SUMMARY Right now KDE Plasma uses Single-click to open files and folders as the default Click Behavior. I suggest we change it to Double-click. Reasons: 1) That's how almost every other OS/DE do things, normal people expect such behavior 2) Single-click to open causes way too many accidental actions 3) Single-click to open breaks inline rename action (select and click to rename) 4) The option for it is way too difficult for a normal people to find: >> System Settings >> Workspace (section) >> Desktop Behavior >> Left column >> Workspace >> All and all, single-click opening is just way too confusing for normal people who used to a mouse-like pointing device in general.
Full disclosure: I'm a double-click user itself, so I feel your pain and understand where you're coming from. --- I don't think we can or should change the default. It's true that other desktop OSs use double-click and that we are inconsistent with them. However, we are consistent with mobile OSs and the web. But the better argument is conceptual: what *should* the optimal setting be? Ideally, it would be single-click, for the following reasons: - It's what very new users expect. Most things are single-clickable (menus, toolbar buttons, panel icons, etc), but when icons in the file manager are not, it seems random. - Double-click requires a certain minimum level of mousing skill. Older people, children, and people with disabilities or illnesses that causs their hands to shake have great difficulty double-clicking. - Double-click introduces uncertainty regarding what to double-click and what to single-click. We've all seen people double-click on their panel icons, toolbar icons, web links, etc. The distinction may be logical to you and me, but it's totally lost on most people. They have no idea why some things require a double-click and reflexively double-click everything just to be sure. - It's impossible for touch. You cannot properly double-click on touch, period. The emergence of convertible laptops that allow touch input all but requires the retirement of double-click as a UI tool. So yeah, it's gotta stay single-click, at least here on the KDE level. Distros can always override it to meet their users' needs--as I recommended and got done for Kubuntu starting with 18.04, since we made the decision to target switchers from other platforms who are familiar with double-click. --- However, this is not to say that the current single-click UX is perfect. Far from it: it needs some improvement to realize its potential and to convert people like you and me to use it. Here are the ways I think we can and should improve this: - Rename and re-organize the applicable KCM. Instead of ["Workspace" category] > Desktop Behavior > Workspace, it should be ["Behavior" category] > General. People would then find it much more easily. The meaning of the word "workspace" lost on everyone who's not a Plasma developer. This falls under https://phabricator.kde.org/T8871 - For everything that uses single-click, add a dedicated "selection mode" that can be entered using a visible UI element. In this mode, a single-click on an icon selects it, just like in popular mobile OSs. This would be vastly more user-friendly than clicking on those tiny green selection markers (slow, requires precision mousing skill) or ctrl+clicking (not discoverable, too easy to destroy the selection of your finger accidentally un-presses the ctrl key). This has been bouncing around in my mind for a while, and I will file a task for it. - (maybe) start renaming rather than open the file if the filename/label is clicked. Would need a lot of thought.
@Nate Thank you for all the explanation. I appreciate the way you share the information in great detail from the past, present to the future. As a user who reported what I perceived to be an issue, it made me feel respected. Although the direction may not be what I expect it to be, it still helps to know that it has the intention to change for the better. Then it becomes really simple now: how to improve the setting presentation so it is more easy to discover for those who need to change it. I have far less involvement when it comes to DE UX design, and I'm not familiar with KDE Plasma's vision. You seems to know better about this matter than I do, so I believe it is wise for me to leave it to you. Same as you, I do sense the connection of touch and single-click and those who have difficulties to double-click. I hope one day we can have a better single-click experience in KDE Plasma. Thank you again for your time.
You and me both, brother! I want to make this happen. The KCM work is very technically simple, so if I can get buy in from others, it will not be a hard change to make. Getting buy-in is the issue though...
I've filed a task to talk about improvements to the single-click UX, if you're interested: https://phabricator.kde.org/T9895