- KDE Plasma 6 will require users to double-click on files and folders to open them by default.
- This change is controversial for those familiar with single-click behavior in KDE Plasma.
- Click behavior in KDE Plasma 6 is configurable, allowing users to choose between single-click and double-click.
This is one of the first things I always tweak in KDE, so I love this change, but I’m curious how others feel.
My parents found single-click much more intuitive, because everything else (web browser, phone) uses single-click.
Single click is for web page links, not my computer.
As someone who hasn’t touched KDE in years, can someone fill me in: How did you previously select a folder without opening it?
Control + Left click
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW. In the the next issue of Linux Magazine Torvalds talks about the new default in the single click behavior of Plasma: “KDE, fuck you”
Ah yes… I remember when IE 4 came to Windows and introduced single clicking. What a terrible idea.
Don’t worry, apps are so slow that we don’t risk repeating the same problem of double-clicking causing the first click to open the app and the second click to do something in the app that you didn’t want to do.
I personally also welcome this change, as I have changed that setting anyway and of those people I know, they also changed that behaviour immediately. But as long as you can change it and it isn’t forced on you to only use one method, it’s great.
Single-click and the little plus icons on everything in Dolphin are the first things I switch off after install for sure.
When I first switched to KDE, this issue took up roughly 15 seconds of my time as I saw what was happening and went exploring for the setting to change the behavior. Apart from having to change the setting again from time to time, I have spent exactly zero seconds thinking about it and exactly zero seconds wondering which approach was the “best” since then. I wonder how honest it is for this site to refer to a “debate”; it’s hard for me to imagine anyone giving a shit beyond setting their own system up the way they like it.
It’s not a holy war issue for me, but it is the first thing I change when I’m on a fresh KDE system. While I haven’t had any angst about it, I’m selfishly happy for the change. I realize there’s just a different group of people who will now have to make the opposite adjustment, but dem’s da brakes.
And, I have to admit it might be less likely to throw off someone coming from Windows defaults.
KDE is an open source desktop environment. If we didn’t debate how to make the UI/UX as intuitive as possible, the project would be dead in the water. The entire Libre movement is built on debating how software should work, and then making it work that way.
You don’t have to contribute, but don’t throw shade at the people who do.
Equating a debate over the default behavior of mouse clicks—behavior that can be changed in ten seconds—with the very essence of the free software movement is so comically misguided as to be downright sad.
I used kubuntu for an year on an old ProBook and I just assumed that the trackpad buttons were broken and sent a double click.
I discovered this issue only today lol
Um, I just switched from gnome to plasma about three or four months ago. I don’t keep anything at all in my desktop I didn’t realize that it was single click.
It would apply to files and folders in Dolphin (file explorer) as well.
They can change the default settings as long as they leave the option to change it available.
I honestly forgot that single-click is the default behavior in Plasma. I set up new desktop environments so rarely, and this is such an infuriating default behavior that I change it immediately. Glad to hear this is changing.
See… I’m the opposite… I change and hip around and reinstall across various machine so often, changing the setting has just become second nature… I don’t even think about it anymore! Hahahaha
I’ve been using my install script for so long, I’ve forgotten that single click was the default. I guess that’s at least one extra line I can remove.
A day of sorrow indeed… No, joking aside. I gather most people use double click anyway, so this is a good change for that reason. I’ve never really understood it myself (the primary function of the left click being “select” when everywhere else it’s “open” or “go to this thing”?? Alien stuff).
I’m just glad KDE listens to it’s users and adapts to them. Looking forward to the release!
At least, like everything else in KDE, you can set it the way you like it (unlike some other environments that will remain nameless).
I never thought I’d see the day
This truely is the darkest timeline
This is wholesome in a strange way.