Keyboards

[Jonathan Hutchins]

Ever since they first came out, one of the configuration options during 
installation has been to select a 104 Key "Windows" keyboard.  Even today 
though, only the latest Mandrake has made any use of the "extra" Windows keys, 
ativating the application menu in Xwindows with the left Windows key.  None of 
the installations I've seen has an option to make intelligent use of 
the "context menu" key, although the logic of this key is consistent with most 
Xwindows applications.

Part of this, I think, is because of the strong mouse orientation of most Linux 
developers.  Many Linux applications are even worse than Apple apps about 
requiring a mouse to perform even basic oeprations, and certainly for any real 
functionality.  In this aspect, Microsoft has most of it's competitors beat: 
most functions within most MS Windows software can be performed by keyboard 
actions, although some may be obscure.  (As an example, you can use Outlook for 
mail and access most if not all of it's features without a mouse, but Lotus 
Notes requries the mouse for somes essential operations.)

Perhaps it can also be explained by the "anti-Microsoft" attitude of some 
developers, who refuse to acknowledge good ideas in Windows so they can claim 
their work is pure and not derived or imitative.  This attitude certainly shows 
up in recent versions of RedHat which refuse to include MP3 capability, 
intefaces for standard Windows video formats, tools to import Windows fonts, 
and other petty digs at the Microsoft world.

In any case, I'd just like to say that as long as we're acknowledging the 
existance of the Windows keyboard, even if we're referring to it as a 104 key 
model with no Windows reference, let's go ahead and USE the features we've been 
ignoring for so long.  Let's make that context menu key work properly, and 
enable BOTH the left and right Windows keys to do something useful.

(This is where I should insert instructions for doing so, but this is a one-
coffee rant, not a thoroughly though-out article.  I'll post it if I get it 
worked out for myself.)

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