Hot take: good riddance.
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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. -
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.
If the issue is choice and the point is "if you like it, use it; if you don't, don't," then there's no problem.
The problem, as almost always, is that a select group of people decides they no longer like or find a feature useful, and therefore, no one should like it...
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I try not avoid making assumptions that aren't already save or measurable empirically. I was elaborating on the the cause and effect of GNOME, their actions and how they are received by the larger FOSS community.
GNOME are free to act in accordance with how the foundation and the collective from which it is composed wish to manage the development of their software and surrounding community. There are social consequences however, to neglecting the needs and interests of the people using it.
Telling someone to go fork the software or go elsewhere is not a reasonable response nor conductive to keeping a healthy community and userbase. It only communicates that you are not interested in considering external output which will rightfully make the people who use and are invested in GNOME and its ecosystem rightfully frustrated.
That is why my previous post outlines and urges the necessity of listening to your community and move in lock step with them or else you'll end up in the same circumstance that GNOME currently is.
@DiogoConstantino@masto.pt @vkc@linuxmom.net@Saorsa @vkc I argue that what you call larger FOSS community might not be as supporting of FOSS and freedom as they believe they are.
I'm not saying all that "FOSS community", but many (I can't say most, and I don't think empirical observation is fair for that), only recognize the freedom when it's freedom for others to do what they want, and not what the others want.
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@Saorsa @vkc I argue that what you call larger FOSS community might not be as supporting of FOSS and freedom as they believe they are.
I'm not saying all that "FOSS community", but many (I can't say most, and I don't think empirical observation is fair for that), only recognize the freedom when it's freedom for others to do what they want, and not what the others want.
@Saorsa @vkc The users who usually have a voice that is recognized by developers and other organization leadership are users which are contributors in other ways other than development and are directly engaged with the development project. This is natural, and others will have a hard time to make their opinion to be recognized.
While I think this is natural, I also believe projects should try to have programs to expand the relation with those other users, and to listen to them as well.
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@Saorsa @vkc The users who usually have a voice that is recognized by developers and other organization leadership are users which are contributors in other ways other than development and are directly engaged with the development project. This is natural, and others will have a hard time to make their opinion to be recognized.
While I think this is natural, I also believe projects should try to have programs to expand the relation with those other users, and to listen to them as well.
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@Saorsa @vkc I do think your opinion about the fork is a bit exaggerated, making a fork doesn't, doesn't have to be a drama, and doesn't even have to lead to a community break.
Users have different and conflicting opinions. It's simply not possible to make them all happy about everything. It's also not fair that users who don't contribute in any way define technology as much as those who do. So forking is inevitable and should be welcome without drama by Free Sofware lovers.
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@Saorsa @vkc I do think your opinion about the fork is a bit exaggerated, making a fork doesn't, doesn't have to be a drama, and doesn't even have to lead to a community break.
Users have different and conflicting opinions. It's simply not possible to make them all happy about everything. It's also not fair that users who don't contribute in any way define technology as much as those who do. So forking is inevitable and should be welcome without drama by Free Sofware lovers.
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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 I have all desktop environments installed on my pc. I switch whenever I like. We should celebrate all competition as ultimately it leads to more choice for users, that is a core philosophy of linux, choice and complete ownership!
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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 use middle-click-paste all the time, and I would miss it. As you say, this is not a life-or-death thing. We just gotta have our drama.
I use Plasma, so, A) This conversation doesn’t apply to me, B) There certainly would be (or maybe already is) an option to turn it on/off.
As an aside, I flip off my work laptop frequently. It’s Windows 11, and it’s hateful.
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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/
if you don't like it don't use it
You can like something as a whole and dislike aspects of it. And isn't this the case with a lot of things in life? If I stopped using something over disliking just a few parts of it, I wouldn't be able to use anything at all because nothing will ever be a 100% fit. -
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 possibly easier to complain well-serviced software into compliance than setting up an unserviced fork - that's definitely more energy-intensive. as we can already see from the browser landscape.
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@proficiency @vkc All of this is lies and additionally it is personal attacks and harassment.
1. Criticism is good, right, and necessary.
2. Petridis has personal animus against me because I criticise his baby.
3. I have no grudges against anyone in FOSS.
4. I have an active GitHub account under my own name with 1 project of my own and contributions going back over a decade.You are attacking me. This is ad hominem and you are telling lies about me.
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if you don't like it don't use it
You can like something as a whole and dislike aspects of it. And isn't this the case with a lot of things in life? If I stopped using something over disliking just a few parts of it, I wouldn't be able to use anything at all because nothing will ever be a 100% fit.@vkc@linuxmom.net @volpeon@icy.wyvern.rip definitely. i like GNOME, but i wish they'd allow for slightly more customization out of the box (although i get why they don't)
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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 use that all the time, heck I just use in the last 4 minutes. This will really irk me to no end and I will need to undo decades of muscle memory!
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@vkc This is unfortunately expected from Liam Proven, same guy who gave us an "amazing" article lying that KDE/GNOME/Wayland developers, as a whole, do not care about accessibility, whos whole output to the Linux community has been shitty ignorant article after shitty ignorant article
He is, in the nicest way possible, a hack writer and one of those "anti-DEI" assholes, But what do I know, im just one of those evil GNOME devs making linux evil and woke for my own profit
@zoeyTheWitch don't forget about the blatant ageism
> As we have said before, we suspect this disconnect between younger, keener developers who don't know or care about late 20th century user interface standards or accessibility concerns, but who strongly want to junk what they perceive as legacy baggage, are behind the moves to deprecate and remove X11
https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/10/xlibre_new_xorg_fork/
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@proficiency @vkc All of this is lies and additionally it is personal attacks and harassment.
1. Criticism is good, right, and necessary.
2. Petridis has personal animus against me because I criticise his baby.
3. I have no grudges against anyone in FOSS.
4. I have an active GitHub account under my own name with 1 project of my own and contributions going back over a decade.You are attacking me. This is ad hominem and you are telling lies about me.
@lproven @vkc you being a yellow journalist is not a lie, your rag of an article proves that not only to me but everyone.
That's a criticism, you being a yellow journalist.
Petridis act like a baby? Sure, but so do you when confronted with criticism, the difference is that Petridis contributed more in a month to FOSS than you did in decades.
Criticism: you're a yellow journalist and the only times the register made a headline was when you made a trash article.
Ad hominem: you're balding.
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@lproven @vkc you being a yellow journalist is not a lie, your rag of an article proves that not only to me but everyone.
That's a criticism, you being a yellow journalist.
Petridis act like a baby? Sure, but so do you when confronted with criticism, the difference is that Petridis contributed more in a month to FOSS than you did in decades.
Criticism: you're a yellow journalist and the only times the register made a headline was when you made a trash article.
Ad hominem: you're balding.
@lproven @vkc this would be my Proven-esque 'the register' headline for this event:
1. "The Register contributor creates an article for Clicks and Engagement, not Journalism"
Or
2. "Opinion is now News and therefore Journalism, seemingly said by The Register Contributor".
Or.
3. "The bad thing said about me is slander and mean not criticism, also this is why GNOME developers would push a kid to a lake".
