Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards • Hacker News Board

Re: Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards

#121

Post by steve1977 » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 8:11 PM UTC

Zetobal wrote: post #85

jjordan wrote: post #6

The way Microsoft is pushing AI literally everywhere now feels reminiscent of circa 2001 when literally everything was branded '.NET'. Eventually they scaled it back, but it was complete overkill and diluted what the brand was supposed to represent.

Feels more like Google+ to me... push untested features that no one asked for but miss getting the basics right. I mean GitHub/Copilot tells me all the time that it will change the way I develop and everytime I look at windows they are still not able to implement a proper dark mode.

Well they can’t even decide on which frontend framework to use this year it seems…

Re: Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards

#122

Post by jcgrillo » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 8:11 PM UTC

arp242 wrote: post #62

dijit wrote: post #18

I get so tilted at the idea of a specific OS vendor having a dedicated keyboard button on all non-apple computers. And now they are doing it again, wild.

I'm not a huge fan it has a Windows logo printed on it, but there are good usability reasons for the key, even on non-Windows systems, and there was just a big hunk of empty space between Ctrl and Alt before. So nothing is really lost for non-Windows users. It seems to me there are more pressing matters to get angry about than the logo on a keyboard. And whether we like or not not, Windows is the dominant desktop OS,…

> big hunk of empty space between Ctrl and Alt

This empty space can be a feature for emacs users who use the outside of their opposite palm for actuating the ctrl or alt keys.

I personally gave up on this approach years ago because it was only viable on my IBM model M which is hard to transport. Instead now I always remap caps to ctrl, that way no matter what keyboard I'm using it feels familiar.

Re: Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards

#123

Post by steve1977 » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 8:12 PM UTC

doodpants wrote: post #109

"On an up-to-date Windows PC with Copilot enabled, you can currently do the same thing by pressing Windows + C. For PCs without Copilot enabled, including those that aren't signed into Microsoft accounts, the Copilot key will open Windows Search instead" Just tried Windows + C on my Win 10 machine; it brings up a dialog that helpfully informs me "Cortana in Windows as a standalone app is deprecated."

I guess Windows 10 is not considered up to date per se…

Re: Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards

#124

Post by bityard » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 8:12 PM UTC

paxys wrote: post #15

kpozin wrote: post #9

What about the MS Office key and Emoji key? Those were definitely added after 1994. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/using-the-office-k...

Random keys are added to keyboards all the time. In this case Microsoft is requiring it from all their PC vendors.

This should really be the top comment in the whole thread because almost all of the comments I've read so far are missing this point.

Yes, _keyboard manufacturers_ are allowed to add/remove any keys that they want. But most PC users are not buying keyboards from third-party vendors. They are buying them as part of the whole PC from OEMs like Dell, HP, and Lenovo. And the Windows OEM license agreements for those vendors state (to paraphrase), "If you want to ship Windows on your systems, you have to include the Windows and Copilot keys on the keyboard."

And it follows that keyboard manufacturers _want_ to have their keyboards include all the same keys as the OEMs so that they can claim complete compatibility with the OEMs, possibly to the point of calling the keyboards Microsoft Windows(TM) Compatible on the box.

Re: Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards

#125

Post by layer8 » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 8:14 PM UTC

kpozin wrote: post #9

What about the MS Office key and Emoji key? Those were definitely added after 1994. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/using-the-office-k...

Those aren’t real keys in the sense of having their own keycodes, instead they just map to some other key combination. The Copilot key will presumably be similar (?). These “new keys” are unfortunate, and a regular key that you can remap to whatever you want would be more useful.

Re: Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards

#126

Post by UtopiaPunk » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 8:15 PM UTC

Arainach wrote: post #105

asdff wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not even microsoft its everyone and their grandmother pushing AI this AI that crap. Really language model this language model that, but we've perverted what AI actually means to the public already so that's great too for technological literacy purposes.

To be fair, customers are part of the hype feedback loop. I have seen actual conversations with non-tech workers that boil down to "when we ask these people what they want AI to do, they say they don't know, but boy do they get excited every time we mention adding AI"

Are customers really asking for AI soda flavors, tho? https://us.coca-cola.com/products/coke-creations/y3000-limit...

Re: Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards

#127

Post by RedShift1 » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 8:17 PM UTC

I'm ok with this if I can remap to the right click key that has disappeared over the years. I use that one a lot on laptops.

Re: Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards

#128

Post by layer8 » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 8:18 PM UTC

twic wrote: post #116

This is awesome! I'll be able to map that to window manager functions in Cinnamon, and they won't conflict with any application's keystrokes.

Maybe you wont, it wasn’t possible with the “Office” key, because that just mapped to Shift+Ctrl+Alt+Win (I’m not joking). The Copilot key may just be hardcoded to map to Win+C or similar.

Re: Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards

#129

Post by thefuersty » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 8:20 PM UTC

Wonder if the Co-pilot feature will map to a "normal" keystroke; similar to how you can pull up the Start Menu on a keyboard without the Start button with a Ctrl-Escape.

Bing AI says it's not yet settled if that will be an option.

Re: Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards

#130

Post by nbzso » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 8:21 PM UTC

I gave my friends the following advice.

Push yourselves away from AI trend tools and learn what is what before falling into this trap.

In the era of AI those who can think, draw, write, code and be the best in their craft without it will rule the rest. Simple and clear. Prompting is not a skill which will differentiate (except for AI devs, as a part of fine-tuning the model's output).

The real danger of AI is not getting agency ang killing us (yet).

The real danger, in my view, is normalization and trust into technology which "hallucinates" and obtains a formidable property with a name "The Black Box".

Don't get me starting on privacy.:)