[baroffoos]

>and sadly the brightness keys on the laptop are uninterceptable

This doesn't seem to be true for most laptops. The ones I have used show a OS graphic when you turn the brightness down similar to the volume. Have tested this using linux on a dell xps and a macbook.

Unfortunately both still do not adjust the brightness of external monitors.

[chrismorgan]

On my previous laptop I ran Arch Linux with i3, and handled the XF86Brightness keys myself. But at present I’m using Windows, and I haven’t found any means of intercepting the keys: Windows handles them in some way that prevents me from handling them myself.