this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2024
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Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards, though not yet.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

copilot key will eventually be required

Fuck that, and fuck you, Microsoft

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

Some Microsoft exec: "Hey, remember when TV remotes started getting a dedicated Netflix button?"

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (6 children)

Another useless key? Use Scroll lock or SysRq for that. Or even better, reuse that stupid "menu" key. They'll cram one more key to the left of the spacebar and make ctrl, alt, and windows keys smaller. Or change their order.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I use the menu key all the time... It's very handy to avoid using the mouse.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I honestly never used it. Isn't it the same as something like alt-f which will open the file menu?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I've no idea. That might be a windows thing. I don't use Windows.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (2 children)

If only keyboards would have function keys for this purpose, named F1 to F10 for example, so any program could use them for their specific functions...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Maybe even F13 to F24 if more is needed?
Because they used to exist, and support for them still does. Really handy for macro keys.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I'd like them to leave F13 onwards alone, purely because it's nice that they'll only ever do what I want them to do

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

I remember those keyboard layout cutouts (were they called keyboard templates?) you got which you put on the keyboard with extra explanations of what each function key did in WordPerfect or Lotus or whatever.

I'm old.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

And again, install Linux and get rid of this Microsoft bullshit

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

100%. When Windows drops support for Windows 10 I'm jumping ship to Linux Mint Cinnamon. I tried it out on my old laptop and liked it. I even liked that neat hot corners thing you could use.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (6 children)

Do I need to know Jack shit about programming to use it? Cause....I mean I really don't know Jack shit about but I'm down to jump ship!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Definitely not, I'd say the thing you need the most is the will to learn - as there are differences of course, but being willing to learn new things will go a long way.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

No Mint pretty much just works.
Great thing about Mint (or most Linux distros) is that you can try it by booting from a usb stick - see if you like it that way.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Okay, next plan is to start buying non-windows keyboards.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Oh nice so now we have a Super Key, a Hamburger Key, and now a Meta key.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

OR, hear me out, we just have it mapped to alt+win(meta) key and this will be a nothing burger.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

It’s already mapped on windows to Window button and C.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I would imagine this isn't going to go over very well with a lot of companies. I would bet many already ban employees using copilot or other AI assistants because they don't want their company's proprietary data being sent to Microsoft or Google or whoever. Stick a key on the keyboard that, if accidentally hit, brings up copilot (and maybe sends data to Microsoft), and those keyboards might be banned.

Some companies will probably just deal with it by setting up their PCs so that copilot is disabled and that key does something else. But, other companies will either not be technically savvy enough to do that, or will not want to take a risk of someone accidentally reverting to the default behaviour.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

If you press the windows key I'm pretty sure it brings up search already. It definitely used to bring up Cortana on Windows 10.

I'm not sure why they would add a new key to the keyboard to achieve a function that already exists.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Now I know what to use for my push to talk key at least.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

I guess I won't be buying any keyboards without replaceable key caps then.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Atleast its AI. AI is good.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Microsoft Chief Marketing Officer Yusuf Medhi called 2024 "the year of the AI PC" in today's announcement.

What? No! It's not the "year of the AI PC," it's the year of the Linux desktop, like every year before and after! You can't just steal our year(s) from us!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

What if your Linux desktop WAS an AI PC?!????!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

This is way more about advertising Copilot than actually needing a new key. M$ gonna $.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

I just got done learning how to turn off Copilot in group security policy, yay! Get away from me, even if you worked according to the spec in the marketing hype. I am the admin. I drive you out! :::holds up holy water and a crucifix:::

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Ugh. Why do keyboards have to have Microsoft logos. I hate it. I want nothing to do with them.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Well, somehow keyboards are now a niche boutique industry where people spend hundreds of dollars putting together custom-made minimalist builds like they're honing a weapon in an action movie. I find that's probably dumber than a corporate logo becominmg a default key (which to be fair has been a thing since the 80s, the C64 had a Commodore key), but it does mean that if don't want it, you can get a keycap with anything you want on it instead.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I don't get the hate on custom keyboards. Sure you can go overboard, but like... I spend eight hours a day using a computer for work and then when I'm done I use another computer for fun. It's not absurd to spend a few hundred bucks on a keyboard that you can expect to last 15+ years instead of the $20 ones that you throw away every year or two or as soon as one thing breaks.

There are definitely keeb elitists though, which is always shitty no matter what hobby you're talking about.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I don't hate. I like a good keyboard.

Now, do I think obsessing about the extremely specific properties of switches and keycaps and spending hours manually embedding each individual key component just to get a specific color combination makes sense as a hobby? Hell no. But then neither does collecting stamps or watching people's grocery runs on Youtube. You do what you want, and this hobby at least lets you put whatever icon you please on the Bixby button.

I'll say this, though, that justification, which I have used often to myself and others, is a terrible rabbit hole of mismanaged finances. That is true of your monitor, your PC, you laptop, your phone, your keyboard, your chair, your desk... by the time you're done you've spent a year's salary setting up your workstation with absurdly luxurious, custom gear that sometimes makes no discernible difference. By all means get whatever stuff saves you from injury and provides comfort and satisfaction, but we all know in many of those categories the quality curve flattens out way before the price curve does.

Also, I guarantee most people with a custom keyboard swap it out more often than people who are still using the crappy board that came for free with their prebuilt or was given to them at work. I have dirt cheap Dell keyboards that still work fine. I may not love how they feel or sound, but it turns out we mastered the art of making buttons a while ago and closing a circuit with a conductive pad reliably is not a particularly costly proposition. Hey, buy good keyboards for the feel or because you have a glitzy hobby, but don't lie to yourself or me about it. You're a grown person, own that superfluously expensive nerdy taste. If boomers could brag about their fountain pens you can smugly bore your friends talking about the injection molding in the keycaps matching a specific pantone that you bought.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Oh no! That will fuck up my muscle memory!

Oh wait!

I don't use Winblows! Ufa!

Edit: seriously though, this whole AI super spyware baked into Windows is a privacy violation on a whole different level.

Too bad most ppl don't give a fuck.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

So we will need another sticker to cover MS logos on every keyboard?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

ooooh, a KRunner key!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Welp, time to disable TWO keys on my keyboard.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I love having a keyboard where every key is programmable.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

All keyboard layouts can be customized in software but some keyboard hardware like QMK can be programmed in hardware, which makes it especially convenient for switching computers.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Where do you use it? Do you have to use different computers at work or do you just carry your keyboard with you all the time in case you have to use some friend's computer?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

You just never have to reconfigure it if you reinstall, or move to another computer, or dual-boot etc.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Oh great, another key to accidentally press when I’m in a game.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I swear if this becomes mainstream I'm going back to ancient keyboards again. That's rediculous lol I am already annoyed at the volume buttons they have on my keyboard and that is not in the way.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Dedicated volume wheel is god tier change my mind

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

They're so desperate for AI to be a thing.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

AI is absolutely "a thing", not sure there's really a debate about that. The desperation here is they want to be the first company to completely immerse itself in Generative AI, but they're moving so fast they're just shoving every experiment they can come up with down their customers' throats.

AI is going to be a huge part of the future, but Microsoft might not be a part of that future if they fuck up with over implementation of nascent tech.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago

My bad, I should be more specific. They're so desperate for a fancy chatbot to be a part of everybody's workflow that they're going to add a special key that is not needed, or wanted by the vast majority.

I hope this can be remapped to something useful.

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