unity-design team mailing list archive

[Remco <remco47@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 19:54, Alex Launi <alex.launi@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Any easy fix to remedy part of the situation would be to remove the Guest
> session button and move that into the 'Switch from' window.

That sounds alright. Choosing the mysterious "Guest Session" is
conceptually the same as switching to a brand new temporary account.
It may actually be easier to understand if this option is offered and
explained on the Switch From screen.

* Log Out

"Log Out" can be removed by default. Most systems are single-user
systems, so there's no need to close a session but not a computer.
Even on family systems with multiple users, the computer will not be
running when there is no session. Switching to another user can be
done with "Switch From". The need for "Log Out" is for situations
where the machines are just terminals, such as universities and
internet shops. These computers are never shut down, so "Log Out"
would replace "Shut Down".

* Suspend / Hibernate

I don't think both options should be there. There should be a single
option called "sleep", which does either one of them, or both,
depending on the capabilities of the system and user preference. Sleep
should not go away entirely, because not every computer has a special
sleep button. Desktops and tablets for example. Laptops and netbooks
may have the ability to go to sleep when the lid is closed, but I find
that a bad functionality, because then you can't just close your
laptop to make some room while it is doing an upgrade or burning a CD.

* Restart

This can go away, too. It's the equivalent of shutting down and then
pressing the power button. Ubuntu should make it easy to understand
that the computer has shut down, by providing a graphic, and it should
be fast enough (less than 5 seconds), so users are not waiting
needlessly to press the power button again. Update-manager can of
course offer a restart button in case of kernel upgrades. Even better
would be to use ksplice, so that reboots are never needed.

So, then we're left with:

Lock Screen
Switch From john
-------------
Sleep
Shut Down

Or "Log Out" for that last one, depending on the setting. Now, that's clean!

-- 
Remco