I’ve been using vim for about 2yrs and the keybindings are very very logical and work great. Many complain about the emacs-keybindings which I also found very hard and unlogical, but it might be a case of what is learned first. I can _only_ ask you to invest some time in learning the vimkeys :) emacs evil-mode is a 99% implementation of the vimkeys in emacs. I’ve seen quite a lot of users who end up using emacs but they all use evil-mode since the vimkeys make more sense.

“Just because several obscure apps use old, outdated bindings does not mean that policy should be continued.”

Please ask yourself why they have not changed much :) It’s no accident the way they are configured. The people behind these keybindings did not just bash their head against the keyboard and accepted the result. They used a lot of time to find the most optimal way and that’s why it hasn’t changed and that’s why they are still included in new old AND new apps.

These “obscure” apps are also wildly used and they have stayed strong for many many years and there is a reason for that too.

Wow.. I don’t even know what to say :D The reason the keybindings has not changed much is because they work. Or put in other words: There is no better way to use a keyboard. If you think you can improve of something that has stayed since the 60’s and is still used everywhere, then please, sir. Even imgur uses hjkl. There is a reason it sticks.

@Christian: “Qutebrowser, Ncmpcpp, calcurse, newsboat, ranger, emacs evil-mode, i3-wm”

Interesting that you mention these apps. I NEVER have used any of these, nor do I use vi/vim. I do use emacs, but am not that thrilled with the key bindings. Many times I have thought about creating a remap of the emacs key bindings to make them more logical and easier to remember and use!

Just because several obscure apps use old, outdated bindings does not mean that policy should be continued. IMHO, we should create a recommended set of Standard Key Bindings for new Linux app development, and as an alternative set of bindings for older apps.

“Vim is almost as old as time and there is a lot of history behind these keybindings.”
IOW, if it was good enough for GrandPa, it should be good enough for me? :-)

It is interesting that on one hand users complain when their distro does not have the most up to date apps but on the other, they hold on for dear life to archaic and byzantine apps such as vim.

Actually, just the fact that it uses vim-keys is enough to make it pretty fast since there is no need to move your hand to the mouse and moving the mouse to go up or down a level.

If you use this for a month and go back to thunar or something like that, I promise you that it’ll feel like the slowest process in the world.