3 ms·

BTW, this is from 2013, and mentioned in the Wikipedia article on "Control-Alt-Delete". > Later in an interview, Bradley said he didn't understand why Gates an

by dalke 11y ago

BTW, this is from 2013, and mentioned in the Wikipedia article on "Control-Alt-Delete". > Later in an interview, Bradley said he didn't understand why Gates and Microsoft decided to make it a login feature, adding that "I guess it made sense for them." I thought it was because it's a secure attention sequence to prevent login spoofing, since that cannot be emulated software in userland. Certainly the WP page suggests that.

RexRollman 11y ago
That was my understanding and I see no problem with it.
- efaref 11y ago
  Indeed, it was an important security feature. I think Bill is just saying that they should've got PC manfacturers to add a "Log On" key to the keyboard which they could've caught in the OS in the same way as Ctrl+Alt+Del. I think the only other key that has this low-level trap feature is SysRq (usually Alt+PrintScreen), which, of course, Linux uses for [Magic SysRq](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key). Now that I think of it, "Press 'System Request' to log on" has a nice ring to it. A shame it was it in the shifted position on IBM PC keyboards.
  - cnvogel 11y ago
    There's no special "low level feature" when your keyboard hangs off a serial bus (as did pm keyboards from the start. XT, AT, PS/2, USB...) As far as I know also C-A-Del was just the default in the original bios keyboard handler to trigger a quick reboot. Windows, for example, has a (by default disabled) feature to trigger a kernel panic on Ctrl+Scroll lock. Also purely software based and just as arbitrary in its choice of keys. And also very useful to recover from an otherwise stuck system.
  - dalke 11y ago
    (As an aside, why do you say "Bill" instead of "Gates", or "BillG" as I believe Microsoft employees refer to him?) Yes, he said that. If he really believed it then why didn't the Microsoft Natural keyboard, which added the Windows logo keys and the menu key, also add a special "login" button?
justwannasing 11y ago
>this is from 2013 And repeated ad nauseum.

by dalke 11y ago

RexRollman 11y ago

That was my understanding and I see no problem with it.

efaref 11y ago
Indeed, it was an important security feature. I think Bill is just saying that they should've got PC manfacturers to add a "Log On" key to the keyboard which they could've caught in the OS in the same way as Ctrl+Alt+Del. I think the only other key that has this low-level trap feature is SysRq (usually Alt+PrintScreen), which, of course, Linux uses for [Magic SysRq](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key). Now that I think of it, "Press 'System Request' to log on" has a nice ring to it. A shame it was it in the shifted position on IBM PC keyboards.
- cnvogel 11y ago
  There's no special "low level feature" when your keyboard hangs off a serial bus (as did pm keyboards from the start. XT, AT, PS/2, USB...) As far as I know also C-A-Del was just the default in the original bios keyboard handler to trigger a quick reboot. Windows, for example, has a (by default disabled) feature to trigger a kernel panic on Ctrl+Scroll lock. Also purely software based and just as arbitrary in its choice of keys. And also very useful to recover from an otherwise stuck system.
- dalke 11y ago
  (As an aside, why do you say "Bill" instead of "Gates", or "BillG" as I believe Microsoft employees refer to him?) Yes, he said that. If he really believed it then why didn't the Microsoft Natural keyboard, which added the Windows logo keys and the menu key, also add a special "login" button?

justwannasing 11y ago

>this is from 2013 And repeated ad nauseum.