unity-design team mailing list archive

[Mark Shuttleworth <mark@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Jeremy, thanks for your mail.

On 02/08/11 00:35, Jeremy Bicha wrote:
> Since I help out on the Documentation Team, I value clear user
> interface terminology so that users, powerusers, and maybe even
> developers can use the same, understandable language. The old session
> menu name became unclear when System Settings was added to it, but I
> have to say that "device menu" is an even worse name. I strongly
> prefer calling this menu the "system menu" since the items here are
> generally system actions or configurations. Also, it's parallel to the
> power menu having a power settings button and the sound menu having a
> sound settings button.

+1 from me. I'd like to hear MPT's opinion on this, but if he raises no 
objections consider that an approval to move forward. If he does, I'll 
be glad to resolve it one way or the other.

> http://pad.lv/815077 was reported about the lack of a Restart button.
> It appears as though the spec is that Restart will only be shown if
> restart-required updates have not been applied. A typical user will
> want to restart to Windows or OS X. A fair number of developers have
> another Ubuntu install or Linux distribution they would like to reboot
> to use. Requiring users to log out before they restart seems to make a
> common usecase more frustrating. If the desire is to reduce menu
> option clutter, I suggest keeping the option as Shut Down (or Power
> Off might be a good descriptive alternative). And then use a pop-up
> like Gnome Shell to allow Restart, Shutdown (automatic after 60
> seconds), or Cancel. See http://i.imgur.com/lLPoL.png

+1 also.


> Login Items (Startup Applications) has only a very narrow, power user
> use case especially in its current condition. I have never used it for
> anything useful. For power users, it's easily findable in the Dash.

Agreed.

> Since Bluetooth has its own menu, it definitely should not be in the
> system menu. Many computers don't have bluetooth support anyway.
> Honestly, I strongly question the need to have direct links here to
> individual panels of System Settings. The most common options (Power,
> Bluetooth, Sound, etc.) already are consistently at the bottom of
> their respective menus. Displays also should just work for most
> people; for others, set once and then always work.

Bluetooth will either move to the new menu, or stay special-cased on the 
panel, not both.


> Devices sounds like it should also include the ability to unmount
> removable drives, but perhaps this is a conflict with the Places Lens
> thing.

We might drop the launcher visibility of mounted drives, based on user 
testing.

> I very much like having System Settings at the top of the system menu
> and the Lock/Sleep/Power options at the buttom. I also like the
> Software Updates status incorporated into the system menu.

Thanks :-)

Mark