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by as1mov 2878 days ago
> Not just the visual appearance, but for example keyboard shortcuts are relatively universal; Cmd + , is the shortcut for Preferences/Settings in Safari, Chrome, iTerm, Slack, NewsReader etc. I don't know if that would even be possible on the leading Linux DEs.

Kinda funny, but the inverse is true for me. I am forced to use a Macbook at work and shortcuts are a frustrating thing. Do I have to use Cmd + <x> or Ctrl+ <x>?

Considering both Windows and Linux follow almost the same shortcuts, Mac is the odd one out here.

3 comments

> Kinda funny, but the inverse is true for me. I am forced to use a Macbook at work and shortcuts are a frustrating thing. Do I have to use Cmd + <x> or Ctrl+ <x>?

No reason to be confused. You need to use Cmd + <x>, because off the top of my head Ctrl is involved only into text editing shortcuts (what GTK+ calls "emacs theme") and some obscure stuff.

Switching between CMD/Ctrl is really weird for someone who has used Win/Linux all their life, where most of the major shortcuts use Ctrl.

To be fair I wouldn't really count this as a negative, this is probably very far down in my list of gripes I have against Apple devices.

It's just that it's equally pointless when a Mac user complains about shortcuts in Win/Linux. Even in this thread, you can see most of the complaints boil down to "It doesn't work like the way it does in <Insert the system you are used to>"

As a cli user, this is a big positive for me. I can use ctrl-c for "terminate program", while cmd-c continues to work for copy.
This is a regular frustration for me under Linux. The shortcuts for Cut/Copy/Paste feel so standardized that changing them in one particular instance feels like having the functions of the brake pedal and trunk lever being swapped only while driving on a particular road.
I switched to MacOS last year for work and one of the first things I did was remap keys to swap CTRL and CMD. Now I press CTRL-C to copy on Windows or Mac. It makes it a lot easier to switch between machines
This reminds me of all of the discussions people had about keyboard shortcuts when Windows 8 first came out.

It was hard to consider it a valid selling point then, so I'm not really sure why people would consider it to be a valid selling point now for MacOS (although I do get why people would find them useful).