Post #728582
2026-01-12 02:42 UTC
Replies (13)
-
@vtrlx@mastodon.social 2026-01-12 02:51
Missing from this post is a suggestion that users compare the speed of their work using middle-click paste with the speed of their work without, but I didn't want to be negative toward the feature because that's not what this is about. The important thing to understand is that nobody's taking the feature away from anyone. If you actually read what GNOME contributors have to say about the feature, you'll find a LOT of nuance. The same can't be said of the haters.
-
@freya@chaosfem.tw 2026-01-12 03:04
@vtrlx@mastodon.social holy shit. I'm a Unix traditionalist and even I think all the bitching about this is pointless. just re-enable the feature, done and done. holy shit
-
@benjistokman@mast.benstokman.me 2026-01-12 03:12
@vtrlx@mastodon.social man if people gave Microsoft a tenth of the scrutiny they give to random open source products...
-
@hipsterelectron@circumstances.run 2026-01-12 03:13
@vtrlx@mastodon.social the register is a trash outlet
-
@karadoc@aus.social 2026-01-12 04:35
@vtrlx@mastodon.social I hadn't heard about the middle click thing. That's good news to me. I've always found the feature weird and confusing; and somewhat unsettling when I accidentally paste something that I definitely did not clip and I really wish I hadn't pasted... I will appreciate being able to turn it off, one day, in the distant future. Also, I liked this: > Claims don’t even need to feel true let alone be true to gain traction—they just need to be rage-inducing to those angry toward that which they feel has wronged them.
-
@grinceur@mamot.fr 2026-01-12 10:58
@vtrlx@mastodon.social totaly agreed. as a gnome user (who uses middle clic past as the default way of copy-pasting) the argument makes sense for a mouse. But what about touchpads? 3 fingers click emulates middle click but would this be usable for auto scrolling? (I never used that feature so idk) afaik on windows the 3 fingers click opens the start menu...
-
@dexterous@oldbytes.space 2026-01-12 11:18
@vtrlx@mastodon.social I've seen a handful of posts regarding this on mastodon over the past few days, but honestly it's only been people slamming those that have been against the removal of middle click. Maybe it's just the people I follow, who knows. I haven't yet read anyone that has spoken negatively about it, but I'm well aware there's a lot of alternate OS people that are way over the top when it comes to change (systemd, pipewire, Wayland) I did read your article and found your perspective interesting, particilarly the decree that middle click scroll is more common. I didn't even know about middle click scroll! I assume that's a pattern from one of the commercial operating systems? If I'm anything to go by then, I'd say it's almost certainly not common for anyone that has steered clear of commercial OSes. That's worth considering I think. In any case, I agree regarding the removal. If that's a more natural fit for people then that's got to be a good thing as it will surely help migration paths, help separate people from toxic tech. As you say, middle click paste will remain an option so hard to understand why anyone would be upset. I personally love having both clipboard and primary selection buffer as I use them both extensively. I typically use shift+insert over middle click though.
-
@uis@pone.social 2026-01-12 11:58
@vtrlx@mastodon.social yet it misses important part: the discussion was locked from start on GNOME side. On firefox side nothing really happened, yet they didn't lock discussion. On KDE side devs seems to agree to improve feature visibility. Neither they locked. I'm yet to find source of "easter egg" claim. Some people point to ancient freedesktop page, but why it is there? It's not even X11ism, it exists outside of X11, Wayland and even every other GUI. This is how mouse works in virtual terminal, for example
-
@fog@fosstodon.org 2026-01-12 12:47
@vtrlx@mastodon.social I love the smell of a Gnome flame war in the morning. :D Very objective and informative article. Thanks.
-
@TheOneDoc@tech.lgbt 2026-01-12 17:04
@vtrlx@mastodon.social %s/Linux/UNIX/g also you missed my fav claim "... because touchscreens don't have a middle mouse button" I don't care enough about that topic as someone who doesn't use GNOME but it's a fact that it it makes changing default settings way harder than it needs to be and many distros don't have the apps needed for the more "hidden" settings in there GNOME default installs but that's something between GNOME the Distro maintainers and there users. Fact is GNOME made decisons about there desktop that many people who use(d) it disagree with or outright hate and we all know the worst enemy is a former lover. UNIX user expect a UNIX desktop to behave like UNIXDESKTOPS have behaved since the CDE days and if yours is the one exception then this backlash is entirely deserved. But whatever blame the evil "yellow" press.
-
@sfalken@mastodon.naturalorder.me 2026-01-12 17:15
@vtrlx@mastodon.social I mean, standard FOSS "journalism" All the drama, none of the research or facts.
-
@woltiv@mastodon.social 2026-01-12 21:59
@vtrlx@mastodon.social From the article: "[users] who want part of their precious screen space dedicated to Discord showing an essentially permanent red “unread messages” badge because who can even stay on top of all of their Discord messages when it’s a ceaselessly noisy IM app constantly demanding your attention and yet I’m supposed to believe that software which makes it harder for unscrupulous techbros to monopolize your attention is itself somehow an affront unto the very concept of software freedom..."
-
@ianp5a@social.vivaldi.net 2026-01-13 09:03
@vtrlx@mastodon.social I guess many spoke up to say, hey I use the 2nd clipboard! Worried it would be lost. As Gnome removed several things people need in the past, people are bound to worry. (Sure, an option is totally fine.) It's very handy to have 2 clipboards. Note: it is not just text, but it can paste other objects too. In Plasma at least. As a visual, graphical, mouse user I have lots of productivity issues with Gnome. It seems tuned to keyboard users workflows. Plasma solves all these for me.