this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2024
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] [email protected] 117 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (31 children)

This is the dumbest fucking thing I've ever heard of. I'm not buying any keyboard or laptop that has this key. There's enough Linux-first vendors these days that it's easy to avoid (Framework, System76, Tuxedo, etc). It's time to be done with Lenovo and Dell.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (21 children)

This is the dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever heard of. I’m not buying any keyboard or laptop that has this key.

Which is exactly what people said about the Windows key.

Now it's all but impossible to buy a keyboard that doesn't have it. Worse, most of us use it without thinking.

Sure you can call it Super if you like, and even have a Tux key-cap on it, but there used to be a literal gap between the Alt keys and their Ctrl brethren in the lateral directions away from the space bar, and those days are long gone.

There'll be the niche users who stick with old keyboards without this new key, just like there are the die-hards who have stuck resolutely to the old IBM keyboards and the like from pre-1995, but if you want a new keyboard?

Gonna have to shell out a small fortune for a custom build or make do with that dumb new key.

(Shoutout to the Context Menu key which went as unmentioned in the above as it goes unused in day to day use, despite having been included with its Super cousin since day one.)

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Gonna have to shell out a small fortune for a custom build or make do with that dumb new key.

I don't think this is true. Just buy a laptop from a company that ships it with Linux. No Windows, no Windows keys. It doesn't have to be 'custom'.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

So what key are they gonna put there when all cheap generic Chinese keyboard makers start including this button on all their variants of keyboards?

[–] Hexarei 1 points 10 months ago

The context menu or right-ctrl key, probably

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