The shutdown and logout dialogs (and the restart dialog, when it was
separate) used to have a 60-second countdown. We dropped it because it
is wrong to assume that the computer will shut down or log out by
itself once the countdown reaches zero. After all, the countdown might
immediately be followed by one or more alert boxes of the form "Save
changes to “Untitled” before closing?" -- alert boxes which are not,
and cannot safely be, subject to the same kind of countdown.
The story of nick rundy's parents is an awkward one. But the only way
to be sure that an Ubuntu, Mac, or Windows PC will log out or shut
down safely is to wait a few seconds to answer any questions it asks
after you choose that command. Developing and universally adopting a
standard auto-save API, so that users never need to save documents
manually, might solve much of that problem. Changing the design of the
shutdown dialog would not.
