Why do Chromebook keyboards only have lowercase letters? Techno Doctor | magazine

A Chromebook is a type of laptop computer that uses the Chrome OS operating system, developed by Google. Unlike traditional laptops that can run operating systems like Windows or macOS, Chromebooks are primarily designed to run applications and online services.

But in addition, these devices have the peculiarity of the keyboard keys being written in lowercase letters, and it has remained that way since the launch of the first Chromebook prototype, the CR-48, in 2010, as Google's blog detailed.

“From the beginning, we knew it would be great if the keyboard was actually available“So we asked ourselves: What can we take with us?,” says Alexander Kocher, senior director of the ChromeOS team who was involved in early Chromebook designs. What is the minimum number of keys we should have? How can we make this a great experience?

This is why the idea of ​​small letters arose.

“We're so used to keyboard typing in all caps, but if you go to a text field to start a document and start typing on a traditional keyboard, the keys won't match what's on the screen, right? “You press the capital ‘D’, but a small ‘d’ appears.”So we decided that Chromebooks would be different: If you press a key, this is what you get“.

It is detailed that at that time, many phones and tablets already had modern, simplified keyboards. For example, Android phones were issued in lower case when they debuted in 2008.

However, most laptops and desktop computers can still date their keyboard design back to the first commercially successful typewriter, the Remington No. 1which can only type uppercase letters.

“If you look at a lot of modern PCs or laptops, their keyboards still have a lot of heritage from those early days of computing: uppercase keyboards, enter, home, page up,” says Reynolds. And down, and lock the capital letters.”

The team's goal was to create a more modern, less confusing keyboard that addressed many of these legacy features. For example, Chromebooks don't have “Sys Req” keys and the “Break” key is nowhere to be seen. And there are just a few redundant keys (Control and Alt) on either side of the keyboard rather than a confusing array of function keys and platform-specific keys.

But there is a key that the team added button to everyone. This button is located on the left side of the keyboard (where the Caps Lock key is usually located), and it started out as a search key, complete with a magnifying glass icon, before moving on to its modern version: A solid circle surrounded by a ring.

“We thought at the time that the future of computing would be more searching and less yelling at people who use capital letters, which turned out to be largely true,” says Reynolds. “And now button to everyone It has expanded to all these different purposesSearch the web, find apps, files, Drive, and more, he adds. (F)