Suppose I right-click on a website link to download it. A secondary window pops up to allow me to choose where on my machine I want to put the download. The trouble is, to return to the primary window, I must close the secondary window.
In this regard, Linux is now similar to Windows, but it used to be different. In the past (on Ubuntu, at least, which I used until my recent conversion to Fedora), I had the freedom to return to the primary window without closing the secondary by simply clicking on the primary.
That was a freedom I found very useful, because often when downloading a file, I assign it a name based on information visible in the primary window, provided it is not obscured by the secondary window. For example, if Iām downloading a paper entitled āAdvantages of Fedoraā written by authors Zenburtzese and Baathesen in May 2024, I might name the file Zenburtzese & Baathesen 2025-05 Fedora Advs.pdf. Itās much easier to get that file name right if I can see the primary window while typing it, which I canāt do if the secondary window is obscuring it.
I also liked the fact that, unlike windows, Linux trusted me to be smart enough to manage the two windows independently. Windows (and, nowadays, Linux), seems worried that I might be confused by having both windows accessible at the same time.
Is there a way to get back to the old behavior, where the primary window can be activated without closure of the secondary?
I donāt think this has anything to do with your desktop but instead with your browser. At least when I set Firefox to ask for where to store a download, it opens a modal dialog. And thatās just how they behave, you need to dismiss them before you can continue working in the parent window.
If you are using FireFox, instead of right clicking on the link for download, try middle-click (open a new window) so that the download opens in itās own window/tab ā¦..
From my tests, when this option is disabled, in Firefox I can move the file selector window. However, as it is still a modal dialog, in the window that created the dialog (and only in that window) you are still stuck on the tab that opened the dialog
The option can also be toggled without installing Refine with the following command:
Not allowing the user to return to the main window when a modal window is open is a sane design choice, and applied across several apps and systems. Firefox just follows here the āestablishedā design principles.
Looking at other examples, such as GNOME Files, you can chose there to copy a file to another location with the āCopy toā¦ā option in the context menu. If it were possible to interact with the main window, that would send the modal window in the background, and the user then could do the same (or similar) operation(s) over and over again, resulting in several modal windows open that could be acted upon. That would wreak havoc.
Youāre right. I misstated my complaint. The problem isnāt that I canāt return to the main window, itās that I canāt move the modal window, which usually hides all of the useful information in the main window. Anyway, slubman shows an easy way to make modal windows moveable.
