Re: Proposal for inclusion in desktop: gnome-screensaver

[Shaun McCance <shaunm gnome org>]

On Tue, 2005-10-25 at 12:07 -0400, William Jon McCann wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I am pleased to propose gnome-screensaver for inclusion in the GNOME 
> 2.14 Desktop release.
> 
> gnome-screensaver is a new screensaver that can replace xscreensaver. It 
> is designed to integrate well with the desktop and provide an control 
> interface that is desktop neutral. It simplifies and streamlines the 
> experience for the user and provides more capability for the system 
> administrator and vendor.

Some general points, none of which is meant to construe
a vote against putting gnome-screensaver in the desktop:

* On https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ScreenSaver there's the suggestion:

    ...an OS-X-like dialog shake would save having to print ugly
    "That password was incorrect" text.

I notice that you have the shake effect, but that you still have
the "ugly" text.  Please keep it that way.  I very much doubt
that our accessibility tools can say "the dialog is shaking its
head 'NO' at you."

* The timeout when you type an incorrect password is very long.

* Same wiki page:

    Use the gdm login screen for switching accounts, and tidy it up.

I've long held that XP got the interaction right.  There's just one
login screen.  Unlocking your screen is just logging back in again.
Switching users is just logging in.

Right now, we have the OS X interaction: We have a login screen
and a separate unlock dialog.  The unlock dialog has a button to
switch users, which takes you to another login dialog.  Ideally,
I'd like to see an effort to make gdm the One True Login Screen,
regardless of whether you're logging in for the first time or
unlocking a running session.

* As long as we have the model we have now, the user-switching
dialog needs love.  Right now, it displays a list of all the
users.  The list is tall enough to accommodate about 1.2 users.
I regularly use a machine that has hundreds of users.  That's
not a fun list to scroll through.

* And on that note, I'm a keyboard-happy kind of person.  I'm
a big fan of just typing my username.  I think face browsers
are great for small home installations.  But there needs to
be a way to type.

* And on that note, there needs to be a way to disable the
face browser entirely.  In a lot of settings, sysadmins don't
want to show a list of all users to people who might not even
have accounts on the machines.

* You've hidden quite a lot of options.  All well and good.
But we can't just hide things that people use, unless we've
really provided a better system.  Case in point, I actually
use the setting for when to lock the screen after it's blanked.
Removing that setting annoys me, unless you make it Just Work
so I don't need the setting anymore.

Here's why I use it: Sometimes I'm just reading some lengthy
document, or looking hard at some piece of code.  I am using
my computer, but I'm not moving the mouse or typing.  Then
the screensaver kicks in.  If it doesn't lock immediately,
I can quickly move my mouse and all is well.

This can be very easily solved without that extra option.
Just make it always have a ~5s delay before locking.


Anyway, just my 2�.  I'm glad somebody is finally tackling
this issue.  Keep up the good work.

--
Shaun