Hot take: good riddance.
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@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@kbm0 @bruce @vkc Now that rings a bell, it's been ages! Think X has multiple selections, and it may have been that when you lost focus your primary selection became the secondary selection? Vim changes the selection highlight under that circumstance (but it changes back again on refocus, so maybe not).
Fun fact, early Vim only had selection ("*) support, not clipboard, and it was I that got the PoC working for clipboard support, which Bram then adapted and added as "+.
I am old.
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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 This theory is only half baked but I think there’s something around user-centric design and misogyny; that a thoughtfully organized, aesthetically appealing environment (e.g. whining about there’s too much white space in GTK4/Adwaita apps) that takes away needless complexity and endless configuration choices is inherently inferior, pussified. The article takes a very “back in my day” tone that’s on the same continuum: the old way is the right way cos I’m scared of new things and young people and progress.
It’s all so exhausting. Just use i3 on Arch ffs
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Anyway, if you like GNOME and their design concepts, you're awesome and totally a valid user of Linux.
Sick of the absurd nonsense that says otherwise.
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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/
that's why sometimes i have the copied text randomly pasted when i scroll around! i never figured it out in 15 years of using Linux. i thought it's just a weird bug.
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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 Before all these discussions, I didn't really have an opinion on the matter, but on reflection, opt-in doesn't seem like an unreasonable option https://mastodon.tedomum.net/@lebout2canap/115854119364697065. But getting back to your point, with this message, it was the first time I disabled reposts with comments, the debate had gotten so out of hand.
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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 While I personally like this feature, I do think there should be some way to make people at least aware of this feature. I found out about it accidentally and fortunately KDE clipboard settings is very customisable with this. Been using it happily.
And I guess GNOME can do whatever they want, but it kinda felt weird when firefox was brought into this. In my experience the feature works only on input fields, so stuff like middle click drag to scroll or opening new tabs work just fine.
1/2
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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/
But I've read some reports of accidental pastes when trying to use some 3d related (web)apps so IMO it makes sense for the browser to do something about it. Personally I agree with firefox's general stance of respecting upstream/distro settings. I'll leave it enabled because it literally halves my clicks when filling forms (yeah I'm lazy to reach for the keyboard), and on some stupid sites that literally block ctrl and right clicking, usually this method still works.
2/2.
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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/
I dunno, this looks like one person's opinion they're pushing on others, especially with firefox.
Gnome makes annoying dumb decisions all the time, and as long as it stayed there I'd be OK with it.
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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 disagree on the move, though having it opt-in like alt to move windows should be fine. I agree fully with your take on the tone and agressivity there... Smells like pettiness and sheer ingratitude. Let's get nicer and friendly, as well as more considerate..
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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 best part about linux is that theres options. some people like gnome so they can use it. i like kde or xfce so i use those. why argue?
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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.
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But I've read some reports of accidental pastes when trying to use some 3d related (web)apps so IMO it makes sense for the browser to do something about it. Personally I agree with firefox's general stance of respecting upstream/distro settings. I'll leave it enabled because it literally halves my clicks when filling forms (yeah I'm lazy to reach for the keyboard), and on some stupid sites that literally block ctrl and right clicking, usually this method still works.
2/2.
@vkc@linuxmom.net @gravemind@fosstodon.org not even just 3d ones! I do most of my design work in Figma (never got around to moving things to penpot or anything else) and my design files are sometimes littered with random strings because I forgot to disable middlemouse.paste in about://config on Firefox.
middle click paste is legacy behavior from a bygone era of computing and I think the only people making use of it are people who were making use of it 35+ years ago too. I don't think it has a good place in a modern desktop, especially with tools available to make it possible to maintain several copied items (like one of the 3 different clipboard manager extensions for Gnome) -
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 use it and find it quite helpful.
Bashing changing the default so it's more accessible to new users to the platform, and hyping the rage up for a clickbaity title, and defending that as "more engaging"?
I've unfollowed the author and muted mentions of The Register links.
It's been going bad for a while, but that's not the energy I need in my life in 2026.
They get to pick their audience, but I'm not it.
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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 while I fully share your sentiment regarding the article, "people can just use something else" is kind of a cheap way out imo. Linux has had a lot of influx lately with MS repeatedly shitting the bed, and I assume by now we have a decent percentage of users for which a desktop switch is beyond their capabilities. I by the way love middle click, and am currently using gnome, and I also would prefer them not moving goalposts without consideration for people who liked it the old way.
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@vkc while I fully share your sentiment regarding the article, "people can just use something else" is kind of a cheap way out imo. Linux has had a lot of influx lately with MS repeatedly shitting the bed, and I assume by now we have a decent percentage of users for which a desktop switch is beyond their capabilities. I by the way love middle click, and am currently using gnome, and I also would prefer them not moving goalposts without consideration for people who liked it the old way.
@vkc I have a multi-dimensional hate-love relationship with linux at this point, I also don't like wayland for a multitude of things, still I'm too lazy to go back. I fully understand people being frustrated because they feel like between a rock and a hard place, and if these people are writing, it's no surprise that things are not always "neutral"
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@vkc@linuxmom.net @gravemind@fosstodon.org not even just 3d ones! I do most of my design work in Figma (never got around to moving things to penpot or anything else) and my design files are sometimes littered with random strings because I forgot to disable middlemouse.paste in about://config on Firefox.
middle click paste is legacy behavior from a bygone era of computing and I think the only people making use of it are people who were making use of it 35+ years ago too. I don't think it has a good place in a modern desktop, especially with tools available to make it possible to maintain several copied items (like one of the 3 different clipboard manager extensions for Gnome)@inderix @vkc Well considering my age, I don't think it's only older folks who're using it. Sure it doesn't work for all workflows but having a toggle for it should suffice. Now the question of whether to keep it on or off by default is a different thing. One person's preference of something default can be another's annoyance. I'm happy with it being off by default.
I guess browsers can have an override for this as well. Personally I'm happy as long as fox respects my settings in KDE to use it.
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@vkc I have two professional mentors who both insist on using Enlightenment like it's still 2003. I don't know how or why, but that's the beauty of Linux that you can.
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@inderix @vkc Well considering my age, I don't think it's only older folks who're using it. Sure it doesn't work for all workflows but having a toggle for it should suffice. Now the question of whether to keep it on or off by default is a different thing. One person's preference of something default can be another's annoyance. I'm happy with it being off by default.
I guess browsers can have an override for this as well. Personally I'm happy as long as fox respects my settings in KDE to use it.
@inderix @vkc I meant override as in GUI toggles. Not obscure about:config booleans or registry-esque dconf or whatever they're using nowadays.
Overall I think, for better or worse, a sizable number of people use it now (feels similar to XKCD 619 and 1172).
P.S. looking back at the proposals, IDK if it was intentional or not but calling it x11ism and that Goodbye X11 phrase certainly didn't help with the negative reactions, especially with some people's preconcieved notions about GNOME
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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 Definitely not the usual tongue-in-cheek Register article, that's quite disappointing actually. GNOME of all communities spends time and focus on good UX. I agree that the Register journalist reported this issue rather poorly. Third wheel functionality never worked for me when they introduced the wheel instead of the middle button.
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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@linuxmom.net Peoole write like this about Gnome because GNOME developers are specifically being really annoyingly smug about it.
They could've made a normal issue where they say "We changed a default here's why".
But no, Gnome developers will intentionally use provoking language like calling it just a weird " X11ism" and implying you're stupid if you actually want this feature.
This attitude from Gnome a lot of people because this attitude causes Gnome to become software that is literally unusable without third party plugins and gnome tweaks.
They are high in their own farts.
