I need to be clear up front that this has only just been proposed, and if implemented, users could revert it with GNOME Tweaks or gsettings. It's still worth putting on people's radar in case a feature they use disappears, and because GNOME being GNOME, "default disabled" one day may mean "gone entirely" the next.
The proposal is to disable middle click paste. From a UI perspective, middle click paste has been one of my favorite things about switching to Linux, so I'm salty about the idea. (Though I'm not using GNOME now, so it's mainly a matter of principle.) My source likes the idea because they're clumsy and "what if I paste a password?!" Anyway, if this happens, it won't happen in the short term, being a new proposal, but if your middle click paste disappears some day, now you know why.
I do not like that one bit. I use middle click paste so regularly that it's just my default way of pasting. I'm not sure what the problem with it is to be frank, but I'm sure they have a much better plan in store for middle click that will provide a much more cohesive experience...
"It's completely unexpected" the developer claims, and "dumping your entire clipboard while having no indication that this will happen is nothing short of a dumpster fire". I don't know what to say to this.
If you don't like it... You CAN turn it off. And being one of the developers... You could add an actual EASILY found option in the settings. But no. Their solution is to remove it because it annoys them.
That part kills me. There's no indication of what will happen if you hit Ctrl-V, either. There's no indication of what will happen if you do ANY action via a keyboard or mouse shortcut. That's the entire point: it's an action you need so often that a UI of any kind is in the way. The way they signed off, "Goodbye, X11," feels like a spiteful, vicarious NIH ("Not Invented Here") reaction, except... GNOME isn't Wayland. GNOME predates Wayland by 9 years, and could only have run on X11 back then. Oldies may remember logging in via TTY and running startx. So I don't get the animosity, but it sure feels like animosity to me.
I have Zorin 18/X11/Gnome. Middle click isn't enabled, and I don't remember disabling it (though I may have inadvertently during initial setup). The proposed feature removal got my attention: could this be a valuable tool?
I opened a document and tried clicking with the wheel, but half the time I rolled the wheel slightly as I clicked, moving the document and potentially the paste location. I had to be very careful to keep things steady. Did this happen to you at first, and if so, does it become less a tendency with practice?
It didn't, but it likely depends a lot on how well your mouse fits your hand, and how sensitive its wheel is. Also whether the wheel rotates fairly smoothly or if it "thumps" into place, as if notched. Unless you scroll very far, it shouldn't affect the placement of your text; scrolling doesn't (ordinarily) move the cursor.
Thanks for quick reply. I have an Logitech MX Master 2, so it fits the hand well, but is also quite sensitive...
I enabled the middle click and then went into Libreoffice Writer. Scrolling the mouse wheel doesn't move the cursor, but it does move the document underneath the cursor, something which caused me to mis-paste more than once. (I'll admit I allowed myself to be a bit sloppy just to see.) This tendency seems to remain whether I enable smooth scrolling or remain with notched.
So... I guess it's an aquired skill.
I read about it, too. And I thought, too: Why will they do that? As far as I read there are many Users not happy with that. Now some say ''It is only deactivated and You can activate it if You should need it'' but I would it see so: Now deactivate and later entirely kicked off. And what is then? Someone has to create a Gnome Extension to get it back.
Gnome is a bit ... exhausting. They have their Vision how a Desktop should be and that is fine. But there are Users who have to use it.
In this particular instance? No, it's not actually a large deal. But it's another removal of a feature with seemingly no logic behind it, while Gnome continues to remove more and more features. If this was actually the only thing they removed over the years? You're right, it's not a big deal. But it's just more and more that they intend to remove because they don't want to use a computer a set way.
In other words, it's just the continuation of Gnome saying that their way is the only way you should want to interact with a computer, and any other way is incorrect and invalid. That's a ridiculous notion that only gets worse the more features (or perhaps they would rather me say "bugs") they remove. And yes, I could always reenable after the fact, but only as long as they want to offer that functionality (which, being Gnome, probably won't be long).
As an own individual Thing maybe not. But it is a Step in a Row of Things. And like I wrote in my own Comment: Who says that it doesn't get from deactivated to kicked out?
@d-man Here are some alternatives to the gnome-extension:
It's a real shame that Gnome is removing so many features. Personally, I think the Gnome desktop is the most attractive in terms of appearance. I'd like to have the functionality of kde, the lightweight of XFCE and the look of gnome or cosmic😀
It's not even just that, standard power / standby settings you might want to adjust due to being on a laptop for instance are hidden, when they should really be in the default settings menu. Baffles me how they let stuff as simple as that slide.
I'm new and didn't even know about this till I read this post a couple of days ago, but now I can't imagine life without it and wonder why the heck it isn't more widespread.
