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The Copilot+ PC brand is dead

122 points · 115 comments · bj-rn

  1. advenn · · focus · HN ↗
    I use Linux so I didn't care about copilot stuff. But recently at work I got dell workstation. It costs around 5k usd. The specs are great. But it has single Ctrl key on the left side, copilot button took its place. I can't jump between words with one hand, I have to press Ctrl with my left hand, and use arrow keys with right hand. This single choice made the machine piece crap
    1. mzajc · · focus · HN ↗
      Absolutely. Even worse, the key doesn't have its own scancode, but instead acts as lshift+lmeta+f23, so rebinding it is a real pain. I know about Hanlon's razor, but there's only so much incompetence one can accept...
      1. someonebaggy · · focus · HN ↗
        Pre-USB keyboards used a similarly horrific combination for Print Screen, which was also the only key that didn't report when it was released. This was for the same reason - the key was added after the keycode list was standardized.
        1. Dwedit · · focus · HN ↗
          Even the arrow keys are weird, they report as numpad keys, but also have a special extended key flag to tell you that it's not really a numpad key.
        2. hackeraccount · · focus · HN ↗
          My favorite keyboard was one that came with HP PC's ... in the late 90's I think. It had a split space bar. I think the deal was the right half of the space bar was the space bar and the left half was the backspace key.

          Using it was like a magic trick. Words would just get a character truncated and merge. I could watch my fingers type and I would know what I had to do and my fingers would just merrily go on and do whatever they wanted.

          There was some youtube video about a guy who set up a bike that had the turning backwards - you turned right and the front wheel went left. The funny part was that with a lot of effort the guy managed to teach himself to not be able to ride a normal bike.

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