Linus' laptop and Num lock status

[Dax Kelson]

According to the lore(1) the reason that the kernel unconditionally
turns off the num lock was so that Linus' laptop came up ready to type.

The issue is that if you force num lock on, then laptop users are messed
up since for most laptops your keyboard changes as follows:

7890 = 789*
 uiop = 456-
  jkl; = 123+
   m./ = 0./

So the only safe choice is "force off" or "Follow BIOS" (preferable).

Are there any technical or political reasons why kernel can't change
from "force off" to "Follow BIOS"?

Some distributions implement "Follow BIOS" in their bootup scripts but
the most just follow the kernel. IMHO, it would be very nice if the
"Follow BIOS" was done by the kernel so this would Just Work(tm)
everywhere in all situations (such as rescue environments where the
normal bootup scripts aren't processed).

Thanks,
Dax Kelson

(1)
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2003-September/msg00713.html

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