Re: Remote Desktop - new name?

[Mark McLoughlin <mark skynet ie>]

Hi Eugene,

On Mon, 2004-02-16 at 18:12, Eugene O'Connor wrote:
> I'm writing documentation on remote desktop. I think we should avoid the
> use of the term "desktop" in this functionality. "Desktop" as a term is
> already overloaded with meanings, and I think it is best to avoid it to
> avoid user confusion around this term (to read the discussions on the
> desktop terms, see the archives for this list).
> 
> So, what to use instead? The options that come immediately to mind for
> me are "session" and "display".
> 
> display: A visual representation of information on a computer screen. A
> display is created on a display device, such as a screen, by a display
> manager application, such as GNOME Display Manager (GDM).
> 
> session: A series of interactions that begins when a user logs in to the
> GNOME Desktop, and ends when the user logs out of the GNOME Desktop.
> 
> I don't think display is a suitable replacement for desktop. For me,
> display suggests that all that is being accessed is the visual
> component, but the user is allowing someone to view or control their
> GNOME Desktop. So I think session is a more suitable term here. It
> conveys that the one who is allowed to view or control will be able to
> interact with the session.
> 
> I would also like to discuss what verb (if any) to use with session. For
> this we need to consider both the user and the sysadmin points-of-view.
> So menu items for the user UI and the Sysadmin UI might look like one of
> the following:
> 
>    User                     Sysadmin 
> 1. Allow Remote Session     Connect to Remote Session
> 2. Share Session            Connect to Session
> 
> "Remote" might not have much meaning for the user, so I think "Share
> Session" is a better choice here.

	Hmm, for me, the verbs most appropriate with "session" are "begin" and
"end" - i.e. the most important aspects of a session is that when you
log in, the session begins, and when you log out, the session ends.

	So, in this case if we talk about "Remote Session" funcionality, I
would immediately think of starting a remote session through GDM using
XDMCP, rather than thinking of connecting to an existing session.

Cheers,
Mark.