Fwd: Is disabling ctrl-alt-backspace really such a good idea? - no.

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

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Remco wrote on 12/02/09 22:33:
> 
> Every program that hangs but doesn't release grabs is a problem. You
> could certainly implement some kind of solution to that, but only
> after that solution is implemented, C-A-B or equivalents should be
> disabled. Not before.

    The fact is, many things are easier to fix afterwards.
    Particularly because that's the only time you'll find people
    motivated enough to bother about it. If you were to need to fix
    everything before-the-fact, nothing fundamental would ever get
    fixed, simply because the people who can fix one thing are not
    usually the same people who can fix another.

     -- Linus Torvalds <http://lwn.net/2002/0418/a/lt-breakage.php3>

> Every program that makes the system so slow that it becomes unusable
> is a problem. This can't be solved. Any buggy program can take so much
> CPU/RAM/IO that your mouse pointer moves only every 10 seconds and
> your key presses only register after that same time. Only a simple key
> press that kills the program can solve this.
>...

I have no doubt that it *could* be solved if people put their minds to
it. System Monitor (or a process-specific buset) could reduce the
priority of your other programs whenever it is running, be special-cased
by the window manager to ensure other windows can't hide it, and so on.
<http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/13626/> In comparison, Ctrl Alt
Backspace is an appallingly bad way of stopping misbehaving programs.

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