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Re: [Ayatana] Farewell to the notification area

On 22/04/10 21:46, Jim Rorie wrote: 

Jim Rorie wrote on 22/04/10 01:42:
    
I have been silent on the update manager issue in the hopes that a sane
solution would present itself.  It hasn't.  Now you are forcing our
hand. So I submit.  What do you intend to do to resolve that fact that
the update manager pops down on the desktop like the old X-10 web ads
that we all utterly despised? :/
...
      
Primarily, simplifying the alert.
<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoftwareUpdateHandling#alert>
    
But you are still talking about interrupting work flow or confusing the
user with a with a pop-down that they didn't initiate.

Only in the following cases:

1. There is a critical security update that they really should install. There are few things that are worth interrupting someone's daily routine for, but this is one of them.

2. There are general updates that have been waiting for a reasonably long time to be installed.


  Simplifying the
dialog doesn't solve the problem.  The asynchronous nature of the dialog
is the crux of the problem.

In this rough and tumble and highly connected world of fragile hardware and software, stuff happens, and it happens asynchronously. Your hard drive might be about to fail. Your machine may be vulnerable to a major attack. Under some of those circumstances, it really is appropriate to interrupt the user, because the consequences of them not dealing with the issue are severe.

I appreciate the desire to defend the users flow. That's a value we share. But being dogmatic about that won't get the best result. We should be sparing about interruptions, so that when we do them, people pay attention. And we should be very careful about the message we convey, so that we minimise the interruption and maximise the chances that people will do the right thing.

That's what MPT is arguing for. Your response is "the crux of the problem is the asynchronous window". But you're missing the point that the underlying condition is both serious and asynchronous.

Plus, as I pointed out several months ago, this is a HUGE security hole.
Passwords should only be given in response to a user initiated
operation.  Asynchronous dialogs that ask for passwords are a very bad
precedent for a secure O/S.

Best we get those finger-swipe gadgets working, then :-)

Mark

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