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I am confused: why Emacs keybindings in OS X?


From: Alan
Subject: I am confused: why Emacs keybindings in OS X?
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2016 00:34:04 -0800 (PST)
User-agent: G2/1.0

Enigmas or Cruel Jokes?

I have avoided Apple and Microsoft operating systems for 20+ years; yet this 
year, I was required to use Apple and OSX for a new job, and decided to plunge 
in head first.  I was in for some revelations and some confusions.

1. Emacs is hardly found in any GNU/Linux distro, except if installed by 
oneself.  Yet, in OS X, it is there, ready to go.   ????  What is the history 
of this?

2. On OS X, Emacs keybindings (or what I call Emacs Keybindings) for 
navigation, at least, are ubiquitous.  (And the iMac keyboard is much more 
comfortable to type on that a similar laptop keyboard from a Thinkpad.)  Yet, 
Emacs on OS X, at least in my case, does not adhere to the same keybindings as 
closely is on Linux.  WTF?!

3. I have grown comfortable with much of what is happening on the OS X system.  
Yet, I have found that for all the proprietary claims that I have lost data and 
(on and iphone) contacts have been randomly lost.  I think my position is going 
to be something like that I have read by Donald Knuth: I will only trust my 
family jewels to GNU/Linux.  So I have gone back to GNU/Linux.  

And, guess what?  The Emacs keybindings are not de rigeur on the GNU/Linux 
system!!!  


I am NOT comfortable with a few ethical/philosophical issues.  In particular, 
for example, CUPS works really, really well on OS X.  The boycott against Apple 
is off, but Apple is still not paying it forward.  I am more than uncomfortable 
with Apple's attempt to ensnare users in a consumer mode.  

Do the keybindings of Emacs, and of the desktop on OS X derive from a common 
ancestor, independently, or is something darker at work?

Alan


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