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Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards

arstechnica.com

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

#131

Post by everforward »

The responses here feel a little jaded to me. I'm not a fan of the corporate-driven nature of the change, but I do think "could we do something more useful with the menu key?" is a fair question and the answer is almost certainly yes.

AI has limitations and yada yada but use cases for the Menu key seem slim, and I'd get more mileage out of an "answer a stupid question where I'm okay with a probability of it being right" button.

How long would it take to swim from Florida to France? Why is the hole on cans of soda indented? Why do some fundraisers collect tabs from cans instead of the whole can?

I'm sure you can configure a keyboard to do that now (and likewise, you can likely restore Menu's former function), but for the average user who doesn't even know that's an option Menu is a waste of space.

AI might not even be the best option to replace Menu, but I do think it's worth talking about replacing it.

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

#132

Post by regularfry »

troebr wrote: post #79
paxys wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Oof. This should be more like a media key than a required key. I view it like a "Volume up/down" key, it's nice but not essential. Although it's probably much less useful than a volume key.

You could say the same about the Windows key itself. Many did.

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

#133

Post by bonton89 »

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #98
gtirloni wrote: post #45

> Microsoft is adding a new key to PC keyboards Not to mine. > A quick Microsoft demo video shows the Copilot key in between the cluster of arrow keys and the right Alt button, a place where many keyboards usually put a menu button, a right Ctrl key, another Windows key, or something similar I barely use any of those keys, especially the menu key. Just Microsoft's marketing department doing what they have alwasy done…

> I barely use any of those keys, especially the menu key. I need it in situations where I don't have a working mouse. eg: new virtual machine without extensions or where where I'm debugging mouse issues.

I complained about this as well since I use it for automation but SHIFT+F10 does the same thing.

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

#135

Post by regularfry »

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.

This should already be the case with the Meta key (which some platforms will insist on calling "Win"), shouldn't it?

I think the model of having a key which is only ever used for workspace management, and never by the applications themselves, is so obviously correct that the MacOS Command key actively baffles me.

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

#137

Post by regularfry »

jerf wrote: post #114
LeifCarrotson wrote: post #11

What happens when you plug this keyboard into a Linux box? Is it just another Meta/Super key, except one that doesn't support combinations? Is it using one of the reserved USB HID keyboard scan codes? Or is it a separate device driver just for that one key?

It'll do whatever they spec it to do. The good news is, whatever they spec it to do will be available to Linux and other OSes because there's really no practical way to spec something Linux couldn't handle as well as Windows without risking antitrust action over something far too stupid to justify such a thing. The bad news is that people do sometimes do dumb things with keyboards for no reason. I'm using a Dell lapt…

> The bad news is that people do sometimes do dumb things with keyboards for no reason.

cries in Thinkpad

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

#138

Post by bonton89 »

pjbk wrote: post #38

I honestly thought this was a joke since the key icon seemed like a female menstruation pad to me. Oh, how times have changed.

Really? Terrible marketing design from Microsoft has always been something you can set your watch too.

Most people would just put a picture of an airplane on there and call it a day but that would be missing an opportunity for pointless over-branding that people have come to expect when trying to use their Windows PC.

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

#139

Post by blibble »

tenebrisalietum wrote: post #44
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.

What is Microsoft suppsed to represent? I'm not sure their brand has ever been anything more concrete over its total existence other than BASIC/MS-DOS in the beginning, a few long running products (Windows, Office, Xbox, Azure) and that it is involved with user-facing technology.

> What is Microsoft suppsed to represent?

unreliable software combined with abusive business practices

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

#140

Post by hulitu »

LordDragonfang wrote: post #99
HWR_14 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other than ads, search or mobile OS, I'm not sure where else Google is beating MS. I don't mean to diminish those things, they are important. But ChromeOS is clearly nowhere near displacing Windows (for instance).

New outlook keeps getting worse, while gmail keeps getting better; virtually no one under the age of 40 buys Office for personal use, they all use the google suite, Chrome has an absurd market share. Really the only place they're winning is in the ChromeOS vs Windows fight.

> gmail keeps getting better

Gmail was always a parody of a mail client. Damn, even the demo called Lotus Notes was better.

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