I use a HHKB mainly because it has a correctly positioned control key. I wish other companies would make them this way too - caps lock just isn't useful.
Genuine question: have you had problems with software remapping before?
I discovered the joys of control-in-place-of-caps-lock when I bought an HHKB, but I got it because I liked it as a keyboard. Since then I've had no trouble converting caps-lock into control with other keyboards.
If you don't mind an unrelated anecdote, while I got used to the diamond-shaped arrow keys of the HHKB, I kind of wish they would have been hjkl or just on the keyboard itself. I find that I still need to use arrow keys too much for that layout to be comfortable.
I have no real problem with remapping, I do it on my ThinkPad for when I'm not at my desk.
Really it boils down to the fact that I dislike the capslock key taking up valuable real estate. From my perspective has no real use, I never type more than the odd word in caps. I want to reward companies who omit it in the hope more will follow.
I use vim so hjkl are natural to me, but I got used to the diamond in short order and don't have any issues switching between them.
> I want to reward companies who omit it in the hope more will follow.
Let's hope not, I really like my comfortable ectra escape key. The pictures I saw when quickly searching for HHKB looked incomplete to me, control is fine in the corner!
Hopefully we'll have all options though, a comfortable keyboard is a must.
I started mapping caps to super after a stint daily-driving a chromebook a few years ago and it's stuck with me. I'm surprised none of the major vendors besides big G have thought to repurpose caps for something more useful.
The use of upper case used to be much more common. Many forms were filled out in upper case, even in the days of typewriters. When writing, upper case was used to add emphasis. The use of upper case was also common while programming.
I suppose the development of the capslock key has more to do with much older typewriters. Mechanical typewriters took a fair amount of effort to use.
If your adventurous, you could get a keyboard that supports qmk or zmk open source firmware and gain full control over what your keys do. I don't have caps lock bound.
Personally I strongly recommend replacing caps lock with control on a Mac keyboard for better tabbed browsing shortcuts. The hot keys for move one tab left/right are Tab + Control and Tab + Control + Shift.
If you replace caps lock with control then all these keys form a nice large column of keys at the far left end of the keyboard.
Try Ctrl! It's much easier to reach than the normal ctrl key. If you're on Windows, RandyRants' SharpKeys is a great utility to do the registry edits for you.
