[ubuntu-art] Re: (Yet another) new logout dialog

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

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On Apr 5, 2006, at 9:57 AM, Oliver Grawert wrote:
>
> Am Dienstag, den 04.04.2006, 22:02 +0100 schrieb Henrik Nilsen Omma:
>>
>> Well, some users want both options, but those who don't know the
>> difference (which we have established is most people) don't.

Right -- this is another symptom of expecting people to learn the  
difference between RAM and disk, when usually they have better things  
to do.

History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme: in Windows 2000,  
Microsoft offered "Log off", "Shut down", "Restart", "Stand by", and  
"Hibernate" in a single "Shut Down Windows" dialog. Maybe because five  
buttons in one dialog would have been too daunting, or maybe because  
people didn't understand the difference between "Stand by" and  
"Hibernate", Microsoft put these options in a drop-down listbox, with  
explanatory text being shown for the selected item. This made the  
dialog very slow to use.
<http://www.microsoft.com/technet/images/prodtechnol/windows2000pro/ 
evaluate/featfunc/images/mobscn09.gif>
<http://www.aardvarkinc.com/newsletter_img1/march2000/hibernate.gif>

Windows XP Home split that dialog into two button-based alerts like  
Gnome has done, and turns the "Stand By" button to a "Hibernate" button  
if you hold down the Shift key. (XP Professional retains the single  
dialog with its drop-down listbox.)

>> If Hibernate tends to fail, then it might be wise to leave that one  
>> hidden by default and let those who know that a) they want it and b)  
>> that it works with their hardware can find it and enable it.
>
> the opposite is the case, hibernate works on nearly every laptop,  
> while suspend might be tricky for some ... but usually the action  
> users want to take (even if they dont know how to name it) is the  
> sleep action (because its faster, easier to start up again (on most  
> laptops you just have to hit a key on the keyboard to wake up) etc...)
> ...

Then I again suggest the long-term goal should be merging two or more  
of these commands. Either make "Sleep" suspend to disk and then to RAM,  
so that waking up resumes from RAM if possible and from disk if not  
(Mac OS X does this); or make "Shut Down" suspend to disk (with  
"Restart" still being available for kernel updates and the like), so  
that computers behave more like real desktops; or both.

- -- 
Matthew Paul Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/
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