I understand the tradeoff is all I mean. In fact, probably the biggest win is the BIOS setting that lets you choose whether you want function keys or media keys, since each user chooses their preference.
Your use case is definitely different than mine. I constantly want to adjust volume or mute when someone walks in or adjust brightness if I'm in the dark. The only time I really need function keys are in OpenSCAD and maybe once or twice a day in other programs. If I'm doing a lot of batch edits in vim, I'll nnoremap to the function keys if I have a full keyboard. For closing a window, it's almost always Ctrl+W or Ctrl+Shift+W, for refresh it's Ctrl+R, etc.
That's great, but if Ctrl+R is for refresh, what combo you would use for 'Rename'? To get to the address bar? To view a file in `mc`? Dev tools in browser?
And the thing is, this is a muscle memory from almost the three decades of usage[0]. I don't have a problem hitting Fn+F1/F2/F3 for Mute/Vol-/Vol+ but I would have a problem if hitting F5 would turn off my WiFi.
And by the way - I have big hands but even I struggle to hit Fn+F12/whatever key on the top right. Therefore I bought a laptop with a second Fn key.
[0] Edit: and most of them are in CUA or de-facto standard ones. I still hit Ctrl+Ins/Shift+Ins sometimes. Not on the modern laptop keyboards, of course...
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I understand the tradeoff is all I mean. In fact, probably the biggest win is the BIOS setting that lets you choose whether you want function keys or media keys, since each user chooses their preference.
Your use case is definitely different than mine. I constantly want to adjust volume or mute when someone walks in or adjust brightness if I'm in the dark. The only time I really need function keys are in OpenSCAD and maybe once or twice a day in other programs. If I'm doing a lot of batch edits in vim, I'll nnoremap to the function keys if I have a full keyboard. For closing a window, it's almost always Ctrl+W or Ctrl+Shift+W, for refresh it's Ctrl+R, etc.
That's great, but if Ctrl+R is for refresh, what combo you would use for 'Rename'? To get to the address bar? To view a file in `mc`? Dev tools in browser?
And the thing is, this is a muscle memory from almost the three decades of usage[0]. I don't have a problem hitting Fn+F1/F2/F3 for Mute/Vol-/Vol+ but I would have a problem if hitting F5 would turn off my WiFi.
And by the way - I have big hands but even I struggle to hit Fn+F12/whatever key on the top right. Therefore I bought a laptop with a second Fn key.
[0] Edit: and most of them are in CUA or de-facto standard ones. I still hit Ctrl+Ins/Shift+Ins sometimes. Not on the modern laptop keyboards, of course...