already, think of it as a way to avoid the need for double bucky key-bindings. The FN key on laptops does suck, but for a lot of smaller laptops with reduced keyboards, there is no other way to access a lot of functionality. Things like back-light controls, external monitor settings, and so forth, are all vital and accessed through fn key combinations. They aren't /often/ used, but they are used often enough!