[Bug 33002] logout dialog UI regression -- please revert

Eric Feliksik milouny at gmx.net
Mon Feb 27 12:53:00 UTC 2006


Public bug report changed:
https://launchpad.net/malone/bugs/33002

Comment:
SHORT STORY: Move reboot out of the way, lets emphasise user switching
and energy saving options (maybe in 2 different dialogs)

LONG STORY:
Although the dialog looks really shiny, I agree it's a bit confusing. 
The problem is that all these actions are somewhat related, but can't really be divided in a one-dimensional way. 


(We need an option for monospace fonts in malone!)
__________________________________________________________________________
| user stops working | end login | other user | save energy | ACTION  
|____________________|___________|____________|____________|______________
|________v___________|_____v_____|_____?______|____v_______| shutdown    
|____________________|_____v_____|_____?______|____________| reboot      
|________v___________|_____v_____|_____v______|____________| logout      
|________v___________|___________|_____v______|____________| switch_user 
|________v___________|___________|____________|____v_______| hibernate   
|________v___________|___________|____________|____________| lock_screen 
|________v___________|___________|____________|____v_______|_sleep_________


I don't know how helpful this is, but take a look. 
I divided the action-caterories in "user stops working", "end login", "other user", "power down", which are all quite self-explanatory. Probably countless other combinations of logout-actions can be chosen, but what is really relevant? 

Computers are often shared between people, so "other user" is useful and
moreover it must be visible to make people aware of the possibilities.

Maybe it would be nice to remove switch user, and let people lock screen
and choose it then. But how to make people aware of the possibility?

Huh, reboot? When does one need to reboot? After very few updates. Of
course the option has been the very first in every menu since win95, but
the reasons are not relevant anymore*.

Completely removing reboot would maybe be extremely gnome-ish :-D let
the user just shut down and power up again! (Moreover, maybe this would
have practical problems when user can't access the power button). But
let agree it's seldomly needed, and let's not put it together with
logout/hibernate/sleep because we are used to that.

What about the following division? People want to stop working, or pause
working. How to do that is secondary:


PROPOSAL: 

Pause working
 - switch user <- at the top, so people see it? Or merged with lock?
 - lock screen
 - hibernate
 - sleep

Stop working
 - logout
 - shutdown

Maybe the first time this is a surprising subdivision, but I think it is
welcoming exploration and makes sense once seen.


* Maybe update-manager and reboot-icon say "you must reboot" when they actually mean you must logout to make gnome refresh, the sound-daemon restart, etcetera, like all helpdesks say when you need a dhcp lease; if so, we might want a "re-login" thing, too. Otherwise, reboot is only necessary for low-level (like kernel) updates




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