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Pardon the rant, but I just can't stand it when ctrl has been moved away from the bottom left corner. It really messes with my flow and accuracy when working. In my personal life it's not an issue because I simply don't ever buy laptops which have swapped ctrl and fn. But as a software developer, I sometimes have to work with laptops provided by the company I work for. Often they are not only slow, but also have those two keys swapped around. Yes I can work on them alright, but it's like a constant thorn in the side.
So, I would just like to ask: Why have some vendors chosen to do this? Is there a good reason for it? Is it supposed to be better? What's the deal?
Svish
Posted 2011-03-09T12:47:06.367
Reputation: 27 731
1As a side note, I always thought it was more natural to have ctrl on the far left, and then fn beside it. That way, the left-most key is guaranteed to be ctrl, so you don't accidentally skip over it and hit fn instead (like I usually do when using other people's machines) :P
Oh, and great question by the way. I don't think there's a reason they do this, but hey, you never know. I'm interested to see what people answer. – Breakthrough – 2011-03-09T12:49:59.203
I would say it's for exactly the same reason as why Apple decided to put the window controls in the top-left of the windows in OS/X instead of the top-right like everyone else. "Because they can", or "Because they think it looks prettier" ;) – Majenko – 2011-03-09T12:56:18.673
1It's just as bad if not worse on machines where there is either no command (windows flag) key or it's in the top left or right because they ran out of room at the bottom. – Nathaniel Bannister – 2011-03-09T12:56:26.973
1Hoping that someone from Lenovo would pass by here and give me an answer... that's what I have in front of me here. – Svish – 2011-03-09T13:00:12.220
^^ THIS (Re: Lenovo). BIG irritation – Linker3000 – 2011-03-09T13:23:45.430
@Svish - All ThinkPad models now have an option in the BIOS to swap the functions of the two keys back, and have for several years. Bonus points for confusing anybody else who uses your machine. – Shinrai – 2011-03-09T15:07:39.110
And regarding Lenovo specifically, they did a long-term usability study and that's why they changed this (and when I was still working for them, I heard zero complaints from anyone who wasn't an experienced computer user - it's probably true that joe-average-businessman NEVER uses the Ctrl key, but probably uses Fn all the time). I can't speak for any other vendors. – Shinrai – 2011-03-09T15:09:21.763
Well, I just don't have the great need to put my laptop into sleep mode, adjust my volume or screen brightness that often. Copy and paste, close windows, search, et cetera, I do all the time. – Svish – 2011-03-10T08:30:05.320
@ShinRai, Would need to flash the bios for that I assume? – Svish – 2011-03-10T08:30:55.180
@Svish - You should be flashing your BIOS anyway! (But yes. Again, I'm not aware of any ThinkPad models with these keys reversed that don't have this functionality in BIOS now...it's possible some of the cheap consumer Lenovo machines don't have it though.) And again, keep in mind that most average people don't even know you CAN copy and paste, close windows, search, et cetera, using the keyboard...most people don't even know Alt-Tab! That's why annoying things like this happen. – Shinrai – 2011-03-10T12:37:45.540
Yeah, I want to, it's just that it isn't my laptop. Belongs to a company with IT-section and stuff. – Svish – 2011-03-10T22:20:28.260
My friends who never use shortcut keys never complain about this, but others would find this very irritating after struggle to press some uncomfortable common shortcuts – phuclv – 2013-10-18T02:40:40.170