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this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2026
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Focus might be a bit much,
I only have a single feature wish, and that is to have file copy operation progress show correctly.
As it is, if I copy a few gigabytes to an USB stick, it very quickly shows as finished.
But it can take up to a couple of minutes before the operation is actually finished, and the stick can be unmounted and removed.
The easiest way to check I know of, is tom open a terminal and simply use sync. And it seems immensely primitive to me that I have to do that.
This is an age old problem for copying files that began to occur on PC systems way back around 1991, when write cache became a thing for disk operations. And honestly it makes me sad that this problem still isn't solved now 35 years later. 😥
Otherwise I think KDE is doing great with their desktop, except I think it should just be called KDE desktop, and not that other thing they call it now.
I don't think this is a KDE problem, but more the way Linux operates. I looked into this once and it's basically because Linux considers the operation done when the source file is completely read and committed to the destination, but not actually written yet. I see this same behavior with my USB backup drives where something finishes but then I have to wait a minute or two when actually unmounting the drive. I think there's a way to change this but I've never done it.
P.S. I just want KDE to make activities great again :(
Wow, I'm really glad this topic came up. As a recent convert from Windows, it's still muscle memory for me to yank out a flash drive as soon as the copy dialog completes. (Yes, I know ejecting a drive first is still the proper thing to do on Windows, but skipping that has not been an issue once in hundreds of cases.)
A simple
syncwould show you when it actually finishes. However, it has system-wide effects. Perhaps KDE could lobby for a similar action to become available that is limited to e.g. a specific process id?I would settle for checked-by-default "sync and wait" option. That way I can choose whether to cause a sync or not.
Often this is the correct pragmatic power user solution in UX design. Trying to solve it by default for everyone is much harder and will ultimately alienate some user.
But when people get bothered by an experience it is much easier for them to find the hidden setting that makes them happy again. It also preserves the existing experience, while allowing for greater customization in the long term.
Once a decent compromise is identified, that’s when it’s time to flip which setting gets to be the default.
My motivation for calling for it to be the default was that it's safer (in terms of data).
Another UX principle is that of least surprise. I think it's reasonable to assume that most users will expect the copy to be fully complete when the dialog closes, and that they will be surprised when their files are corrupted. Changing the behavior in the desktop to delay closing the dialog until any copying to removable media is complete should not be a controversial change.
We're seeing an influx of novice users to Linux. I don't think we need a bunch "Linux ate my files" incidents if it can be avoided by a simple change, which itself can be easily reversed if you didn't like it.
Yes this is absolutely how Linux operates, but it's embarrassing and primitive, and it's actually decidedly a bug.
I haven't done much programming for many years, but you used to be able to see if you went a step deeper into the file system operations, whether the file you are copying still has parts in cache.
Just because nobody does it, doesn't mean it's not a bug.
There is no sense in showing a progress bar that is wrong anyway.
It's not a bug, just a difference in prioritization. It makes more sense for a server and less for a desktop with removable devices
How is it not a bug? The info shown is decidedly wrong!
Would it also not be a bug if your weather app shows freezing 8 C° tomorrow when it's going to be 40 C°?
Because there's a perfectly understandable explanation, that they only count to 32 because temperatures didn't get higher than that 30 years ago, so it counts down from zero when it's above 40, because that's how we've done it for years.
Just because you know why, and it's a little bit cumbersome to do it correctly doesn't mean it's not a bug.
It's not only a bug, it's a lazy ass bug.
If it's lazy then the fix should be easy, right? Send a PR