Restarting Xserver from cli

[Bart Silverstrim]

Mario Vukelic wrote:
> On Wed, 2009-03-18 at 00:18 -0500, Cybe R. Wizard wrote:
>> Bending over too far backwards to accommodate Windows users, Ubuntu
>> may have shot itself in the foot with that one.  I might have to
>> consider going back to Debian unstable.
>> Sheesh, if I'd wanted windows I'd have stayed with Windows.
> 
> Consider how ugly it is for someone to lose data due to accidentally
> hitting a key combo that is (a) undocumented for all intents and
> purposes as far as non-experts are concerned, and (b) terminates all
> open applications without giving the user a chance to save.

And doesn't have recent backups...if it's important (I know, users don't 
make backups!)

Terminating open apps is kind of the point when X is fubar'd.

How often is this really an issue? A prankster tells people to do it so 
they do...okay...why are they working on critical work while looking for 
tricks on IRC or some other list? Is this really all that common?

How many users are accidentally hitting that key combo? Are they the 
same users that flip out when they kick the power cord out (Maybe it 
should be permanently attached), or run out of battery? Power outages 
kill them too (maybe UPS's should be build into every desktop)?

One learning experience that costs an hour or two of work sucks. No 
doubt. But you bet your ass I won't do it again. Seems a lot of users 
don't learn unless there's a reason to remember it too.

So the alternative is what, an uber-group of intelligensia that rules 
over idiots deemed too dim to learn lessons, keeping a group in power 
over others in eternal technological servitude because they're simply 
written off as too stupid to use the Internet or their own computers? 
Well...maybe I like where your system is going after all.

Maybe the command to restart X should be something more obscure than 
three keys scattered across the keyboard...like hitting H, a, F4, then 
the current time on the keypad followed by asterisk and 2, then hold 
caps lock simultaneously with backspace.

> In reality, Ctrl+Alt+Bspc always was a usability nightmare. If Windows
> had something like this it would be roasted over an open fire, and
> rightly so.

That's BS. Windows was full of usability nightmares. Never hurt sales 
enough to matter.

> IMHO changing the default was the correct decision. OTOH I have no idea
> why people get so worked up about this, the last time I had to kill X
> was several years ago.

I had to do it more recently than that, but it did save me from losing 
other tasks that were running in the background. If they died they'd 
die, I'd survive, but it would have been annoying. Plus it probably does 
save greater possibility of damage to things like the filesystem in 
having to do a complete restart.