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Cherry Announces Linux keyboard
Errtu76 writes "ZDnet says Cherry has announced a specially designed Linux keyboard that will be available in the UK, Ireland and Germany later this year.
The Cherry CyMotion Master Linux keyboard has the Linux penguin logo, Tux, instead of the Windows start key and features 29 hot keys. The hot keys are configured for the Linux operating system and desktop applications, simplifying actions such as cutting, copying and pasting text, and moving between Web pages.
PCworld has a little more info on the keyboard."
Is it just me, or are Hot Keys for thinks like Copying and Pasting really over rated, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-X, etc. (And the Linux Equivilants, i'm a Windows user) are subconcious to me at this point, rather than rooting around for some key at the top of the keyboard.
At that price, and in such small production numbers, I have a feeling that the workmanship is shoddy and these 'enhancements' are barely workable on any Linux system but SuSE.
Does the Windows key really piss you off *that much*?
why dont you make a keyboard, with like all the normal keys and none of that stupiod windows key crap, let alone 50 other buttons to open my mail client, browser and 48 other apps i dont even use.
I want an old school 101 or 102 keys keyboard
42
don't you think perhaps it has more to do with the 100$ price tag?
I mean with most keyboards having pop removeable keys its cheaper to buy a cheap 20$ keyboard and reclick them into the dvorak layout.
"He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
The hot keys are configured for the Linux operating system and desktop applications, simplifying actions such as cutting, copying and pasting text, and moving between Web pages.
Seriously, who uses all the special hot keys on recent keyboards? Do they really "simplify actions"? They are usually placed on top of all keys, which means you have to move your hands all the way to the top to, for example, copy or paste text. On the other hand, ctrl and c keys are conveniently placed around the letter keys.
Even my standard 104-key keyboard has keys that I use very rarely. For example: Printscreen/SysRQ is useless (unless you are a kernel hacker and you are using it as kernel magic key). I haven't used Pause/Breakkey since the days of DOS. Same goes for entire numeric keyboard, but I believe it can be useful for people that need to enter a lot of numbers. And I won't even mention Windows/Tux/whatever and menu keys (which I removed with a screwdriver on some of my keyboards anyway).
If you ask me, the perfect Linux keyboard has a bigger, more convenient space bar and enter keys (They are certainly the most used and should be as large as possible. They are ridiculously small on some modern keyboards.). Forget the numeric keyboard and the useless keys I mentioned above. Oh and of course, remove the capslock key and place the control key in the proper place.
Throw in a keyboard AND an opportunity to demonstrate that consumers will purchase hardware designed for non-Windows systems... I'm there!
Perhaps even twice!
Does this thing has mechanical springs à la IBM Model M?
If not, and if I can't get a Brazilian layout, I have no use for it.
Leandro Guimarães Faria Corcete DUTRA
DA, DBA, SysAdmin, Data Modeller
GNU Project, Debian GNU/Lin
I hate these "Don't be surprised..." posts. Unless you have something to back this up, it's worthless FUD.
Not everything is analogous to cars. Car analogies rarely work.
This would be almost entirely useless for anyone who types using any method other then hunt-and-peck.
I do _not_ want a keyboard that reconfigures itself.. I "know" where all the keys on my keyboard are, if they were to move around or change constantly I'd go crazy.
Not to mention I need the tactile feedback for touch typing.. or my wpm drops to less then half because I no longer "know" when I've made a mistake.
DJ kRYPT's Free MP3s!
And for that matter, get rid of Caps Lock too. Those keys have really overstayed their welcome. And use some of those 29 extra keys as modifiers. It's time the impoverished Linux users discovered the joys of "Hyper" and "Super."
In the great CONS chain of life, you can either be the CAR or be in the CDR.
I don't understand why people complain about this. Using CTRL in the lower left corner is perfectly comfortable to me, and it's painful for me to use a Sun keyboard where CTRL is in the caps lock position.
What gives, do I have a weird bone structure in my hand or something?
So I've got mod points, and was looking for the person that says "Why the f**k would you want a special Linux keyboard?" I was going to mod up your post, but then felt I had to respond.
.... It was a horrible idea when Macintosh did it....
putting proprietary crap in a universal Human-Computer interface
I completely disagree here -- it was a GREAT idea when the Mac did it. The command key is one of the things that made the Mac so usable. The Mac was a completely new paradigm in the Human-Computer interface, and a new key gave outstanding access to it. The other keys already had other uses. Control-C is interrupt. Control-S is stop. Control-Q is resume. Other windowing systems also added keys (like the X meta key).
Control-C did NOT universally mean copy when the Mac was made. In early versions of Win, cut and paste were something like ctrl-shift-delete and ctrl-shift-insert. Eventually Win evolved to use the exact same key combinations as the Mac (ZXCV), but substituting the Control key in place of the Command key.
The problem was that MS added the Windows key long after people were using the Control key for that sort of thing. By then nobody cared about the Win key, and it was too late for it to be useful.
You could argue that NOW Apple should go back and take off the Command key since lots of people are using the Control key, but I'd disagree. I like the fact that in my terminal windows Command-C is copy, and Control-C is interrupt.
Please help find my missing daughter: FindSabrina.org
Why LCD? Just give the buyer a bag of 10 keys with instructions on how to pop in the chosen keys.
The 5 pairs of keys would be:
Linux
BSD
Windows
Apple
Cherries
Get a free ipod.
We already have these. They're called "function keys." Why people refuse to use them is totally beyond me.
Suppose I assign F12 to Play/Pause. I'm working in OO.org and I want to pause my music to take a call. Whoops! F12 is already used in OO.org to toggle numbering. The function keys are context sensitive, and as such are totally unsuitable for use as global hotkeys.
Allergy advice: Contains eggs.
...as a condom machine in the vatican.
Seriously, you can take any keyboard that has extra keys and map them to whatever you want, whatever kind of symbol is on the keys. I happily use the 'windows key' as an extra meta key for emacs...
If a train station is a place where a train stops, what's a workstation?
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE put all the modifier keys in the right place on this keyboard! PC keyboards don't jive well with Linux, because the layout IS NOT for Unix.
The quintessential features of a Unix box?
VI!
EMACS!
THE COMMAND LINE!
For these purposes the control and escape key positions SUCK on PC kbds. Do you know how painful it is to use emacs w/out the control key next to 'a'? How can you use Vi w/out the escape key where you find tilde nowadays!? For Bash--the Linux/GNU shell of choice--you can't do without excessive use of either the control or escape keys to script something up finesse!
So what do we do? Swap the keys around? I don't think so! Dude if you're gonna program something how can you have an essential key like tilde/grave up by the function keys? And the Backspace key! That's one of the keys you press most, and it's way up in the corner!
What we Linux users need is a kbd w/a Sun layout! Get a clue and check out the Sun keyboards!
As far as I'm concerned the best linux keyboard is the Happy Hacking keyboard. It's got all of these things (and a lap-compatible footprint to boot).
You end up relying on those hot keys and when you inevitably have to do something without using your non-standard wiz bang keyboard you end up slowing down and looking incompetent.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer