now it's veronicaexplains.netJan 9

Hot take: good riddance. I dislike the middle click thing. Trips me up all the time as someone who accidentally clicks it when scrolling.

I think the right move is to make this (undoubtedly useful to some) behavior opt-in, not opt-out.

A lot of the gripes I see are just people being mad because GNOME makes choices they don't like. I don't understand why people write like this about GNOME, if you don't like it don't use it, your emotions make you look petty, etc etc.

https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/07/gnome_middle_click_paste/

GNOME dev gives fans of Linux's middle-click paste the middle finger

Opinion: Proposal targets long-standing behavior as 'an X11ism'

The Register
Show threadnow it's veronicaexplains.netJan 9

The way the article is written. The way the comments talk about it.

Why do people make it sound like GNOME is some sort of secret cabal of Linux haters?

It's a freaking desktop environment, they have every right to build it however they want, and you have every right to use something different. There's zero reason to get emotionally charged about it.

Show threadnow it's veronicaexplains.netJan 9

Anyway, if you like GNOME and their design concepts, you're awesome and totally a valid user of Linux.

Sick of the absurd nonsense that says otherwise.

Show threadnow it's veronicaexplains.netJan 9
In this period, in this timeline, at this moment, maybe, just maybe, we shouldn't talk about *desktop environment design disagreements* like they're causing deep emotional harm?
Show threadEthin Probst
@vkc Agreed. Although I wish wayland actually cared about accessibility
Jan 10 at 12:24amWeb
Show threadVictoria🏳️‍⚧️Jan 10

@draeand @vkc ehhhhhh…

https://tesk.page/2025/06/18/its-true-we-dont-care-about-accessibility-on-linux/

It’s True, “We” Don’t Care About Accessibility on Linux

What do concern trolls and privileged people without visible or invisible disabilities who share or make content about accessibility on Linux being trash without contributing anything to projects have in common? They don’t actually really care about the group they’re defending; they just exploit these victims’ unfortunate situation to fuel hate against groups and projects actually trying to make the world a better place. I never thought I’d be this upset to a point I’d be writing an article about something this sensitive with a clickbait-y title. It’s simultaneously demotivating, unproductive, and infuriating. I’m here writing this post fully knowing that I could have been working on accessibility in GNOME, but really, I’m so tired of having my mood ruined because of privileged people spending at most 5 minutes to write erroneous posts and then pretending to be oblivious when confronted while it takes us 5 months of unpaid work to get a quarter of recognition, let alone acknowledgment, without accounting for the time “wasted” addressing these accusations. This is far from the first time, and it will certainly not be the last.

TheEvilSkeleton
Show threadEmiJan 10
@draeand
@vkc

This is not at all about wayland, the protocol, and you mean you wish desktop environments gave it a higher priority. People do care, but it unfortunately wasn't given enough attention for a long time.
Show threadEthin ProbstJan 10
@emi @vkc No, Wayland neeeds to care too, not just DEs. Right now, global keyboard access and other things which assistive technology would require is all over the place and DEs are allowed to do their own thing. Those kinds of features should be a part of the core Wayland specification. Accessibility should never be a third-class citizen. And the accessibility landscape is already fragmented enough. We don't need Wayland adding to it
Show threadVictoria🏳️‍⚧️Jan 11
@draeand @emi @vkc accessibility is first-class citizen. But you know what? Its fucking difficult and companies do not bother to fund this effort. The only reason we have any accessibility at all is because Sun funded it for their Solaris.
Show threadOgey RratJan 12
@tragivictoria @draeand @emi @vkc Devs already abandoned X11 while Wayland is still not ready especially on accessibility. I don't think the companies are the only ones to blame.
Show threadVictoria🏳️‍⚧️Jan 12

@Unn0wn @draeand @emi @vkc "not ready" what it lacks?

And situation of accessibility isnt great, but it wasnt going to get better on x11. Thats important difference.

Show threadOgey RratJan 12
@tragivictoria @draeand @emi @vkc I'm not against Wayland. I'm against pushing it hard when it's still not ready. Yes X11 accessibility isn't getting better but it's still better than Wayland yet people are already forcing Wayland before solving the issue.
Show threadEthin ProbstJan 12
@Unn0wn @tragivictoria @emi @vkc It literally lacked global keyboard hooking for the longest time in the name of "security". This wasn't like for a few months, either, it was for 3/4 of Waylands existance. It also still to my knowledge lacks tools like xdotool or features that allow OCRing of any arbitrary window based on a global keyboard shortcut without arbitrary (and undocumented) DE extensions.
Show threadVictoria🏳️‍⚧️Jan 12
@draeand @Unn0wn @emi @vkc global shortcuts are implemented since 48. And yeah, every app being keyboard logger isnt exactly secure, thats why we have proper protocol for this. We also have ydotool https://github.com/ReimuNotMoe/ydotool. I sadly dont know what OCR abbreviation is, and my quick ddg search didnt proved useful.
GitHub - ReimuNotMoe/ydotool: Generic command-line automation tool

Generic command-line automation tool. Contribute to ReimuNotMoe/ydotool development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub
Show threadEthin ProbstJan 12
@tragivictoria @Unn0wn @emi @vkc Optical character recognission. And yes, global keyboard shortcuts have been around since Gnome 48. The key word is Gnome. It's not a core spec thing. Yes, global keyboard access is insecure, if you cast your net broadly. But I don't understand the worry around it. Any reasonably competant keylogger is just going to hook your keyboard via udev and bypass the compositor entirely.
Show threadVictoria🏳️‍⚧️Jan 12
@draeand @Unn0wn @emi @vkc the only core protocol is wayland, the rest is optional, and they are either standardised or not. Global keyboard shortcuts protocol is a standard and is implemented by many compositors
Show threadEthin ProbstJan 12
@tragivictoria @Unn0wn @emi @vkc Really? Last I heard every compositor did their own thing with regards to it/xdotool/OCR and such.
Show threadCameron BoschJan 10

@draeand They do. Honestly, the X11 accessibility features barely were working and were on life support after Sun got bought out by Oracle, and never were amazing because of a lack of developers doing it or funds to support making these features better.

Hopefully, Wayland developers can make Wayland accessibility better than X11 ever could be, especially given how bad Apple took it with Liquid Glass on their 26 release of their OSs.

Show threadEthin ProbstJan 10
@cameron_bosch I have never had any accessibility issues with x11 myself, whereas with Wayland it never quite feels right. Keys are passed through even though they shouldn't be for exmaple. The gnome terminal is just... Bad. Or was last time I tried it. I'm struggling to see how Wayland cares about accessibility when it took them years and years before they added global keyboard support... Unless that still isn't in the core spec and is something all the DEs do differently.
Show threadEthin ProbstJan 10
@cameron_bosch I hope the situation improves, it's just hard to be all that hopeful about it when they want the ecosystem to be so fragmented and obvious things that should be a part of the core spec aren't