Caps-lock elimination is a perennial topic on Slashdot — here’s one example — and the idea is generally shot down. I use the caps-lock key quite a lot, and I don’t think it’s going away soon. Here are a few of they ways it is used: as a modifier key already in some applications; in coding, which is case-sensitive; and it is used in some high byte count languages like Pashto, Arabic, and Chinese to switch between characters rather than cases. Since this is an efficiency-oriented site, I will point out one of my uses. I use caps-lock as a very convenient way, available across the entire UI, to indicate provisional or comment text in my professional writing. There are a number of tools, such as SpellCatcher, that let you switch rapidly to normal capitalization; Word even does this for you. So, don’t disparage the caps-lock key; think of it as a trailer-hitch; your car may not need one, but mine may.