The One True Location for the Ctrl key is down where your thumbs can reach it. I always use Dell laptops, and always immediately map the thumb-friendly left-Alt key to Ctrl. The right Alt key becomes my Meta key. The result? I can type along all day and hammer out whatever complicated Emacs control sequences I want, without my eight normal fingers ever leaving home row! My hands get to remain just as they usually are, comfortably atop the letters, while my thumbs — whose joints let them range orthogonally to the rest of my fingers — dictate whether the “A” that I’m hitting with my left pinky is a normal “A”, a “Ctrl-A”, or a “Meta-A”.

I do deign to hit the Shift key with my pinky, I suppose, now that I think about it, and it’s probably the least comfortable thing I do. Hmm. Wonder if there’s some way to bring Shift down to my thumbs too?