Data retention reminder on live CD

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Colin Watson wrote on 04/03/08 05:10:
> 
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/casper/+bug/137492 points
> out that it is not obvious that any data saved during a live CD
> session will not be saved permanently unless you take special
> measures, and asks for us to remind the user of this somehow. Would
> anyone like to comment on what the user interface should be? Some
> half-formed ideas:
> 
>   * A note that appears on the CD boot menu when you select this
>     option
> 
>   * A desktop notification that appears once the live CD has finished
>     starting up
> 
>   * Some kind of watermark on the background image
> 
>   * A special live CD help icon on the desktop
>...

I think the closer the warning appears to the potential dataloss, both
in time and space, the more effective it will be. So a note at the
beginning of startup wouldn't be as effective as a notification bubble
at the end of startup. A notification bubble at the end of startup
wouldn't be as effective as a watermark on the background image (because
the latter would be more persistent). And a watermark on the background
image, while helpful, wouldn't be as effective as something that happens
right when you're about to save stuff in a non-persistent place.

So in addition to a watermark (which I guess would need to show tiled
text in multiple languages), I suggest a warning message (with a
mini-exclamation icon) appear embedded into the Save dialog whenever the
current folder is a non-persistent one. As soon as you switch to a
persistent folder, the message should disappear.

Similar text could appear in a notification bubble whenever you create
an item in, or move or copy an item to, a non-persistent location using
Nautilus.

I also think consistently using the the phrase "test drive", instead of
the jargon "live CD", would help more people understand what they're
doing when they use Ubuntu this way.

- --
Matthew Paul Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

iD8DBQFHzIhS6PUxNfU6ecoRAvMlAJ4ltTq8ikA+Q/mp/GLpWQr+wrU+vQCgh+NY
roKAFzVj1G78fttEjph/40I=
=gtLD
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----