Every time I use desktop Linux (I've only tried Ubuntu), it's an exercise in frustration simply because cut and paste is such an incredible pain.
I use cut and paste every few minutes.
The keys are not compatible with MacOS - why not? Surely this is an obvious need.
I seem to recall the cut and paste keys aren't even compatible with Windows.
The cut and paste doesn't even seem to work consistently across applications.
Instead of just using the GUI, I have to constantly break my workflow to think about what keys I'm pressing - that's not a great way to enable switching to Linux from another OS.
If cut and paste is painful then we're a long way from desktop Linux being viable for me personally. It seems such an easy thing to get right, but that's the essence of desktop Linux - 20 years down the track and the first thing you do cuts your finger.
I'd be pleased to hear if some other distro has nailed this or if it's a universal issue.
You might be getting bitten by Linux having two clipboards https://codeyarns.com/tech/2017-01-18-the-two-clipboards-in-... . If you use a clipboard manager (e.g. gpaste or parcellite) they can be configured to synchronize the two. Windows uses Control-C for copying and that will for sure not be compatible with, say, terminal emulators (hence Shift-Control-C is very common). No idea about the waffle key.
Could you describe the issue more? I've been using ubuntu for years and I've had plenty of issues, but cut and paste isn't one of them. It behaves exactly the same as windows for me.
> The keys are not compatible with MacOS - why not? Surely this is an obvious need. I seem to recall the cut and paste keys aren't even compatible with Windows. The cut and paste doesn't even seem to work consistently across applications.
Do you mean that they're not compatible with a macbook keyboard? control-c / x / v work fine on all of my Ubuntu computers, but I might be misunderstanding what issue you are running into.
One thing I like about the Mac style for those is that there's less wrist movement (nice if you've got some RSI pain you'd rather not aggravate), and I can hit them while leaving 3 of 4 home-row fingers in place.
I'm not sure non-Mac systems preclude this. In fact, I never had RSI or wrist pain issues until my boss pressured me into using a MacBook. I now use a standard (= Windows) keyboard and remapped several keys.
On the topic of keys, Mac users often fail to mention the reverse situation. Coming to a Mac from other environments, the keymaps are not intuitive to me and often leads to frustration, especially if you're frequently switching between work (Mac) and personal (Linux) machines.
> In fact, I never had RSI or wrist pain issues until my boss pressured me into using a MacBook.
Extended (hours, over several days) trackpad use is the first thing that's ever given me serious RSI, in over 20 years of computing. I think the action of click-n-dragging is the main cause. And MacBooks are the only laptops I've used where I don't hate having to use the trackpad for more than a couple minutes, so....
I don't know if I'm an oddball but I'm switching all day long between Mac, Windows and Linux machines and I'd die if I had to use a different set of terminal shortcuts every time.
I complained about that for years until one day I founded you can actually remap Ctrl+C in your terminal, and the usual kill signal will still work when nothing is selected.
Fedora 35+ is the closest I have come to really enjoying Linux. Fedora always seems a lot more polished and less edgy. I cannot really get into any of the other distros for the UI. I like using Debian for all command line.
I've tried Fedora recently. The package manager didn't pass my stress test:
1. Did a minimal installation without a GUI.
2. Installed Gnome.
3. Installed KDE.
4. Uninstalled Gnome and KDE. The system ended up in a broken state: many important packages were deleted, I couldn't connect to the network, and the package manager stopped working.
Same. I've tried many, many distributions. Fedora definitely feels the most polished. Ironically, I find Ubuntu to be one of the worst, and it seems to be the default most people try.
(P.S. Fedora 34 is the most current released version)
> The [cut and paste] keys are not compatible with MacOS - why not? Surely this is an obvious need.
"Obvious"? Typical conceited Mac user. It's not as if the Mac were dominant in the computer or OS market.
> I seem to recall the cut and paste keys aren't even compatible with Windows.
Depends: Your whine doesn't mention what these "incompatible" keys you're whining about actually are. If they're [Ctrl]-[Ins], [Shift]-[Ins], and [Shift]-[Del], then those are actually the Windows CUA standard ones. The silly [Ctrl]-[C|V|X] alternatives copied from Apple are not standard.
I don’t understand this comment, you can select and then middle click to paste or you can ctrl-c ctrl-v… what does not work for you? This does not sound familiar to me (a decades long Linux user).
Two possible issues the poster may be encountering:
1) Copy-paste shortcuts are different in terminals, on Linux, than they are everywhere else. They are the same, on macOS.
2) Much like drag-n-drop, reasonable support for copy-paste of things that aren't plain text is less common on Linux than on macOS, and attempting it is more likely to either not work or have unexpected effects.
Copy and paste works. 100%. You are doing something wrong. There might be subtle differences in behaviour and you might have to change settings, or get used to the new defaults. Remember, the old defaults are just something you learnt once. There's nothing special about them.
One of the things I actually liked about macOS was the ability to use ctrl+k and ctrl+y in almost every application (looking at you Microsoft), as that was what my muscle memory had me doing from using a terminal and emacs on Linux anyway.
What about cut and paste is painful? Is it the keys it's bound to? Cut and paste for me is cntrl+x and v. If you want to change the location of this button you can configure that in Ubuntu.
I use cut and paste every few minutes.
The keys are not compatible with MacOS - why not? Surely this is an obvious need. I seem to recall the cut and paste keys aren't even compatible with Windows. The cut and paste doesn't even seem to work consistently across applications.
Instead of just using the GUI, I have to constantly break my workflow to think about what keys I'm pressing - that's not a great way to enable switching to Linux from another OS.
If cut and paste is painful then we're a long way from desktop Linux being viable for me personally. It seems such an easy thing to get right, but that's the essence of desktop Linux - 20 years down the track and the first thing you do cuts your finger.
I'd be pleased to hear if some other distro has nailed this or if it's a universal issue.