dx-packages team mailing list archive

[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In interaction design we have an awkward word, "workflow". It's used for
the steps you go through to do something, even if that thing has nothing
to do with work.

At first sight, the countdown seems to offer better workflow, because
for some people at least, it replaces a confirmation with an undo. You
can trigger the command, go away, and come back within a minute to undo
your decision if you change your mind.
<http://alistapart.com/article/neveruseawarning>

Unfortunately it often doesn't work, because of something that happens
at the end of the workflow. If you happen to have any app open that asks
for confirmation before it quits -- most commonly, if an app has any
unsaved documents -- that confirmation will happen *after* the
countdown, when you might not even be there to see it. So your session
will stay wide open until the screen lock kicks in, which is a security
problem. Those confirmations can't happen before the countdown, because
if they did, apps would be quitting before you even saw the shutdown
prompt, including when you'd chosen the command by mistake, which is
precisely the problem the prompt exists to prevent.

This will happen more often to some people than to others, but it's
unlikely that there's any correlation between how often it happens to
you and how willing+confident you are in changing system settings. For
example, nobody commenting on bug 548415 even mentioned the possibility.

So, I don't think a setting can improve things. Someday, if even PC apps
routinely save state and documents constantly, they won't need to put up
save-changes confirmations any more, so we won't have to worry about
those showing up at the end of the timer, so we can reintroduce the
timer for everyone. But not today.

** Changed in: indicator-session (Ubuntu)
       Status: New => Won't Fix

** Changed in: indicator-session (Ubuntu)
     Assignee: (unassigned) => Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/623804

Title:
  Enable users to configure on the previous 'shutdown timer' feature

Status in indicator-session package in Ubuntu:
  Won't Fix

Bug description:
  Binary package hint: indicator-session

  The automatic 'shutdown timer' feature on the shutdown prompt has been
  excluded in Lucid, in favor for a faster shutdown time.

  However, although this was through decision, apparently there are
  quite a lot of users from previous versions of Ubuntu and other OSs
  who miss this feature and want it back. (Reference to the comments on
  Bug #548415 : https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/indicator-
  session/+bug/548415?comments=all )

  I believe Lucid can save shutdown time AND still preserve user's range
  of selection by adding a configuration for automatic shutdown timer on
  the current power options.

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