TIL why that exists and how it works after using Linux for five years. I always wondered why someone put a function like pasting but not also copying text on the mouse and never realised you just have to select it since apparently there is a second clipboard. I wouldn’t muss it but it also wasn’t that big of a problem.
Yes, please. Lets dumb down userinterfaces more. I think the right mouse button should go away next, people can’t rightclick on touchscreens anyway, and many are confused by the extra button.
/s. so many /s. thank good it’s open source, if they ever remove the setting to turn it back on, i can just put the code back in.
Middle click paste is extremely useful. Why would anyone want to disable it?
My mouse’s middle click is easy to hit accidentally, and so I often paste stuff on accident, I just wish I could disable it. The “select to copy” doesn’t work for me either, since I often absentmindedly select things while I’m reading.
It can conflict with some programs. A lot of modern design programs make use of middle click drags to move around a canvas.
That caused problems for me and it took me days to realize it was middle click paste causing the issue of all these random segments of text appearing all over the canvas.
It was also annoying to disable. I was using Chromium at the time and you simply cannot disable it, even by disabling it in Gnome. I had to use Firefox exclusively when using that design program since at least Firefox has a hidden option to disable it.
As a software developer working closely with designers this has caused some nightmare scenarios
There are programs that use the middle mouse button but also support pasting from clipboard. I’ve been annoyed at work plenty of times when I’m trying to translate across a canvas but accidentally paste a random node of text. Bonus points if it contains some kind of password that was still in your clipboard. I don’t think it’s a good default.
I accidentally hit middle click and paste my passwords into discord 30 times a day, it needs to go
Sounds like your doing passwords wrong.
You know that you shouldn’t use Discord, right?
as someone new to linux i don’t get it. if you have your hand in ctrl-c anyway ctrl-v is right there?
@Reisen Among other things, it’s useful in terminals where the standard ctrl-c/ctrl-v send a control signal rather than copy/paste. Most terminals nowadays have some other copy/paste shortcut so it’s less important now, but a lot of us still find it convenient.
It’s like a second, separate clipboard. You “copy” text to this one by simply selecting it, then “paste” from it by middle-clicking.
There’s also shift+insert if you want a keyboard shortcut. I remapped it to meh+v.
Not having that in Windows is jarring.
I don’t use GNOME or Firefox though so maybe who cares.
Damn, the amount of comments that didn’t even read the full… title… Is reading comprehension getting this bad? Middle clic paste isn’t getting removed, just being opt-in rather than opt-out, yet a bunch of commenters are up in arms “time to ditch firefox”…
Half of them probably will. People are like that.
Many times, I have seen people switch tech because something is missing or has changed…and they switch to something that also does not have it. Boggles my mind.
Historically speaking, the gnome devs have made “disabled by default” the first step towards removing a feature everyone uses.
Historically speaking, from what I’m reading is that gnome devs have a history of bad decisions birthing forks here and there “fine, I’ll do my own gnome, with blackjack and hookers” too, so I don’t know how much weigh such a decision can have to be perfectly honnest.
Eh, gnome is the default on some of the biggest distributions in a time when apparently lots of people are trying Linux for the first time so there’s an outsized opportunity for their usual shenanigans to have consequences for the rest of us.
Which has happened a bunch of times in the past.
As a newgen (derogatory), Id appreciate this. Middle click has always been auto-scroll to me and it takes a good search to figure out how to disable it on a new installation.
I can live with this one, as long as they let us pick the function
The default paste action is pretty much the only thing preventing anyone from picking a different function for the button. That’s the the biggest reason for reversing the default behaviour.
TLI: middle click is paste?
the middle click is “paste selection” not “paste clipboard”. those are 2 different things under *nix.
I personally use this constantly because you need the funtionality to quickly copy some text somewhere so often, it makes much more sense to not have to do: Select text, ctrl-c, move mouse, click text field, ctrl-v. much nicer to just: select text, move mouse, press middle button.
Thanks for the explanation. Actually a really nice feature.
Well, I guess I’d have to use a fork of… oh, wait a second, I’ve already been alternating between Pale Moon, SeaMonkey, LibreWolf, and Firefox along with Tor and Links.
I just would be using less of Firefox and more of LibreWolf. And when Ladybird is ready, I’ll use that and dillo.
Or you could change the preference to enable the feature again.
Except Ladybird is ran by a right wing guy 😞
I’d suggest looking at Servo or old KHTML if you want a true alternative
I’m still looking forward to a new browser engine, separate from Chrome and Gecko. The politics can be debated later, but we need something to break the Google stranglehold. Let’s just be real about this, KHTML, Dillo, Links, and Goanna aren’t doing it. Opera & Vivaldi aren’t going to resurrect Presto.
So what then, other than Ladybird?
servo?
Waterfox?
Waterfox is Gecko. I still agree with the comment that mentions it is written by a right-winger. I rather root for Servo, especially because Ladybird is just another web engine written C. Memory safety vulnerabilities are the largest represented class of vulnerabilities discovered every year. Servo being fully written in Rust is a good thing for its security, as long as they also design a strong sandboxing/isolation strategy on all OS platforms.
You do you, that’s fine with me. Waterfox is still an option for other people to consider when they’re looking for an alternative. Like I would consider any new option that presents itself to me: I’m not married to my browser, at least in my eyes it is merely a tool :)
I tried Waterfox and didnt really get it? Why use it over for example Zen or Librewolf? It just seemed way to close to Firefox but like with a couple of preinstalled extensions. Idk, just wasn’t for me.
My browser(s) is just a tool. I use many browsers for different things. I wish there were good alternatives to the main browser engines (Gecko, Blink, WebKit), but I am fine with just using good derivative browsers like Librewolf, Mullvad, Cromite, etc.
If that’s not optional, I’d have to leave Firefox for something else.
It is only going to be disabled-by-default
Calling it a ‘dumpster fire’ is a bit dramatic.
I think I’d happily describe the multiple clipboard situation in Linux as a dumpster fire…
It’s awkwardly ‘solved’ by clipboard managers merging clipboards but it’s still wonky. Even for somebody who has been using Linux as a desktop for many years I occasionally find myself annoyed by it.
At this point I think I’d prefer “copy” to be an affirmative action rather than something that is done automatically. It makes pasting over existing text much easier.
Yeah the 2 clipboards are a mess.
I actually once locked me out of ALL my accounts because of them.
Bravo Michael for continuing to farm bullshit drama with clickbait headlines on the most inane topics like “how my DE handles pasting text”
Does Gnome have a proper file picker yet?
You mean “once again”. They had one, but screwed it up. Who the fuck types in the file save dialog expecting it to perform SEARCH?
Didn’t know if it was possible for open source to disappoint me, but here we are. Instead of removing it entirely make it an option so the people can decide.
That’s exactly what’s happening.
I like using this on my desktop, but it’s way too easy to trigger this by accident on a laptop, so I disable it on there.
