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Carl Ansell wrote on 28/02/12 18:50:
We have a confirmation dialogue when the user clicks shut down, and
they can also select restart from this menu. So why don't we change
the menu so there is instead an option to 'end session', which then
leads to a confirmation dialogue that includes all the possible
options to end a session?
...
Ubuntu used to do that, and it was horrid, because there are just too
many choices.<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ubuntu_shutdown.png>
(Joel Spolsky coincidentally explained why it was horrid, looking at
the equivalent problem in Windows Vista.
<http://joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/11/21.html>)
I would be delighted if Ubuntu ever got to the point where it could
have a single item as you describe, where that item did not take you
to a confusing spectrum of session-ending commands.
<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ExitStrategy>
But achieving that simplicity would require the kind of low-level work
that Ubuntu developers have never been interested in so far.
First, kernel work to make Suspend and Hibernate a quick continuum.
Have the computer quickly hibernate before suspending, so that after a
specific time period in suspend state (or if it ran out of battery
while in suspend state) it would power off, and later resume from
hibernation instead. That way, "Suspend" and "Hibernate" wouldn't need
to be separate choices.
Second, implementing APIs so that application developers need do very
little to save perfect state on exit. That way, "Log Out" and
"Shut Down" wouldn't need to be separate choices: you could exit, and
if nobody else logged in in the next 30 seconds, the computer would
shut down.
And third, allowing applications that are doing something continuous
(like downloading a file) to run, at low ebb, while you are logged
out. That way, "Switch User" and "Log Out" wouldn't need to be
separate choices.
There are all kinds of edge cases that would need to be either solved
or retired. But that's why Ubuntu has seven ways to exit your session,
while the iPad succeeds with only one.
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