Re: The good, the bad, the insane

[Ryan Peters <sloshy45 sbcglobal net>]

On 05/23/2011 06:47 PM, Allan E. Registos(x-mail) wrote:
> On Monday, 23 May, 2011 10:13 PM, Ryan Peters wrote:
> > Before I say anything, let me state that I am not a developer or 
> > designer of this project. From what I've read *from* the designers, 
> > though, the decision was made for consistency's sake, not necessarily 
> > saving energy. The menu has the same function that the power button 
> > and closing the window list do: suspending. Shutting down, when you 
> > think about it, is something that you rarely have to do (some people 
> > don't shut down their desktops for long periods of time, while others 
> > only shut them down once or twice per day). Compared to navigating a 
> > program's GUI, switching workspaces/windows, and launching 
> > applications, this is something that is rarely done, so, for the sake 
> > of consistency, it would make sense to optimize towards a behavior 
> > that, for most users, would be preferable when walking away 
> > (suspending). The preferred way to shut down, which indicates that 
> > you're done using the computer, is to log out first and use GDM 
> > (which takes a few more seconds, but I can't think of a situation 
> > where you have to shut down a computer faster that that). 
> Pressing the alt-button shows the Power Off button, logging out so 
> that you can shutdown requires more work and delay especially after 
> work where a quick shutdown is badly needed. That design decision 
> again was discussed in length and that is invalid, it works obviously 
> to the designer's laptops while the rest of the desktop world are 
> suffering.
When was this made "invalid"; are there plans to reverse the decision? I 
haven't read of this. Or, by "invalid", do you mean "we would like it 
the other way"? I'm not saying you're wrong, I only want to clarify, as 
I haven't read anything about the decision being reversed. Also, I use a 
desktop, and I can't see how holding the Alt key for a second or logging 
out is really such a big deal. It's unnecessary, sure, but it isn't 
exactly "the end of the world" as I hear so many people saying. It 
reminds me of the decision to not use minimize/maximize buttons by 
default; you can still maximize other ways, and it makes the desktop 
feel more consistent and minimal by default.

How much harder is it to press the Alt key and click? I don't mean to 
sound rude, and I'm sorry if I come across as that, but it really is an 
incredibly small regression if you think about it, relative to some 
other problems like over-crowded settings dialogs not being visible on 
small screens. Even yelp, the GNOME 3 help program, tells users how to 
shut down (with the Alt key as well as the preferred method), so the new 
behavior is just as discoverable as any other keyboard shortcut.