How do you usually select text to copy in iTerm, if not with a pointing device?

First option is, with a trackpad on my Macbook, as that has minimum travel distance from where my fingers are already are. It's literally can be done within 3-5 cm moving distance. Second option is, pipe something to pbcopy, and it's put on the clipboard.

But it's not necessary that I copy from iTerm; maybe I have something on the clipboard and want to paste it into iTerm.

Right. So select copies. You can select with touchpad, or select with mouse. As for pasting, it's typically shift-insert (that is the keyboard shortcut for third mouse-button - three-finger tap should work, if you prefer). But I think Sakura might try and follow gtk(?) convention of generally supporing ctrl-v for paste (can't test that right now, as I've not gotten around to dual-boot/install a Linux vm on my Surface).

Well, there is no Insert key on my laptop, and Ctrl-V means something else in Vim, for instance.

Now, Linux vs MacOS vs Windows -- I get the difference, it's like moving from a manual car to automatic. But imagine you're given a manual car where every gear works normally except for the second -- and second gear requires some extra movement; like pressing a button, or turning a gear stick 90 degrees clockwise. How soon before this car would absolutely infuriate you?

And now imagine that people who learnt their driving on this car are coming to you and just aren't getting what's the big deal.

> Well, there is no Insert key on my laptop

One could argue that you have a broken keyboard (which can of course be fixed with xmodmap). Certainly, it's odd to complain about going from a non-standard command-c/v combination, that your keyboard is missing an insert key.

> and Ctrl-V means something else in Vim, for instance.

Sure, ctrl-keys are semi-consistent in each niche - and vim can paste and yank from the standard X11 cliboards (yes, sadly plural): "+p and "<star>p (where <star> is * escaped for hn formating).

http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Accessing_the_system_clipboard

You're free to make up your own mappings, just like Apple has done. And Apple deserves credit for forging a consistent user interface. And Microsoft at some point gave up fighting over ctrl and alt, just like Apple did, and rather than copy "command" they made the "windows"/super and "menu"/super keys.

So again, for all the faults one can find with inconsistencies in Linux/Xorg, the clipboard is actually fairly consistent IMNHO - especially considering the various archaic software packages it continues to support (eg: vi(m), emacs, tty's etc).

Three fingers?

I think that would necessitate at least a multitouch trackpad, and I frankly don't know what is the state of things in the Dell land with regards to that.