unity-design team mailing list archive

[Carl Ansell <afccarl1994@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Date: Wed, 29 Feb 2012 13:56:34 -0600
> From: rtgkid@xxxxxxxxx
> To: unity-design@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [Unity-design] Are there plans to add "Reboot" item to the power-cog menu in panel?
> 
> On 02/29/2012 12:43 PM, Matthew Paul Thomas wrote:
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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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> > mpt
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mpt, I see your point. However, in this case, hibernate would not need to be in the list if it is disabled by default. If enabled, we could have a button like the one in XP, where pressing shift (or another button) switches between suspend and hibernate, as they perform similar functions. Also, lock screen is not a way to end the session, so it could be left in the menu. Maybe with an updated design (unity style?), it wouldn't look so bad?