The KDE project just finished up its 2023 developer sprint, and with Plasma 6 development being in full swing – which encompasses moving to Qt 6 – there’s some major announcements here.
As a result, we advanced a number of topics that had been stuck for a while. A major area of my focus in this respect became “Better default settings”. The 5 -> 6 transition is the perfect time to make significant changes to the default settings in a way that improve the UX out of the box.
The two biggest changes to KDE’s default settings will be moving from single-click to open a file, to double-clicking. Single-clicking to open has been a KDE staple for a long time, but it’s the exact opposite of literally every other major environment, so it makes sense to align this basic interaction with people’s expectations. Of course, this is KDE, so it’ll be a toggle in the same way it is now.
The second major change is Wayland by default. While X.org will, of course, still work and be available to distributions and users, Wayland will be KDE’s official recommendation from here on out. With X.org development having pretty much halted completely, and quite a few major distributions now defaulting to Wayland, this is the right move to make. For all the Wayland haters – feel free to donate your time and expertise to X.org development, because no one else is.
There’s a few other cool changes coming up, such as the floating panel by default, the accent colour being used in the top parts of windows, and more.
Finnallly they got rid of that ridiculous single click thing. A desktop is not the web, the single click makes very hard to select itens, that is whhat you do most of the time for desktop icons and files/folders. Single click is a niche configuration, and I’m happy thhat thhe devs noticed they are the niche and were forcing their taste on all other people.
> Finnallly they got rid of that ridiculous single click thing
No, they didn’t: it will continue to be an option like it alwats was, only the defaul will be changed (fortunately because some of us actually do like it!).
BTW, did you know that sinlge click to open a file was the standard for Unix graphical environments? That’s where KDE and others got it from.
I believe single click behavior is superior to double click. So from this point of view they are going backwards.
Superior how? Double-clicking provides more functionality to a single button whereas single-clicking deprives it.
It does what it’s suppose to do in one click less. All other functionality and complexity can still be accessed from a menu or with a combination with a modifier key. I hope that KDE reconsiders this change and in the future returns to single click again. By default.
It would be naive of them to return to the less functional single-click default, I wouldn’t hold my breath. Maybe they’ll add a modifier key to enable single-click.
How is it less functional ? You can still select by rectangular selection, by keyboard, by hovering. The most common action (opening) should be the easiest, that’s what single-click gives you. Have you ever seen new users try to double-click ? It’s a surprisingly difficult gesture. Double-clicking is actually pretty rare in all the UIs we use (web, mobile, desktop apps, games, etc).
moltonel,
Yes I’ve seen new users, it’s not the double clicking action that’s difficult. It’s knowing when to double click. Conventions are poorly adhered to.
As I mentioned before, I actually hate single tap triggers on mobile, too many false positives especially in UI elements that are expected to scroll. I don’t think it’s possible to satisfy everyone with any single answer, we just have different preferences and it also depends on context.
A game could might good use of double clicking. For example an RPG game could use single click to inspect on object and double click to trigger an action. I find doubling clicking to be a very good differentiator, but the main problem is discoverability. Many of these same problems exist in touch interfaces, like long pressing.
@moltonel
You seem to miss that the tasks you use a UI for matters. Interacting with webpages, mobile/touch, or apps does not equate to using an OS. For some uses, single-click makes more sense. For other uses it doesn’t. Also, it’s simply not true that across the board the “most common action” users intend is opening/launching. User feedback spoke loud & clear on the issue and KDE has responded appropriately to it.
You ask how single-click is less functional. With double or multi-clicking you can perform multiple actions with a single device using a single finger. No keyboards, movements, or modifiers required. The same is not true with single-click. Single-click is less functional.
Obviously it’s subjective and single clicking might be better for some physical impediments (and visa versa actually). For me I prefer the more deliberate double clicking for launching/opening. A single click is good for selecting. A single click can also begin a drag operation, but sometimes you change your mind and want to release the mouse button without launching the document as a side effect.
On touch screens I find the problem of single “click” even more problematic. Frequently as I’m reading and scrolling through long documents I’ll accidentally click a link I didn’t want to open. That’s so frustrating especially on web pages that are full of images and links acting like a minefields that you have to be really careful not to accidentally single click. This happens often enough that I’ve searched for an option to open links with double taps, but I haven’t found a way to do this.
Single-click on touchscreens is definitely problematic. Your `minefield` analogy is spot-on and can easily negate any gains (like quick navigation) by needing to undo unintended actions. It’s even worse when links aren’t obviously links; You only discover what they are afterwards.
Agreed.
If you have some finger issue, the mouse can “click” by itself, making double-click the ergonomic choice. Or if you have difficulty clicking doing it twice might be even harder challenge.
Fortunately almost all modern operating systems, except Mac OS, support switching between the two. For Mac, you’d need to use the context menu, or install a third party extension.
I agree. Much more efficient when you get used to it and it is well worth it. And since these days we use much more touchscreens where single-touch performs the action more people are already used to it then ever before. So yeah this change away from single-click as default makes o sense.
Anyways, glad to see they will focus much more on improving Activities system. Ir is one of the very useful features in KDE Plasma and very underrated and should be more known and supported by apps.
JRepin,
Both preferences are fine, but they didn’t do it out of the blue. they actually were listening to feedback with tons of people preferring to open files with a double click. It could just be a case of majority wins and those who like the other way need to go in and change it.
https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/issues/72
You’ve obviously never dealt with a Synaptics touchpad if you think single click is “superior” because I can tell you as someone who refurbishes laptops that all single click gets you is multiple things you did not want launched when the trackpad registers a gesture as a click.
At least with double click I’m only opening that which I want opened.
KDE is amazing, but their defaults are so often just garbage.
For me, an ardent KDE fan, the vast amount of configuration I know I’ll have to do is a barrier to switching back to Linux from Windows.
For example, when you open a Dolphin window for the first time in a fresh install, it shows the 6 or so icons you have in your home directory, and they are enormous. That’s okay, but Dolphin defaults to the same view settings across all folders, so even when you change that, each folder still defaults to huge icons even when there are a thousand files. None of the view modes are informationally dense by default, too, so even when you switch to say, details view, you still have to adjust the zoom to make it usable.
Agreed.
The better defaults was the reason I switched to GNOME from KDE. However they also managed to mess everything up in the later years. Today, I am agnostic to both.
The effort needed to learn a new user experience, or time spend adjusting all the options to one’s own comfort becomes insurmountable as we age. For this reason, in both KDE and GNOME setups, I use “mc” on the command line. “apt install mc” or “dnf install mc” is one of the first commands I run an a fresh system.
How on earth can moving from single to double click as a default be a “major” change? There will be an option in settings to change this to single click again.
If KDE/Plasma developers want to make a “major” change, then they should fix that mess of a panel (edit mode). When it comes to usability, plasma panel is nothing but a disaster. And now a floating panel? Even less screen space? Why?
In related news, they are also introducing a random BSOD and hard lockups… just so the end user experience is expected and “pleasant”.
Welcome, time-traveler from the past.
In fairness, I’ve been getting a ton of them in Windows 11 lately, enough to move back to Linux
In my early Linux days I was a KDE fanboy, but it really lost it’s way, I find it ironic that people can complain about Windows bloat, or lambaste my organisations Linux Mint users, and the critics are using KDE.
I liked KDE because I have always been a bit of a bling fanboy, who have thunk it given I still run Compiz on some of my favourite Linux machines. But in that period between being a KDE / Suse apparatchik and finding better performing and importantly more stable alternatives, I’ve become lost to KDE. It would be like me switching back to Windows Vista!
cpcf,
I’ve been the opposite, haha. I liked gnome 2, but haven’t liked it as much since. Then I started liking KDE and Xfce more. My main priority is that a desktop get the basics right, eye candy has no value and if it’s distracting has negative value for me. This is probably why I preferred the windows classic 2k theme over modern replacements as well.
What’s your preference in hardware? I do what I can to avoid the glitz and just want something plain, but it’s not always easy when so many hardware vendors are putting useless lights onto everything like case fans, motherboards, GPUs. I don’t want my case to light up but sometimes with “gamer” class components it’s hard to avoid.
Unfortunately, Wayland on KDE still sucks vs. Xorg, I have switched back to the latter and it feels like an… upgrade. I could stand small inconveniences such as no window shading to the title bar or global menu having trouble with GTK+ apps under Wayland. The real deal-breaker, however, were random hard freezes, typically happening after periods of inactivity. By “hard” I mean I cannot switch to the Linux console and restart KWin – keys do not respond, and sometimes I could at best SSH into the machine and restart it. My experiences seem to be similar to the problems described in this bug: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=442846 note it has not been fixed. I use my PC for work, I don’t want to worry whether my machine stops responding during a teleconference, I don’t want to relieve the experience of Windows 95/98 when a crash was just a matter of time. Staying on Xorg for now until KDE Wayland implementation really becomes production ready. BTW, my GPU is an Intel one (so open-source drivers + Mesa).
Because it is. Wayland is still years behind Xorg in terms of features, stability (API and implementation) and drivers. The gap is caused not by the speed of development (which is not great tbh) but by ability of its community to agree on any standards. I don’t have high hopes for the latter given that the whole point of Wayland was to reject existing standards as too restrictive.
From the article:
I’ll take the bait. Xorg doesn’t need development, Wayland does. X11 protocol and implementation are fine (miles ahead of Wayland), all UI features are in WM/DEs, drivers in the kernel. Last time I wanted to change something in Xorg (add a keyboard layout) – it went through very smoothly. I simply emailed my mapping file to one of the devs and a few months later it was in all distros.
ndrw,
For me it’s the lack of screen sharing. I need it regularly and it is extremely important to me that it works. IMHO it was shortsighted of wayland devs to omit it. Now instead of one standard implementation, each compositor is required to implement pipewire separately. So far I’ve only seen screen sharing working under gnome and it requires new screen share software. I’ll try again in the hopes it’s eventually fixed, but wayland remains a hard no-go for me if screen sharing doesn’t work properly.
X is old and I’m open to change, but I seriously wish the devs were better at listening to user needs. A little pragmatism would have gone a long way into making wayland better for everyone IMHO.
Requiring double-clicking causes and/or exaceberates repetitive strain injuries. The fact that a lot of OSes still require it, because they are based on MacOS 1.0 which ran on hardware which only had one mouse button, because Steve Jobs thought users were too dumb to use a mouse that had more than one, is not a good reason to force this on users.
Minuous,
They’re not “requiring double clicking” though! I’d say the majority of new users will prefer and expect double clicking like they’re used to, but you can set it the way you like and then get on with your life. Right?
Well, perhaps many would expect it, but I suspect few would really prefer it.
As for “you can set it the way you like and then get on with your life”, not without considerable pain beforehand.
Minuous,
That’s why KDE gives you the choice. Just set it to single click and you’re done. Honestly, this feels like a nothing burger.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothingburger
I didn’t complain about having to set double click, so why the double standard?
KDE used to be my “go to” but over the years they’ve added more and more and more into the default. So much so that i spend hours after a new install cutting it back. Now while I Love the fact KDE Can do all those things I feel like it’s come at the expense of overcrowding the interface and the user. In my view, KDE need a xfe-esq default. A streamlined set for a “normal” user’s that power users can enable as required. Maybe have a “clean” and a “power” default set?
Adurbe,
That’s not a bad idea to have clean and power feature sets that you can install by default on top of which you can customize further.
I haven’t tried KDE 6 yet, but my gripe with earlier versions is that I find the panels are too difficult to customize. Intuitively I just want to drag stuff onto them but it doesn’t work naturally.
They should disable the silly bouncing icon “launch feedback” that follows your cursor by default. That’s the first setting I disable on a fresh KDE config.
I can’t believe people complaining about “I have to reconfigure everything after an install”
Haven’t they heard of backups or separate /home?
I don’t mean to bash them (disks can break, one can format the wrong partition, etc), or be specific to KDE (I’ve seen similar complaints from users of other desktops/WMs), but really: am I the only one who still carrries his /home after +15 years of using Linux?
I only had to make minor adjustments after upgrading to Plasma 5 but not reconfigure everything, not even most of it.
And I do have many personalizations, I don;t just use a vanilla desktop.