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bbfa235
(Get the code!)
Let's be just clear about this "bug" report: the fact that we cannot easily (i.e. in a switch in the control panel in Ubuntu 14.04 , or by choosing a windows like keyboard in the list of AZERTY keyboard available) is a clear stopper for adoption of Windows users that want could switch to Linux.
For any Windows user with AZERTY keyboard that could be switched to Ubuntu that I know of, the first impression they get is that the system "cannot manage such a simple thing as a keyboard". We are not going, as tech-savvy people, to teach a lambda user (say my mother) that they were wrong for years pressing cap lock to type numbers from the main part of the keyboard. It is just a habit. Typical scenario that I encounter several times to switch users from Windows to Ubuntu:
- Install Ubuntu
- Type user password. Most of the time there are numbers in it and the uncovered characters on the screenshot I type "the Windows way" by either pressing shift + number or by caps lock, number, un-caps lock
- At first login, they type it sometimes the other way => "wrong login or password entered"...
- If they pass the login, the first use of Libre Office to type a letter or use Calc make them yell
=> confidence immediately lost for something that is accepted in their mind as the expected behavior.
Then, when you start to explain the behavior is different, they is a clear aversion to change expressed (and I can understand it: if I'm used to type in some way for years, I don't want a computer to ask me to change my behavior, I expect the computer to follow my need).
Eventually, if I change the configuration to adapt the keyboard to behave like Windows, I need to do all the "seen as black magic very complicated stuff" to change the keyboard mappings etc: it is not a pain for me, but it is just a show stopper for the users that think now "wow, so contrary to what you told me, it won't be at all like you explained to me, Ubuntu is not going to be as easy as Widnows with free alternative software available for installation within a click etc"... Just because for a simple thing like keyboard management I was forced to edit core configuration files and restart their session / X11 / reboot...
What would really help: have a keyboard for AZERTY configuration available that reproduce the behavior of Windows keyboard. It would be as easy as selecting it during the installation process, and done!