user menu

[Jeff Waugh]

<quote who="Jean Privat">

> Yesterday I found this piece of software:
> http://esco.mine.nu/category/fast-user-switching-applet/ I do not know Mac
> OS X but I think it is a quite good idea and may solve Ubuntu menu
> structure for hoary problem, even without the user switchnig fuctionality:

Yeah, there was a bit of discussion about this over beers yesterday... It's
not really an important enough function for it to appear on the screen as a
first-class item by default. We can better integrate user switching into the
interface by doing things like:

 * Adding a "log in as new user" function and list of logged in users to the
   log out dialogue

 * Adding a "log in as new user" function and list of logged in users to the
   screensaver lock dialogue

 * Putting "log in as new user" / "new user in nested window" items in the
   System menu (or whatever we'll call it)

That said, if the tool changed focus towards being a "me" menu, that might
be interesting (because the user should be a first-class 'object' in the
interface), but I haven't thought too deeply into that... But it does raise
some interesting possibilities. I'll have to think about this more. :-)

- Jeff

-- 
Ubuntu in Mataró, Spain: December 5th-18th      http://www.ubuntulinux.org/
 
    "I'm just mucking round down the shallow end of the literary pool, I
                          suppose." - Mick Molloy