dx-packages team mailing list archive

[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

1. If someone never shuts down or restarts unless explicitly prompted,
absolutely that changes "where it is accomplished"; for them, it is only
ever accomplished in places that aren't the power-cog. Furthermore, if
they are the only user of their computer, and whenever they need System
Settings they use the Launcher (where it is included by default), the
power-cog may be something they never use at all, and have no
comprehension of.

2. Status icons are sometimes okay for communicating long-lasting
things, but more important or urgent things usually require something
bigger. For example, when the battery is getting moderately low, the
battery status icon goes red; but when the battery is critically low,
you get a dialog. When you are connected to Wi-Fi, the network menu icon
shows this; but when you need to enter your Wi-Fi password, you get a
dialog. And the sound status icon shows the current volume, but if you
press a key to change the volume, confirmation is shown in a
notification bubble. These examples illustrate that a status icon is not
"the normal Ubuntu method of communicating information"; it is just one
method among several. Web popups are a red herring: people don't hate
popups when Google Docs uses them, just when advertisements use them.
And if you decline to restart after installing updates that need it,
Software Updater will remind you again in a day or a week (depending on
whether they're security updates), just as it would if you hadn't
installed them at all.

I do not doubt your parents' experience, I say only that it is an
outlier. Improving the branding of Software Updater is bug 510212.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1346355

Title:
  14.04 power-cog does not turn red when restart is needed

Status in The Session Menu:
  Invalid
Status in “unity” package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid

Bug description:
  In ubuntu 12.04 the power-cog turned red when a reboot/restart was
  needed. This was a helpful feature because it informed users that they
  needed to restart the computer. But this helpful indicator is gone in
  14.04 and it has resulted in me never remembering to restart my
  computer because there is no helpful feedback from ubuntu that a
  restart is needed.

  In 14.04, I will perform an update and a popup tells me a Restart is
  needed but I usually select to restart-later because I am in the
  middle of working. By the the time I am done working I have forgotten
  that a restart is needed. Later when I am working again a popup occurs
  informing me that a restart is needed (but again I am in the middle of
  working so I don't restart). Bottom line: when the power-cog turned
  red, it reminded me that I needed to restart the computer. When I
  finished my work I look up and see the red power-cog and "Oh yeah, I
  need to restart. Now is a good time." In 14.04 this doesn't happen.
  Instead I'm perpetually bugged by a popup (which is useless because
  it's never a good time to restart when it pops up). The red power-cog
  was a much BETTER design choice.

  The removal of the power-cog turning red has negatively affected the
  management of ubuntu updates and it should be fixed so that it behaves
  like 12.04.

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