Consistent system-wide clipboard behavior with consistent keyboard shortcuts. Look to Mac OS for an example of how to get this right. And I don't even need graphics/media support in the first iteration: just get me basic plaintext copy/paste.
I never realized there was a problem with clipboards on mainstream Linux desktops?
Edit: after a couple of minutes of thinking I have found one single thing that isn't consistent: when copying and pasting from/to a terminal I have to use ctrl + shift + c or ctrl + shift + v (understandable since ctrl + c is used to terminate running programs).
Personally I guess cut, copy and paste should have been moved to Super + x/c/v since they are global os-level shortcuts, but it would break the habits of many of us so I guess that should be configurable as well.
Highlight, middleclick, job done
Improvements shouldn't break things.
But the GP might be referring to the fact that copy and paste with anything but straight text is an outright shitshow on X. Compare to the copy and paste facilities from even ancient MacOS 6 it's downright stone age.
If anything I find OS X more annoying, as things like screenshots into the clipboard work far less reliably.
It's not macOS' problem if people seem to prefer writing mediocre cross-platform apps than proper, native apps with full support for macOS-specific features like system-wide automation, proper integration with the system pasteboard, Quick Look, accessibility features, etc.
Or is this the projector problem again: when you plug a mac into a projector and it doesn't work, people blame the projector. When you plug a linux machine in, people blame linux.
I'd never heard of the projector problem, but given Linux's unreliable track record with multiple monitors, I'm not surprised people blame Linux. The problem as stated doesn't define whether or not the projector is actually at fault or not, so we can only really start diagnosis where intuition leads us.
Used Mac for almost three years.
Was enthusiastic when I got one and after close to three years enthusiastic to get back to Linux or even Windows.
I realize Mac users experience it to be much better and I guess with a different workflow it is.
I tried hard to pick it up. I failed miserably.
Going back was a relief for me.
> consistent keyboard shortcuts
Apart from the terminal which obviously needs an alternative to Ctrl-C (same as Windows, and shift-ctrl-C beats shift-insert or whatever any day), and Emacs which is, you know, emacs, I can't think of any programs that do not consistently use Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V. So what are you referring to here?
0: Also to get working (not blurry) fonts and a couple of other assorted improvements.
Still working on killing that damn line discipline, though.
Then I started using Mac OS X and I realized that it's actually nice to be able to select text and NOT have it auto-copied obliterating my clipboard, but instead be able to replace it using Command-V. And it's a pretty cool invention that the same shortcuts work in all applications, consistently. And that I can copy text in any application and paste it in any other using the same shortcut. And that I don't have to use the middle mouse button, which is a scrollwheel these days and is difficult to hit without invoking the scroll functionality. And it's pretty nice to be able to paste to where the cursor is RIGHT NOW without carefully positioning the mouse pointer and making sure it doesn't move while you carefully try to hit the middle button (otherwise your text will get inserted wherever the mouse moves in the meantime, if you are in a browser edit window).
I could go on. There are so many things which can be done better if we drop the "the way X11 did this is the best way, ever" attitude.
And then, eventually, once we get text copy/paste right, we can get to copying images, which again is a totally solved problem on Mac OS X.
> is a totally solved problem on Mac OS X.
It's solved there because it's a walled garden. It's essentially a different problem that they've solved. The problem here is making that work while still being the free software operating system we love.
Can't you just use ctrl+c and ctrl+v and ignore the other clipboard?
"The other clipboard" is part of the problem I'm describing. Why would you have "the other clipboard" in your system?
But you know what: I've read the replies in this discussion and I rest my case. It seems that most Linux users are OK with the current situation and do not even want to hear about the possibility of a better solution. This is why things will not change.
I'll just use OS X for development, happily paying Apple a premium for getting things to work for me.
There are plenty of Linux users with gripes about the UI and various aspects of the environment, hence why there are so many bloody Linux apps that basically do the same thing, so many desktop environments, and more being made every day.
An idea about the user experience is worth paying attention to even if they can't implement it themselves. To brush off the idea with a "well, if you like it so much, make it yourself" is churlish and dismissive. It's not an attitude that helps advance beyond the status quo.
It seems like closed-mindedness to constructive criticism, alarmingly similar to the mindset GNOME's developers have towards basically everybody, stubbornly refusing to accept that other peoples' points of view can have merit and value.
Ironically, it's a very closed, Microsoftian value for a Linux user to hold: Not Invented Here.
My point is only to highlight that these are very different worlds. Apple decides what you want then charges for it. We say, here, this is what I want, but feel free to make it what you want. There are always going to be pros and cons.
But why must you put it down?
It may not be your itch, but equally, Linux is not your OS. It's everybody's. Other people may happen to share the same sentiment about certain things. That's how things change, evolve, develop, improve.
You cannot be dismissive on everybody else's behalf.
> Apple decides what you want and then charges for it. We say, here, this is what I want, but feel free to make it what you want
First, who is 'we'? I still feel like you're trying to represent the feeling of a lot of people whose opinions may differ wildly from your own.
Aside from that, not everybody who uses Linux does so for this factor of openness and flexibility. There are plenty of Linux users who wish it would Just Work™ — but, again, their contributions to the discussion shouldn't be poo-pooed just because they don't have the time or resources to reimplement that with which they're familiar.
Some people can only contribute ideas, and that's just fine; it might turn out that only when some developer with some free time on his or her hands sees those ideas that they might then be implemented.
I use Gentoo and it really does Just Work for me. My definition of working is clearly a world apart from others', though.
Most people are saying they aren't even _aware_ of the problem, and you've completely failed to describe it here. No one even knows what the hell you are talking about, maybe give it a rest?
We really would, but no one in this thread is clearly describing this better solution.
I never used it because I don't like having a history of my actions.