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viccisyesterday at 5:59 PM1 replyview on HN

It has been used as an idiom to mean stopping or restarting something (the former in this case) for decades: https://wordspy.com/words/ctrl-alt-delete/

I think it's because most people associate Ctrl-Alt-Del with the process of terminating a process, so they use the key sequence itself to refer to the act of terminating something.


Replies

crazygringoyesterday at 9:53 PM

It means restart. It has never meant stop. Even the link you provide says:

> n. A metaphoric mechanism with which one can reset, restart, or rethink something.

That's what's confusing. The headline makes no sense because it's not about restarting.