The History of Ctrl + Alt + Delete • Hacker News Board

Re: The History of Ctrl + Alt + Delete

#11

Post by Udo » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 4:36 PM UTC

undershirt wrote: post #9

CTRL+SHIFT+ESC does what CTRL+ALT+DEL used to do -- goes straight to the task manager. CMD+ALT+ESC on mac, btw.

> CMD+ALT+ESC on mac, btw.

That goes to Force Quit, whereas CTRL+ALT+DEL on old Windows used to open the real task manager the Mac equivalent of which would be Activity Monitor (sadly, there doesn't seem to be a default shortcut to it).

Re: The History of Ctrl + Alt + Delete

#12

Post by dllthomas » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 4:36 PM UTC

stinos wrote: post #7

speeder wrote: post #2

Bill made it famous with his crashy software that made knowing it needed... These days of windows 8 I still have to use it regularly because of freezing programs and OS issues.

I'd rather say it's was the crashy software running on top of Windows that made it famous. Can't even remember last time I needed to use it for a Windows component itself.

It's been famous for probably longer than you've been paying attention, then. Windows stability has made huge strides over the past 20ish years.

Re: The History of Ctrl + Alt + Delete

#13

Post by ScottBurson » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 5:26 PM UTC

I've always wondered whether the creator of Ctrl-Alt-Del was aware that the MIT Lisp Machines were rebooted with Ctrl-Meta-Ctrl-Meta-Rubout, or if this is just a case of convergent reinvention. Does anyone know?

Re: The History of Ctrl + Alt + Delete

#14

Post by stinos » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 5:28 PM UTC

dllthomas wrote: post #12

stinos wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather say it's was the crashy software running on top of Windows that made it famous. Can't even remember last time I needed to use it for a Windows component itself.

It's been famous for probably longer than you've been paying attention, then. Windows stability has made huge strides over the past 20ish years.

I know, I've been using it for more than 2 decades :P And I always had the feeling that the amount of crashes due to actual OS bugs is way lower than what the common belief seems to be. Way over 90% of problems I witnessed myself was duewas dues to faulty software, drivers or hardware. And as you say it just got better with most releases which is (just guessing) partly due to less OS bugs and partly due to the OS taking better care of dealing with bad 3rd party software.

Re: The History of Ctrl + Alt + Delete

#15

Post by dhruvmittal » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 5:37 PM UTC

Aardwolf wrote: post #6

Hmm, it's a very long time ago that I pressed that key combination. I tried it out, and apparently it is wired to the Logout function of KDE...

Yeah- it was a pretty standard thing in Desktop Managers for a while for to be logout (or return to DM, depending on what you're using). I think GDM 3.0+ finally threw it out, but you'll still see it in KDM, LightDM, and Slim.

Re: The History of Ctrl + Alt + Delete

#16

Post by ksk » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 5:38 PM UTC

speeder wrote: post #2

Bill made it famous with his crashy software that made knowing it needed... These days of windows 8 I still have to use it regularly because of freezing programs and OS issues.

OS issues such as?

Re: The History of Ctrl + Alt + Delete

#17

Post by D9u » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 5:55 PM UTC

Udo wrote: post #11

undershirt wrote: post #9

CTRL+SHIFT+ESC does what CTRL+ALT+DEL used to do -- goes straight to the task manager. CMD+ALT+ESC on mac, btw.

> CMD+ALT+ESC on mac, btw. That goes to Force Quit, whereas CTRL+ALT+DEL on old Windows used to open the real task manager the Mac equivalent of which would be Activity Monitor (sadly, there doesn't seem to be a default shortcut to it).

    CTRL+ALT+DEL on old Windows used to open the real task manager

Really? Define "old Windows?"

I have vague memories of the "three finger salute" invoking a reboot on Windows 3.1, as well as MS-DOS. (early 1990's)

Re: The History of Ctrl + Alt + Delete

#18

Post by patmcguire » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 5:58 PM UTC

ScottBurson wrote: post #13

I've always wondered whether the creator of Ctrl-Alt-Del was aware that the MIT Lisp Machines were rebooted with Ctrl-Meta-Ctrl-Meta-Rubout, or if this is just a case of convergent reinvention. Does anyone know?

I can't verify, because I can't find old WordPerfect docs, but I remember hearing that CTRL + ALT + DEL was save for WordPerfect. The hint was that MS chose that as a monopoly-extending tactic. Might be thinking of ALT + F4, though, and this might be total nonsense.

Re: The History of Ctrl + Alt + Delete

#19

Post by ctdonath » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 6:05 PM UTC

Didn't address how the "system is screwed up, restart" sequence was adopted as the "do this to initiate first login".

Re: The History of Ctrl + Alt + Delete

#20

Post by Udo » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 6:10 PM UTC

D9u wrote: post #17

Udo wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> CMD+ALT+ESC on mac, btw. That goes to Force Quit, whereas CTRL+ALT+DEL on old Windows used to open the real task manager the Mac equivalent of which would be Activity Monitor (sadly, there doesn't seem to be a default shortcut to it).

CTRL+ALT+DEL on old Windows used to open the real task manager Really? Define "old Windows?" I have vague memories of the "three finger salute" invoking a reboot on Windows 3.1, as well as MS-DOS. (early 1990's)

It wasn't supposed to be an insult. My last Windows experience was XP and the TFS invoked the Task Manager on that OS. I never used 3.1, so I don't know. But the GP seemed to suggest that the Task Manager shortcut has changed in newer versions.