60 seconds 'til shutdown...is it a good idea ?

[David Timms]

shrek-m at gmx.de wrote:
> On 13.03.2006 12:28, Roger Grosswiler wrote:
> 
>> i get the choose, when clicking on logout. It then leaves it to me for
>> restart or shutdown...
> 
> thanks roger,
> 
> but unfortunately not here, ppc64
> 
> # rm -rf .gnome*
> 1. reboot, startx --> gnome-errors
> 2. reboot, startx --> stll the old icon and no shutdown or restart :-(
Is there something weird about your ppc64 machine, or are there other 
ppc64 testers seeing what you see ?
Do you have the option to right-click|add to panel|shut down ?
If so does it work ?

Anyway regarding the 'countdown':
a. Perhaps it would be more correct to state deka-second (or 1/6ths of 
minute) in the dialog; it couldn't be any more confusing than what is 
shown in the current ui ;~)
b. When the dialog is saying 50, just before it ticks over, the time 
left to shutdown is actually just over 40 seconds. If we must have a 
count down that does not count down, at least don't give people the 
impression they have ten more seconds to cancel or wait than they really 
have.
c. First time I saw it, my immediate thought was that my PC had hung. 
This is not the impression to be giving normal users !
d. Do not copy ms dodgy practices (eg file copy dialog does a similar 
thing - and is just as bad / annoying).
e. If the idea is to be nice to other users by giving them a warning 
then it would be good to actually immediately issue whatever it is that 
causes connected users to be told: "System is going down for power off 
in 60 seconds". This could be a reason to actually have a 60 second delay.
f. Please find that user from bugzilla who got alarmed, take s/he out 
back and give them a stern talking to ;-) Or even better, see if we can 
find an analog clock that updates it's second hand in the same manner :-}

DaveT.