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Middle-Click Paste? Not For Long

An anonymous reader writes "Select to copy and middle-click to paste. That's very convenient usability feature associated with UNIX graphical environments. But it is confusing for new users, so the ability to middle-click paste was briefly removed from GNOME 3.10. It was restored few days later, but with clear message: middle-click paste will be permanently removed from next GNOME version." I hope that "we'll defer this change until the next cycle" also means that it's getting re-thought, rather than just delayed.

15 of 729 comments (clear)

  1. GNOME: We don't want Microsoft to have all the FUN by CajunArson · · Score: 5, Funny

    The GNOME guys are just jealous of Microsoft taking away the user interface elements that people were used to and they want to show that Open Source can do just a good a job of screwing up an interface as those big-bad corporate types!

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    AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
  2. Make it an option, PLEASE!!! by chalsall · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Please, please, PLEASE make this an option, not a full removal.

    I will stop using GNOME if this ability is fully removed.

    1. Re:Make it an option, PLEASE!!! by aardvarkjoe · · Score: 5, Informative

      From that link:

      The middle-click will be used to start selections, and provide text contextual menus (such as word definitions, sharing, etc.)

      This is more "break the desktop in favor of tablet behavior" stupidity.

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      How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
    2. Re:Make it an option, PLEASE!!! by Aguazul2 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I will stop using GNOME if this ability is fully removed.

      I think that is what they want. They have succeeded in driving me away to XFCE, which is actually quite good and does everything I need. To me GNOME is like a solar flare, quite impressive at first, but then fading out as it gets higher and higher from the surface of the sun. They are in a little bubble floating off into space, becoming more and more irrelevant to normal Linux users. Maybe they will meet an alien civilization some day who will understand what they are trying to do.

  3. Re:GNOME: We don't want Microsoft to have all the by Gavagai80 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    GNOME has been doing it since the 2.0 release more than a decade ago. Microsoft has nothing on them.

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  4. Re:three? by Serneum · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Or, you know, clicking the scroll wheel

  5. Re:three? by robthebloke · · Score: 5, Funny

    My mac only has one button, you insensitive clod!

  6. Re:FUCK OFF by KiloByte · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There is one problem: for historic reasons, most distributions install Gnome by default. This needs to be fixed, badly.

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    The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
  7. Re:The mythical "new user" by sjames · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And that's why I'm done with Gnome. They keep doing stupid things and trying to tell me it's for my own good.

  8. Optimizing for new users is a one-way street... by mi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But it is confusing for new users

    Such optimizing things for new users — while pessimizing the experience for others — is a trap. This is exactly, how you end-up with a dumbed-down system — whether it is an OS, or a user-interface for anything. Easy to get started — maybe, you'll achieve that. Hard to keep going — this one will likely be yours...

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    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  9. Re:Probably a good thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Let me guess: You have never used it.

    This feature is so mind-boggingly *convenient* I really don't know how to work without it.

    No, using ^C ^V is not an alternative – I use *both*, because it gives me *two* clipboards to work with.

  10. Re:FUCK OFF by damicatz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, they are breaking Linux.

    The GNOME people have managed to invade several core projects such as udev and have been busy working to integrate them with GNOME. In addition, they are trying to push the GNOME-centric Wayland to replace X.

    Removing middle click paste is just the latest example of their arrogance. The GNOME developers generally adopt the attitude that the user is an idiot who can't wipe their own ass without one of them to help. Anytime you complain about a removed feature you are either "using it wrong" or GNOME was "not designed for users who wish to do X". If they kept to their own little corner, I would not have as much of a problem but they are doing their damnedest to turn the entire Linux ecosystem into one giant mess without any regards for the UNIX philosophy or even compatibility with other *nix systems such as the BSDs.

  11. Re:FUCK OFF by serviscope_minor · · Score: 5, Funny

    There is one problem: for historic reasons, most distributions install Gnome by default. This needs to be fixed, badly.

    Well, it seems the folks over at GNOME are trying as hard as they can to get it fixed...

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    SJW n. One who posts facts.
  12. Re:GNOME: We don't want Microsoft to have all the by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Isn't this (middle clicks) at least partly because of Wayland? I thought that this middle click thing was X11-specific. You know, the PRIMARY versus CLIPBOARD selections etc. Does Wayland even have these notions (seeing as it doesn't pretend to be an operating system)?

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    Ezekiel 23:20
  13. Re:GNOME: We don't want Microsoft to have all the by dhrabarchuk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's why I switched to XFCE when GNOME 3 was released. I know what I'm doing thank you! Lowest common denominator design will lead to a low quality production.