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Comment by keithg | Hacker News Reader

Got a laptop recently for a new project. All of my colleagues raved about Lenovo. I went with a Lenovo ThinkPad W530.

Great machine, right? I hate it. I hate it because they put the Fn key in the lower, left and moved the Ctrl key. Now I have to think every time I need to hit the Ctrl key!

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Have a look in the BIOS, there should be an option to swap Fn & Ctrl.

Thanks. I'll take a look.

Also, keys are easily physically swapped, just popped them from under gently, 95% chances the plastic cap will detach from the bouncing mechanism (two plastic~handles crossed above a latex ~cushion). Reattaching is just placing the cap on top, pressing down smoothly and plastic dents will match again.

ps: I said 95% because there was a few times where the underlying handle/cushion came with the cap and fell apart. It's possible to fit them again but is a bit challenging because of the tininess. So if you try, be warned.

You will get used to it. At least, I did. Other than that one thing, it is the best laptop ever.

Why would you get used to it instead of just swapping the two keys?

Well, I shared my laptop with others, so they'd get really confused when I remapped the keys.

If only you could swap the keycaps too.

the bios swapping of "fn" and "left control" on my x121 had its own problems (it was a bit strange, sometimes the remapped fn key didn't actually behaved like a real control key). so i switched back to the original behavior and learned to deal with it.

a hardware hack would be cool :) letting the fn key electrically do the same thing as the ctrl key and for the rare use of fn use the capslock-key for it :)

If you haven't seen the "think-light" yet -- FN-PgUp. Bottom Left and Top Right buttons activate the light -- makes it easier to find in the dark.

http://blog.lenovo.com/design/fn-versus-ctrl-let-the-games-b...

That's a lame excuse for not having a backlit keyboard.

A backlit keyboard is a lame excuse for not including a convenient light you can use to read just about anything.

My model has a backlit keyboard and a little light near the videocam that shines down. You can rotate between modes (dim, med, bright keyboard, top light) using the FN-space combination.

I have exactly the same problem when switching between Apple's current two keyboards: the USB model with numerical keypad, and the smaller, 50% more expensive wireless model. I use CTRL enough that trying to use both is an exercise in futility. Why can't Apple release a 'proper', full-size wireless keyboard?

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