On: I Hate (Most) Keyboard 'Fn' Keys

[lukan]

Thinkpad laptops thankfully have the option to switch Fn and Ctrl Key in the bios, because that Fn in the bottem left is reserved by my muscle memory to ctrl and I won't change that.

[Dwedit → lukan]

The Thinkpad I have is too old to have the BIOS feature to swap Fn and Ctrl. It has a Core 2 duo.

[ndiddy → lukan]

They switched the Ctrl/Fn position a year or two ago so people like you would stop complaining. Of course this means that instead you have anybody who's used a thinkpad in the last 30 years complaining about the switch. It's a little better now because they made the keys the same size, so after you switch them in the BIOS you can physically switch the keycaps around.

[lukan → ndiddy]

Every keyboard I used so far - and those were many, many, many - have the ctrl in the bottom left.

Lenovo is the only weird excemption I experienced.

So I believe people like me are the vast majority and you should maybe rather blame them, for introducing this weirdness in the first place.

[ndiddy → lukan]

> Lenovo is the only weird excemption I experienced.

Apple has put the Fn key to the left of Ctrl since they added Fn to their laptops in 1998.

[cmovq → lukan]

Lenovo is the “weird exception” because thinkpads have always had the Fn key on the bottom left. Just like they still keep the track point.

I would presume most people buying a thinkpad don’t want to buy “the vast majority” of laptops.

[maratc → cmovq]

> thinkpads have always had the Fn key on the bottom left

It’s good that after 30 years they’ve realised their error and have finally fixed it. On Windows and Linux, Ctrl is the most-used-modifier-key and bottom-left is the most-easy-to-find-key-position. Putting the most used key in the easiest-to-find position shouldn’t be a hard decision to make.

[PaulDavisThe1st → cmovq]

Macbook M3 ... same. Not such a weird exception these days.

[lukan → cmovq]

No. I bought it especially, because it has a replacable battery, which is not a factor for the vast majority I believe.

If that key would not have been switchable I would have returned it, though ..

But seriously. Who would want that excemption, unless they have already been trained in the non standard way?

Ctrl key I have to use very often. Bottom left is easy to find, even blind.

But the fn Key? Only needed at very rare occasions, so why waste the special ergonomic place for it?