Hot take: good riddance.
-
Hot take: good riddance. I dislike the middle click thing. Trips me up all the time as someone who accidentally clicks it when scrolling.
I think the right move is to make this (undoubtedly useful to some) behavior opt-in, not opt-out.
A lot of the gripes I see are just people being mad because GNOME makes choices they don't like. I don't understand why people write like this about GNOME, if you don't like it don't use it, your emotions make you look petty, etc etc.
https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/07/gnome_middle_click_paste/
@vkc Good. I also hope they get rid of the insert button triggering overwrite-mode, which I've seen trip people up even on Windows.
Although when they switch defaults like this, it might be nice to ask the user the first time if they want to keep it.
Emacs does a really cool thing actually, where if you use a disabled key combo it asks you if you meant to use that feature and whether you want to enable it or disable the key binding completely. -
The way the article is written. The way the comments talk about it.
Why do people make it sound like GNOME is some sort of secret cabal of Linux haters?
It's a freaking desktop environment, they have every right to build it however they want, and you have every right to use something different. There's zero reason to get emotionally charged about it.
@vkc I'm more of a lightweight window manager kind of guy (my favorite is dwm since it works how I like), but GNOME is a great choice of desktop environment in my eyes if you want a streamlined and simple workflow. Personally though, for DEs, I'm more into LXDE and KDE, but Linux is all about choice and everyone should use whatever works best for them
-
Come to think of it, right click is redundant, too. We should go full Apple and just have one button mice, and use the alt key for everything. People love that.
@bruce is that what I said? How are you reading any of that from what I said?
It's a proposal to change a setting which is known to trip folks up and cause issues. To make something "opt-in" instead of foisted on folks. Many, many mice put the middle click in the scroll wheel and it causes headaches for some.
It's a reasonable proposal to be debated, and making it sound like GNOME is some sort of anti-user cabal is just silly at best, malicious at worst.
-
@trezzer ugh that's the worst!
-
@bruce is that what I said? How are you reading any of that from what I said?
It's a proposal to change a setting which is known to trip folks up and cause issues. To make something "opt-in" instead of foisted on folks. Many, many mice put the middle click in the scroll wheel and it causes headaches for some.
It's a reasonable proposal to be debated, and making it sound like GNOME is some sort of anti-user cabal is just silly at best, malicious at worst.
Hmm. I thought the "people love that" line would have been enough of a clue that I was being facetious, but I guess not. Sorry. It was meant as a (apparently bad) joke.
-
@dcbaok I don't understand why you fear it being disabled entirely?
In GNOME at least, there's a billion extensions for fixing things, and a feature this popular almost certainly can't be gotten rid of completely.
I think that fear is irrational considering the actual proposal and the reality of how Linux is made.
@vkc I don't know that it will ever happen, and yes the fear may not be rational, but if it becomes a second-class feature who's to say what future bug will be deemed too difficult to fix, and then the feature axed entirely.
That being said I'm not out yelling about it, just watching from the sidelines. These are the first comments I've made about it.
As for Gnome extensions... suffice it to say I've had my share of bad experiences with them, they can be pretty janky.
-
Hmm. I thought the "people love that" line would have been enough of a clue that I was being facetious, but I guess not. Sorry. It was meant as a (apparently bad) joke.
@bruce sorry I misread you, I have folks actually being kind of jerks in some of these replies so it's hard to filter facetiousness from everything else.
-
In this period, in this timeline, at this moment, maybe, just maybe, we shouldn't talk about *desktop environment design disagreements* like they're causing deep emotional harm?
@vkc I agree with all said. Honestly, I haven't used the middle-click paste **on purpose** a single time in my whole life.
-
@vkc True that! Having said that I'd like to spend a disproportionate amount of time, not to talk, but to argue with you about rounded corners
@thesaigoneer lolol
-
@bruce sorry I misread you, I have folks actually being kind of jerks in some of these replies so it's hard to filter facetiousness from everything else.
I understand. As we all know, rapid-fire text responses often lack the subtleties we might like. I could have thought more about that reply before sending.
-
@fennix AFAIK nobody's proposing that. On the other hand, it's a tripping hazard for folks new to Linux.
To me the proposal makes complete sense: disable by default and allow someone to opt in (via extension or some other toggle).
Yeah I think for adoption it definitely helps and I see the argument for it.
-
The way the article is written. The way the comments talk about it.
Why do people make it sound like GNOME is some sort of secret cabal of Linux haters?
It's a freaking desktop environment, they have every right to build it however they want, and you have every right to use something different. There's zero reason to get emotionally charged about it.
@vkc I'm not particularly plussed about middle click paste going away but that article is not okay.
I for one would like changes in behaviour of software to be done extremely purposefully and rarely and come with usability studies and solid data backing up it being an improvement, but I don't think that not happening warrants the level of hatred currently poured on GNOME (… again
) either way. -
@vkc not when you have muscle memory going back to the 1980s with middle click
not when the distro(s) you like have it as the default desktop
not when the other desktops are just a heap of no
Gnome tried to get rid of icons on the desktop a few years ago. User pressure brought them back (admittedly through some pretty foul shell hacks)
-
Yeah, some of those reactions are over the top. But middle click paste really is a great feature. If Gnome does away with it, I hope somebody adds it back via an extension, and fast.
With any luck, the Gnome devs will read the room for once and abandon that idea.
@bruce Agreed. Once you get used to it, middle-click paste is hard to shake. I still try to do it on Windows work PCs and look confused when it doesn't work.
Trouble is, I don't think gtk apps have done it properly for years. I think the semantics are supposed to be that if you click on somewhere with a caret, it leaves the primary selection intact. So you can highlight some text, reposition the cursor, then middle click to paste. Gnome apps seem to clear the selection when you do this.
@vkc -
The way the article is written. The way the comments talk about it.
Why do people make it sound like GNOME is some sort of secret cabal of Linux haters?
It's a freaking desktop environment, they have every right to build it however they want, and you have every right to use something different. There's zero reason to get emotionally charged about it.
@vkc There is history.
What fuels the anger is the annoyance at the lack of reflection within Gnome of its role in the failure of desktop Linux.
Most notably it's insular design choices in Gnome 3, and the early shipment of that non-ready software, reducing Linux's share of the market from MacOS levels to a third of that.
Today, yet another insular design choice by Gnome. Of course people are going to give them stick. Even if it's a good decision.
-
@vkc @trezzer I mean, in order to prevent screwing up my documents, I have to (a) download a new package and then (b) dive into about:config and flip the boolean for middlemouse.paste. There should be one toggle in the plain old Settings box. I wouldn't care that much about what the default setting even is; the problem is that the simple toggle *does not exist*.
-
@vkc I don't know that it will ever happen, and yes the fear may not be rational, but if it becomes a second-class feature who's to say what future bug will be deemed too difficult to fix, and then the feature axed entirely.
That being said I'm not out yelling about it, just watching from the sidelines. These are the first comments I've made about it.
As for Gnome extensions... suffice it to say I've had my share of bad experiences with them, they can be pretty janky.
@vkc Different case, different feature, different context, but here's an earlier frustration with lefty copy-paste behavior On Computer.
-
@vkc There is history.
What fuels the anger is the annoyance at the lack of reflection within Gnome of its role in the failure of desktop Linux.
Most notably it's insular design choices in Gnome 3, and the early shipment of that non-ready software, reducing Linux's share of the market from MacOS levels to a third of that.
Today, yet another insular design choice by Gnome. Of course people are going to give them stick. Even if it's a good decision.
@glent "its role in the failure of desktop Linux"
That's a GIGANTIC assumption. And is insulting to the hard working people who work on GNOME, many of whom had nothing to do with those so-called "insular design choices".
It's open source, you can't force a team to do things your way. GNOME's foundation led to wonderful projects like Cinnamon, and I'd argue that the diversification has been a strength.
IMO it's all needless harping on folks who have different opinions.
-
Hot take: good riddance. I dislike the middle click thing. Trips me up all the time as someone who accidentally clicks it when scrolling.
I think the right move is to make this (undoubtedly useful to some) behavior opt-in, not opt-out.
A lot of the gripes I see are just people being mad because GNOME makes choices they don't like. I don't understand why people write like this about GNOME, if you don't like it don't use it, your emotions make you look petty, etc etc.
https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/07/gnome_middle_click_paste/
@vkc
I've used Linux since 1995. I use it personally for fun, and I've used it professionally for 30 years, incuding some of the largest computers on earth. And I've used middle-click for that entire time.I love using Gnome, *because* it doesn't overwhelm me with options. It gets out of the way. And I think removing middle-click is the right decision. The utility just isn't worth the confusion - two clipboards and accidental middle-clicks still confuse me.
-
The way the article is written. The way the comments talk about it.
Why do people make it sound like GNOME is some sort of secret cabal of Linux haters?
It's a freaking desktop environment, they have every right to build it however they want, and you have every right to use something different. There's zero reason to get emotionally charged about it.
@vkc They do have a history of breaking workflows for no good reason. My first thought was "they are going to drop support for it in the future and then I'm going to have to find a new DE again, what a headache".
Of course they have the right to do whatever they please but it shouldn't be surprising that the existing users whose lives it makes more difficult will complain.
Whether they always hit the right tone with their complaints is another matter, to be sure.
