[Oneiric-Topic] Simplifying system sleep functions

[Tony Espy]

On 04/19/2011 08:09 PM, Jason Warner wrote:
> Hi Everyone - Sending this on behalf of John Lea, desktop design lead.
>
> ==============================================
>
> Currently Ubuntu contains two separate sleep functions, suspend and
> hibernate.  This choice confuses users and is a un-necessary
> complication to 'sleeping' the computer.  The proposed change is to
> combine both 'suspend' and 'hibernate' into a single 'sleep' function.
>   When the user presses 'sleep', the computer should both suspend and
> hibernate simultaneously.  The computer remains suspended for a set
> period of time (e.g. 30min) or until the battery charge falls below a
> set level.  At the point the suspend state is discarded, and if  the
> user wakes the computer after this point their state is restored from
> hibernate.  However if the user wakes the computer before the suspend
> state is discarded, the computer is restored from 'suspend' and the
> 'hibernate' state is discarded.

I'm not a fan of this idea.

If suspend works for the vast majority of users, why complicate it by 
adding a timed "auto-hibernate" to the equation?  As a few folks have 
pointed out, what if hibernate fails?  What if the BIOS doesn't properly 
support a wake timer?

I'm pretty sure the latter criteria for triggering hibernate ( critical 
low-battery event while suspended ) already works.  It essentially wakes 
the system from suspend, the power manager notices the battery is 
critically low, and invokes a hibernate.  The timed scenario would work 
in a similar manner, except that after a timer event wakes the system, 
the power manager would have to have added logic to trigger the hibernate.

I'm much more in favor of hiding or even removing hibernate from the UI, 
as long as it remains an option for "critical low-battery" event for 
those systems that properly support hibernate.

Regards,
/tony