Suggestion for the logout screen

[Henrik 'Snout' Isacsson <snout ctrl-c liu se>]

Hi, peoples. I don't use Gnome myself (except as linked-into a lot of
binaries), but a friend thought I had some good ideas on logging out and
thought I should forward it. So, here is.

Since the logout button is placed in the same manner as 'exit program' is,
the suggestion is for the logout action to have a popup window, much like
Windows or CDE does.
"Do you want to log out?"

But, the changes would be:

* Have a small 'Yes, continue' button, and a larger 'No, cancel' button.
* Have a timer that is displayed, user settable. When it expires, logout.
  Such that: "If you don't hit no within X seconds, you will be logged
              out."
* _If_ the user hits no, prompt for the user password before allowing
  logins. After a few fails, or a total time limit (say, 1 minute?) logout
  would proceed.

Why?

First off, because it's too easy to hit logout by accident, and lose
all 'contextual data' that are the open windows. Catching accidents.

Second, if you _do_ want to log out, and are in a hurry, perhaps you just
hit 'logout' and turn the screen off. The next user to come along could
find your session and just continue on it. Security.

Third, a password query would make sure that if someone else comes along,
it is still only the right user that can continue the session. Security.

Fourth, the 'global timer' would make sure that even if noone comes along,
and the user still manages to hit 'yes' and get the password prompt, the
prompt won't wait forever. Usability - the next user who wants to login
won't have to wait for the real user or a sysadmin to make the
(public) system usable again.


There it is. Hope it's of some use.

And, please forward this mail if there's a better list/address for it. I
didn't find a 'gnome-suggestions' mail address off of gnome.org.

-Henrik