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by zeveb 3120 days ago
> I can't remember the last time I actually used a laptop keyboard's F-keys for anything

I use them regularly to switch consoles. MacOS supports multiple consoles, right?

1 comments

By consoles do you mean terminals? Terminal.app uses ⌘⌥1–9 to switch windows and ⌘1–9 to switch tabs. The F-keys aren't used by Terminal.app at all (well, they're sent to the terminal as an escape sequence).
No, I mean complete GUI heads: completely separate GUI login sessions which use the same screen and can be switched between. Also called 'virtual framebuffers,' I think.

Very awesome. I'm sure that Macs support something similar.

macOS has something called Fast User Switching, which is completely separate login sessions, but you access it through a menu on the right side of the menubar, not with keys.

macOS also has Spaces, which is just virtual desktops, but again, it doesn't use the F-keys to switch between them.

I'm strongly reading GP comments as trolling, given indirect context, but I respect your approach of taking the high road by assuming simple ignorance.
I really wasn't trolling. I've not used macOS for almost twenty years now, so I genuinely didn't know if it supported multiple graphics consoles. I'm not surprised that it does, but I wouldn't have been terribly surprised if it didn't, either.

My (un-trolling) point still stands, though: I use the Function keys on a daily basis, to switch between consoles.