Newbie help

[Thomas Kaiser]

Why is it not possible to shut down the computer with the power switch?

My coffee machine has a power switch I press there to turn it on and I 
press on the same switch to turn it off again. Shouldn't it be the same 
with a computer? As far as I remember, on a Sun workstation you can just 
press the power switch to shutdown the workstation. It is also possible 
with with windowz XP. Just press the powerswitch and windowz XP will 
shut down. How about Ubuntu? Can I just press the powerswitch and Ubuntu 
shuts down cleanlly?

Thomas

squareyes wrote:
> Hi all,
>  I live in a small town, and seem to be spending a lot of time helping
> new Windows users. The week before last a fellow came to me asking for
> help, his machine took for ever to start up. I went round and he had
> been switching off at the power when he was finished, and it was running
> a scandisk on a 160gig drive every time he switched on. I asked why and
> he said the on/off switch didn't work when he pressed it(needs to be
> held in for a few seconds for forced shutdown). I explained he needed to
> shutdown correctly, no one had told him.
> 
> With the above in mind and being a newbie myself to Ubuntu,I have
> started making up a newbies help html, in the same style as the
> unofficial guide(different background color), so they match, and would
> appreciate any suggestions. I want to make it that simple that anyone
> who has not even seen a computer before could use it, so am including
> very basic screen shots.
> Would be happy to hear any suggestions on/off list, and can send what I
> have done so far minus the screen shots to anyone interested.
> Thanks.
> Take Care
> Winton
> 
>