Alain M. Lafon

If you want to use shortcuts in Linux/X11 as you are used to in OSX, you can configure X11 to use the CMD key as an additional CTRL key. Your muscle memory of CMD+c, CMD+s, CMD+v will not betray you anymore, then.

Since Linux is highly configurable, we can just tamper with the keymap.

1. Create a file ~/.Xmodmap

! clear CMD of it's regular task, whatever that might be
clear mod4

! configure CTRL and CMD to act as left Control
keycode 133 = Control_L NoSymbol Control_L
keycode 37 = Control_L NoSymbol Control_L

! use CTRL and CMD to act as left Control
add control = Control_L

Note: This works for my Macbook Pro (early 2011) with US layout. Your machine may use different keycodes. You can find out easily which is your CMD key, though. Just look for “Super_L” in your current keymap.

➜  ~  xmodmap -pke | grep Super_L
keycode 133 = Super_L NoSymbol Super_L

2. Load keymap patch

xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap

3. Autoloading

When this works for you (try copy/pasting/saving), then make sure to autoload .Xmodmap on start of X11. I do that using my window manager I3, but you also might add something similar to .xinitrc or .xsession

echo "exec xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap &" >> .i3/config

The Airport Express is a great device when used in combination with iTunes – I thought. I could sit on my couch on my MBA, do some coding work while listening to my streamed Library (Mac Mini) not through internal speakers, but through my Harman-Kardon Hifi system.

Well, this setup has its flaws. What if I wanted to listen to Grooveshark for example? I would be stuck with the internal speakers. But no longer so, Airfoil comes to the rescue. This application can hook into system audio and redirect everything to Airport Express. There is added benefit for the old setup, too. Using the volume toggles on the keyboard will have impact on iTunes, now.

Setting this up is dead simple – like four clicks. You’ll figure it out.

Finally, there’s no more listening to this sentence anymore: “Well, I’m using Microsoft Windows. You know, that’s the better OS. If it weren’t, why is Microsoft the bigger player?”
My friends, the tables have turned. According to Yahoo Finance Apple has a net worth of 230Bwhereas Microsoft caps at 212B (08/13/2013).

There’s much joy to extract from this graph from WolframAlpha (note: WA uses data from 06/30/2010. The breakthrough was imminent back then):

Now, please don’t come bothering me, because Microsoft still has Windows and Office to receive the big routine paycheck while Apple has to constantly innovate to keep its pace. Depending on those two has thought Microsoft nothing but stagnation. In the meantime Apple, Google, Facebook and Twitter arose. If Microsoft doesn’t change pace, they will suffer Yahoos’ fate.

If you ask me, it would be for the best of it. In the field of technology not the biggest player will win in the long run, but the most innovative. Do you remember those Kodak cameras that didn’t go digital (1990:7B, 2010:0$, source)? Geocities was hip once and worth 3.6B in 1999, now dead (source).

The list continues. Even when there is market domination, there still is room to manoeuvre. Microsoft didn’t equip the first personal computers – and they certainly won’t be the last.