Read on Twitter
Since I'm not going to be going anywhere for a while, I ordered a new tower PC. After 3 years running macOS as my main operating system, I'm switching back to Windows. You know what I'm looking forward to the most? Being able to press a key and get what I expect.
A THREAD. 1/10
A THREAD. 1/10
I have found macOS to be a really great operating system - fast, stable, absolutely rock-solid for working with audio and video, and being built on top of a solid Unix kernel is great for running Ruby, nodeJS and developer tools. But the keyboards. Oh mercy, the keyboards... 2/10
Let's start with the Option key. Every manual, textbook, tutorial and blog post about using shortcut keys on macOS talks about the Option key. Press Option+F1. Option-Click. Ctrl-Option-D. Thing is - there is no key on any Apple computer labelled Option. It's labelled "Alt". 3/10
Now let's talk about Fn. Fn is the bottom leftmost key on Apple laptop keyboards. Fn is where your muscle memory expects to find Ctrl. On PC keyboards that's where Ctrl is. On Windows laptops, that's where Ctrl is. It's even where Ctrl is on Apple wired & wireless keyboards. 4/10
So when you're working on an Apple laptop, you reach for Ctrl and hit Fn instead. And you can't remap Fn, because it's not actually a key. The operating system doesn't know it exists. It's a hardware switch that makes the keyboard send different codes to the BIOS. 5/10
Those Ctrl-Z, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V finger combos that are wired into your brain and work on every other computer in the world? Nope. There is no way at all to get your Apple laptop to respect those combinations. Unpossible. Just learn new ones. 6/10
On most keyboards, Ctrl-X is a comfortable keystroke. Ctrl with the pinky, X with the index finger. Feels natural. On a Macbook keyboard, Cmd is directly underneath X. Pressing Cmd and X simultaneously means tucking one finger underneath another one.
IT. FEELS. HORRIBLE.
7/10
IT. FEELS. HORRIBLE.
7/10
Now we're getting warmed up. I use an ergonomic keyboard, so I don't I get horrible pain in my wrists. There are no Apple ergonomic keyboards, so I use a Microsoft one. It connects via USB, and mostly works. Except, there is no way to actually get the right keyboard layout. 8/10
With a "British - PC" United Kingdom keyboard layout selected, the \\| and `¬ keys are swapped. Because, hey, in these days of JavaScript string interpolation and bash shell programming, who's ever going to need to type a `, right?
And the "British" layout is just chaos.
9/10
And the "British" layout is just chaos.
9/10
So on Monday, I'll set up my new PC. I'll plug in my Microsoft ergonomic keyboard, and for the first time in about three years, the labels on the keycaps will actually match what appears on the screen when I press them. And I will cry hot salty tears of joy and do this dance. END
