[Usability] Cross-Session vs. Temporary States

[Jacob Beauregard <jake13jake comcast net>]

I'm wondering if anyone has looked into consistent separation of permanent and 
temporary state manipulations.

For instance, when I open Opera, it's always on the last web page I visited. 
It wouldn't be clear to me that Opera would save the webpage I visited. 
However, this is typically not obtrusive, as I am usually not worried about 
my homepage. It can be a problem with recovery, however, as the page I was on 
may have caused the browser to crash. 

In another context, when I'm using KDE, I find it frustrating that Konqueror 
will not be in the same viewing state for file browsing. Yes, I know this is 
the GNOME list, but I'd still hope to spark some discussion on this topic.