Re: [Usability] User Shut Down damaged PC

["Mark Knecht" <markknecht gmail com>]

Manu,
  Thanks for your response.

  I agree that finding a way to warn a user that upgrades are in
progress would be a valuable addition. However keep in mind that
sometimes users can be quite young and may or may not pay attention to
these messages.

  My son, now 14, has never had a Windows PC. He got his first Linux
box at age 7 and has been using Linux for about 7 years. I'm not sure
at the age of 7 that he would have understood the difference between
log out and shut down. I'm certain he wouldn't have understood the
real meaning up an 'updates in progress. Don't shut down!' message.

  I suppose that what I'm asking for is what Gnome used to provide.
The addition of the Shut Down option in the menus is fairly recent.
Maybe a year ago it was added to the user environment. Prior to that
it only appeared in the gdm login screen. I'd like to see an option to
return to that model.

  Personal observation: I personally cannot see why *anyone* needs a
shut down option within their desktop. Linux is not Windows. It is
fully multi-tasking and multi-user. At a minimum I'd prefer users have
to completely log out and then at a minimum *consciously* decide to
shut the machine down from gdm. I'd also like to see Gnome or gdm do,
at a minimum, what Windows does which is warn that other users are
logged on before the final shut down sequences can start.

  Note that this isn't only a problem for little kids. My wife's
machines servers as a MythTV backend server. Periodically sh will make
a mistake when logging out and choose shut down. The machine shuts
down and we lose recordings. Granted, she should be able to read the
message saying that the machine will shut down in 60 seconds, but
sometimes she will do this trying to get out the door to work when
she's rushed and not paying as much attention.

  As a small note toward usability both my wife and son have
rearranged their desktop to move what I think Gnome calls the 'panel'
to the top of the screen. For some reason they feel they are less
likely to choose the shut down option when their screens are arranged
this way. Personally I don't like that arrangement but to each his
own.

  Anyway, we are all Gnome users and love the environment. It strikes
a nice balance between features & usability while keeping from
terribly overtaxing the system. I use Gnome with real-time kernels for
audio recording. 4 years ago I could never have done that and was
using minimalist environments like fluxbox. I like that I can now use
Gnome and not suffer in the least.

  Lastly, I'm not looking for any immediate changes in Gnome. I just
thought I'd report this after maybe our 10th, and worst, run in with
the issue.

Cheers,
Mark

On 3/21/07, Manu Cornet <manu cornet gmail com> wrote:
> Hi Mark!
>
> Thank you for your feedback. I think the problem you raise is real,
> however I believe the need to solve the "how to fix a broken system"
> problem is not as urgent as the need to not break it in the first
> place. The simplest way I see is to be able to warn the user against
> shutting down/rebooting whenever a system upgrade is being performed.
>
> I'm not sure whether this needs to be distro specific or not (there
> are many ways to upgrade a system in the various distros), but the
> upgrade system should probably let gnome-session know about what it is
> doing?
>
> Cheers,
> Manu