Desktop usability: how to unmount devices?

[John]

Martin Pitt wrote:

>Hi Guys!
>
>As discussed in the meeting, we need to agree to an obvious, easy and safe
>method of unmounting hotpluggable and CD-ROM devices.
>
>For the records, this is the current procedure for mounting:
>
>1. user puts in a CD or plugs in an USB/FireWire device
>2. device is mounted by gnome-volume-manager (using pmount)
>3. device icon appears in the Computer window and a Nautilus window of the
>   mount point pops up
>  
>

My immediate response is to remove any software that does this. The 
assumption I want to use some kind of file manager to access my CD 
contents is rarely right.


At this point I will mention that on some systems one must use the eject 
command for USB driives, but on others (most) it's not needed.

I know it sounds bizarre, but I have systems here where it's not 
necessary, and one where it is.

The penalty is that one device can appear as sda, then b, c etc.