Awful, one of the first things I disable along side 1 click folder opening.
this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2026
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That's the real linux user story.
We come for the speed, flexibility, FOSS values ... but we STAY for the middle mouse paste.
I don't understand how one can accidentally paste with the middle-click, but I was in this thread that it happens. I was very much against this change but now I need to see stats. Are there any?
I use a lot of graphics programs which use middle click drag to pan around. Figma for example constantly pastes whatever random text I forgot is in my clipboard
Happens all the time.
I discovered this feature on my 1st Linux distro in early 2000s, was like "Huh, that's interesting" then tried Ctrl+V, and then adopted both into my daily workflow. Whenever Bitwarden autofill doesn't work or unavailable by the site security settings, I copy my pass into the clipboard and select my username and paste both in a single action
I use middle click paste all the time, but the title is misleading and clickbaity. At least on GNOME's side they're discussing about disabling it by default, not completely. While this is annoying as long as the setting isn't going away I'm fine with that and I understand the reasoning behind it.
Reminds me of LWN and the end of the Rust experiment.
I can't tell you how many times I've accidentally pasted random private stuff from that goddamn middle click into WEB PAGES! Things that can read whatever text you type without having to explicitly submit anything. It's a horrible thing for a new user to discover by accident. It's such an unexpected feature to new users, and no one gets told about it, ever. You simply discover it by accident.
This is a good change, not having it on by default.
To all the haters of this idea, god forbid we make Linux less weird by default for people migrating from Windows.
All that said, I have learned to love select-to-copy and middle-click paste. Especially in the terminal.
This. Only correct comment in the entire thread. Rest are people who probably don't even use computers and have no idea what a mouse is.
Until this article I didn't even know you could middle-click paste.
I've done it countless times by mistake in Discord when trying to scroll through a channel..
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Why is this a thing? I've never wanted a feature less..
Because it is awesome. So useful, and fast.
Middle paste, like many features, can be used to increase productivity. It's normal. A better question would be why doesn't Windows have it? It makes no sense to dumb down Linux to the level of Windows, just when people are leaving Windows because the user experience is so bad. Sure, make it an option in Settings. So people can continue to use it if they want. But there are many things worth utilising to save clicks on both Windows and Linux. Get to know them, if you want to get on with things.
People can't and won't use it because it sucks. Middle mouse click is for two things:
- open in a new tab
- scroll/pan
See how they're both navigation related? Because the mouse is a navigation tool, not a text tool.
A keyboard is a text tool, all pasting should reside on the keyboard. Eagle-eyed readers may notice that there are actually letters on all the buttons they keep mashing at random, those letters are a hint that the keyboard may be used for text-related operations.
Windows sucks now, but it won desktops for a very good reason initially and as Linux is making inroads into personal computing, there are no reasons it can't learn lessons from why that was the case.
Old Linux GUIs suck and the user experience in general absolutely sucks on anything before Debian 8. Gnome classic was nuked because it sucked, and new Gnome was an improvement in every way, and it was only very recently that KDE got to a similar level of polish.
No one is saying the feature should be completely removed, just like KDE's insane defaults of "Peek at desktop" in the bottom right instead of "minimize all windows", it just needs to be hidden somewhere because 99% of users don't expect a computer to work this way and with good reason.
Leave the legacy toggle in for people who cut their teeth on OSes made by companies that went bankrupt shortly after making them and expect all computers to work like that until the end of time.
Heck - just for them, create a separate clipboard that always holds the user's nudes and dedicate left mouse click to a shortcut that emails them to their dad for all I care, because it's how it worked on a random hack of AmigaOS they used in the 1800s, I don't care, just leave us out of it.
I like my middle paste, so long as it isn't gone for good I'm happy. Having 2 clipboards is also nice
Highlight->Middle paste has been my friend for decades now. Using it from SunOS in the 90-s to now has been a great feature. It's the quickest way to copy and paste while I'm working fast with text or data entry.
I love having both clipboards be functional. The latest rounds of tools that have stopped being as compatible with it has been no end of problems in my workflow. I'll copy with the keyboard, highlight some text and then paste both clipboards somewhere else.
No, using the keyboard here isn't as fast, don't bother making that argument, especially since ctrl-c means different things in different places on Unix style systems. Left hand stays home row while the right is forced to leave for the mouse since it's a GUI.
I've had to deal with many tools that don't respect keyboard cut/paste as well. Add in that some tools like putty or git bash on windows have ctrl-ins for paste?
Panning in CAD/design is usually click and hold middle or even a two button system (freecad), so trying to take a middle click for that isn't buying uniformity.
The copy/paste world is already fractured enough. Keep the highlight/middle click working so we can go fast. I might be a dinosaur, but I'm a fast dinosaur.
reading these comments had me wondering if i was the only dinosaur around. lol
https://piefed.social/comment/9549428 They don't want to disable it, just not make it on by default.
As a new migrating user looking to escape Bill Gates bullshit middle click paste was really confusing as I wanted middle click to remain consistent with screen panning, like panning a camera in blender or panning a canvas in gimp. Had to run through a few guides to disable middle click paste. I was surprised there wasn't an option to enable/disable globally. Having an option will help other noobs like myself ditch Mac/windows for Linux and maintaining a familiar workflow.
Don't you touch my middle paste!
I occasionally use middle mouse paste, but I switched my partner over from Windows recently and they were used to scrolling by holding MMB and dragging which seems to be the default on Windows...
I expected there to be a toggle to turn off middle mouse paste but there just wasn't. I had to go into multiple different places to disable it and enable autoscroll for all their apps. I ended up installing a hacky tool that would just clear the clipboard whenever MMB was pressed.
If anything can make this process easier, I'm all for it.
TIL middle mouse paste.
It would be fucking GNOME
Please don't fuck a gnome, that's very impolite
The essence of the article:
The discussions, visible in Mozilla’s Phabricator revision D277804 and a linked GNOME gsettings-desktop-schemas merge request, focus on disabling the traditional primary selection paste by default.
Mozilla proposes changing the default behavior of the Firefox browser on Unix builds so that pressing the middle mouse button no longer pastes text by default.
The functionality will be there and can be enabled. The reasoning:
The author of the revision frames the current behavior as a source of confusion and accidental pastes, especially when users press the middle button without expecting the clipboard contents to be inserted into text fields.
But why? Then the users thinks "huh, weird" and goes on.
I've seen that countless times with people that are less technical.
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To have it as ab option, great. I believe KDE already has this? Computers should work the way the user wants it, so a middle click should do what the user wants it to do.
Removing it completely would be insanity
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This is one of the most useful things in Xorg, and prior to that in X11. If you (generic you, not anyone in particular here) don't know about it it's because you come from too long time on "my users are stupid" operating systems. It's one of those things that once you have it in muscle memory you use it without even thinking about it.
Have I mis-pasted things? Yes. Have l pasted my password in an IRC channel? Yes. Would I stop using it because once every few months I make a mistake? Not at all.
Make it configurable, if you must, but leave us old timers work the way we have done for 30 years or more. There are already some software/ toolkits that disable it, so it is likely doable on a per-app basis.
Gratuitous "old man yells at clouds" rant: people should be forced to use a VT52 for one year before being granted GUI privileges, especially if you work with network hardware.
I'll crawl back in my cave now.
It seems to me that having a mouse button defaultly paste the contents of the keyboard without the inclusion of a modifier key is just a bad idea.
As you said, you have pasted the wrong thing by accident because it's one button press.
It just seems to me that by default pasting text should not be done by a single button press anywhere where your hand rests, like a mouse or the center of a keyboard. I'm not saying people shouldn't be able to make it's a configurable option, options are good, but it is not a good default.
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Damn I'm using that I hope they don't remove it!
good (also they're proposing a toggle that's off by default)
Toggle is the nicest way to go for any feature that has stayed for a long time and has a dedicated user base.
GNOME really seems to be targeting some mythical user who is tech savvy enough to install Linux, is likely running Windows currently, wants their new operating system to feel like MacOS but is also helplessly confused by any settings/customizability or the smallest change in behavior from other operating systems.
I don't generally see recommendations for new users/less tech savvy to use GNOME anymore since there are plenty of DEs that behave closer to what they're already used to and it feels like most of the enthusiasts have largely abandoned it already. I just don't understand who they think this is for. Just baffling decision after baffling decision
I’m honestly baffled. These are two companies that are clearly past their best days, largely because of a string of controversial decisions in recent years that have pushed many users toward alternatives that feel more reasonable and do not attempt to re-educate users’ behavior.
On point 👌
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why do you want to attack me personally?
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