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by j7ake 2789 days ago
I am interested in moving from OSX to Linux.

However, my muscle memory have made it difficult to use ctrl + key versus command + key.

Is there an easy way (for example in Ubuntu?) to remap shortcuts so the copy and paste is command + C and command + V? Also, the ctrl + C should still stop processes in the terminal, so it's not as simple as swapping ctrl and command for all processes... This problem has been bugging me a lot with linux and I finding a solid solution would help a lot of OSX people switch to linux more easily.

2 comments

the problem is with your previous operating system, not ours. I wish I could flip the mac laptop to not use that command key.
I swap the cmd and ctrl keys on mac all the time, it's in the GUI...

Apple Menu -> System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Modifier Keys

The only pain is when I'm in a terminal, the ctrl key is different. I use model-m style keyboards.

Why? It's much, much more comfortable once you get used to it.
doubtful. the command key does not need to exist. every other operating system gets along fine without it. apple is not even consistent either. as soon as you open up their terminal, you’re stuck in this bizarre land where you have to ctrl+c and cmd+c for different tasks. linux splits paste into either a mouse click or shift+insert to avoid all this.
> you’re stuck in this bizarre land where you have to ctrl+c and cmd+c for different tasks

Which I find quite reasonable, personally. If I want to copy text, it's Command-C everywhere in the system, even in the terminal–no Command-Shift-C or similar "hack". If I want to send a SIGINT to a program it's Control-C, as it should be.

On the contrary, other operating systems simply call it other names, such as "Windows" or "Super". It's all the one key to the USB HID protocol.
xmodmap for keys.

Most desktop environments allow remapping hotkey bindings and combos, though I strongly recomment sticking to defaults.

Well, except for ctrl-capslock swapping, of course.