Comment by maratc

They were trying to ape the Apple layout without even understanding the Apple layout.

Apple layout works because the most used modifier is "Command". There are two of them, on both sides of Space. You can quickly find them without looking at the keyboard: put a thumb on the (extra-wide) space and move to the side until you get to the next button. That's "Cmd".

Less-used button is Option, there are two of them, next to Command further away from Space, you can find them in a similar manner by moving over two buttons. (Option is mostly used together with Command.)

Even less used is Control, there's only one, and it's even farther away from left Option. Finally, the thing that's hardly ever used is Fn which is stuck in the most remote location -- down-left corner.

On PCs, Ctrl is the most used button, there are two of them, on extreme left and right, you can quickly find them without looking at the keyboard: put a pinky on the "no keys" space outside of keys and move it towards where the keys are. Once you hit the key, it's Ctrl.

What ThinkPad designers did was to break this in the most brutal manner: by putting the least used button in the most used position. If they wanted to ape the Apple layout, they would do great by understanding the Apple layout first.