ubuntu ain't mac's type?

apparently not, if one looks at the countless (mostly unanswered) questions about how to configure ubuntu to get along with a mac keyboard.

well, but i did the following: chose "Macintosh" as keyboard model and "german (no dead keys)" as layout;

and then added ~/.xmodmaprc containing these few lines:

clear control

! define Alt key as mode switch
! (enables €, @, », « etc.)
keycode 64      = Mode_switch

! define Ctrl as Alt key
keycode  37     = Alt_L

! define Apple as Ctrl key
remove control  = Control_L
keycode 115     = Control_L
add control     = Control_L

probably quite unusual to do all the control commands with the apple key (even os x doesn't do that)... but that's a minor trade-off for a generally huge improvement.

(btw. if you should need different keycodes i recommend xev to determine them.)