They are worrying about inadvertent middle click when you have browsers that try to force you into using the address bar for other things. The address bar should be the address bar and nothing else. And that address should always display the FQDN that you are connecting to, not just the domain. Also, they need to stop text fields from being able to capture the cursor automatically. How many times have people clicked on a link and while waiting for the site to load went and did something else only to have the browser force grab the cursor while you are typing other things, potentially critically private things. Also close the loophole where a site can see where a mouse is and what you are doing on the page. F* the advertisers, build the browser for the users and nothing else. Reply to fingerprinting requests with the same response from every browser. So many loopholes that need to be closed before worrying about something like the middle click.

I just used it to log in to Slashdot from my passcode manager. I've no idea what any of my passcodes are. Double or triple click in the passcode manager followed by middle click does the job.

The middle click isn't in the least bit confusing, I love it, I sometimes use it maybe 30 times in a day.

Please whoever is listening, don't disable it.

One of the best features of Unix is cut-and-paste with only using the mouse. I recently started using a Mac for my work desktop, and I really miss it. At least it works within iTerm2 and emacs, but not between programs.

Sure, perhaps have an option to turn it off, but don't break one of the best features of Linux just because too many people don't know how to use it.

I love middle-click-paste. I could live with Mozilla et al. disabling it by default providing they give you a way to re-enable it. However, I fear that this is just step 1 and then step 2 will be to completely remove support for it.

Yes, it's important to appeal to newbie users. But it's also important not to alienate long-time power users.

> "Both GNOME and Firefox are considering disabling middle-click paste by default, arguing it's a confusing, accident-prone X11 relic that dumps clipboard contents without warning."

PLEASE DO NOT. How about having an environment variable and LETTING THE USER DECIDE. I use middle-click pasting all the time. PLEASE DO NOT use the stupid gsettings stuff. I don't use GNOME, and that stuff is annoying and confusing.

And this crap Firefox does with single clicking in the URL bar selecting the ENTIRE LINE is

As has been noted, cut&paste using just the mouse is a big productivity tool. But Windows doesn't have it (and MacOS doesn't even have the concept of multiple buttons) so lets all sink to the highest common factor so that everyone can suffer. Just like the KDE people removing shading (another extremely productive feature) just because it doesn't seem to be part of Wayland.

The goal of the GNOME developers is to find features they can remove to piss off the most amount of users with the least amount of effort, then to troll the bug reports with smug, dismissive answers. It's their primary development cycle. It's been that way since "The Spatial Way." Their attitude is so bad that random, well-intentioned devs are driven to near insanity from glancing run-ins with them: [1]https://felipec.wordpress.com/... [wordpress.com]

And Firefox is a rudderless empty vessel that's been adrift for years.

[1] https://felipec.wordpress.com/2024/03/18/stupid-gnome-developers/

> middle-click paste by default, arguing it's a confusing, accident-prone X11 relic that dumps clipboard contents without warning.

Noting that a user-initiated middle-click precedes it.

... PC mice only had two buttons (one for a mac). Only those weird UNIX systems had a middle button. For some reason, three button functions became the norm, whether an actual third button or the click function of a scroll wheel. Popular demand in action.

If you want to Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V, go right ahead. Don't like the middle button? Don't use it. I'm not certain, but it seemed to me that this was an OS UI "style". One button on a Mac, two on a Windows machine and three on the various *NIXes. Not per applicat

The correct title should have been "GNOME devs are still idiots". With "now joined by Mozilla Inc." added.

Why is this even news? These idiots had removed Alt+Tab from early GNOME3 by default. And it took weeks of debates on the mail lists by Ubuntu people to force the idiots to put it back.

What else did you expect?

When there were only 3 button mice, middle click paste was absolutely fantastic, used it estensively in the late '90s and early '00s in many unix workstations at Uni and early work.

But nowadays, the world is dominated by trackpads with gestures that do not have 3rd buttons, and mouses where the middle button is also a scrollwheel, leading to the aforemntioned acttidents.

As a matter of fact, I map the third wheel to "open link in new tab"

So yes, get rid of third button paste by default. Put whatever default

This is just another reason for my to spit the foul taste out of my mouth I get every time I hear Gnome and Gtk. As for Firefox, I try to like it, but it keeps whittling away at things that make it even my second choice for a browser. I can't wait for Ladybird to mature enough to overtake Brave on my devices.

Gnome can do what it wants. I don't use any gnome applications anymore. The minimalist, hide-everything UI fad has been really bad for usability for me. No thanks. I once loved developing in GTK+ but now I just use Qt. Kind of sucks to be stuck with C++isms, but it is a very nice toolkit. Oh and it supports middle-click paste, even on Wayland so it can't be that hard. Besides that I prefer the KDE traditional way of doing things. I sincerely hope firefox does not follow down this road of removing usefu