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Comment by greazy | Hacker News Reader

I find the opposite. Use your thumb for the command key not your pinky finger.

My frustration is the function (fn) key placement. Just terrible.

but with the thumb on command, you have to contort your fingers to hit any of the alphabet keys.

Try Cmd-w (close), Cmd-X (Cut), Cmd-C (Copy), Cmd-V (Paste), Cmd-Z (Undo), Cmd-A (Select All), Cmd-Q (Quit) with your left thumb on Command and the left index on the other key. Try Cmd-P (Print), Cmd-, (Preferences) with your left thumb and a right finger. I'm using macOS and Windows since the 80s, Gnome and KDE later; I still think that Windows and Linux are generations away from macOS consistency and ergonomic...

Moreover: on macOS Cmd[-Option][-Shift][-Ctrl]-<key> is always about a menu item/command shortcut; [Option][-Shift][-Ctrl]-<key> is always about a glyph.

well [ctrl] + <down arrow, F4, F5> are used for window management by default

On a Mac keyboard, you have two Command and Option keys. That means you can combine your (left|right) thumb on the Command key and a (left|right) finger on another <key>. Moreover, you can naturally use Ctrl-<keys> as a Control-Character in a Terminal. Which is sometimes a pain on Windows.

I agree you still have to contort your hand but it is significantly less movement than using your pinky.

IMO you should remap your keys: https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/

Every system will not be 100% to your liking, so make it work for you.

I immediately had to get Karibiner to at least give me my home and end keys back on a external keyboard.

I've been to aggressively remapping that I don't then create a similar problem when using another machine I don't own but maybe I'll give in and go the more custom route

So, I don't remap keys anywhere. This is because I move between Linux, Windows, and Mac OS on both laptop and desktop and multiple external keyboards connected to montiors. No mapping actually obtains a sane behavior that is consistent across all platforms, terminal applications, and others. I've tried and it always ends up messing one of M- (meta key prefix) or control keys.

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