shutdown compared ubuntu vs fedora

[Valent Turkovic]

Hi. I started a thread on fedora-desktop mailing list and they
suggested you also get involved you I joined this list also. Here are
some of the key points from thread going on fedora-desktop mailing
list.


Valent Turkovic:

I used Mint Linux (ubuntu derivative) and loved it's shutdown button.

This looks to me much more user friendly than one we have on Fedora.

First buttons for shutdown, restart, sleep and log-off have icons -
and fedora has only naked buttons.
The screen dims when you click on shutdown - really nice effect.

This looks to me as standard Ubuntu button and not something ubuntu
has made them selves so I was puzzled when I didn't see it in Fedora 7
test 3 or 4.

Can you also include this - a much better version of shutdown button
than one fedora currently uses.

It is much more usable, and user frendly - and it has logoff button
integrated in it and not separate (as it should also be on fedora
IMHO).

Please look at the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWuZvOAAE9c



Matthias Clasen:

> The logout dialog is one of the best-hated derivations from upstream
> that you can find in Ubuntu.

Hated by whom? And why? Can you explain a bit?

>Don't expect us to blindly follow them
> where they err, just because it looks shiny.

I don't care if it is ubunut, gentoo, opensuse or fedora... but when I
as a user see when one distro has taken one component and really made
it shine (not as eyecandy) for users and made it much more user
friendly and made it better usabillity wise ie. big icons that users
get right away - that makes me want to see that kind of progress on
all other linux desktops.

Why do you thing that it is a mistake? Because they did it themselves
independent of Gnome? I thought that it was part of gnome but that
just fedora wasn't using it.

Gnome people should see this as work done for them and include it in
gnome.... if they like it. Or atlest give us users option to choose
which shutdown button we would use.



Jeroen van Meeuwen:

> IMHO, a shutdown button is a shutdown button... it shuts your computer
> down... if you want eye-candy (apart from whatever anyone subjectively
> considers eye-candy), you shouldn't shut down the computer in the first
> place.

If you looked atleast at one desktop usability study you wouldn't say
such tings.
Buttons matter to users, colors of buttons matter... the shape of
buttons also matters...



Rogue:

I am not an active poster on this thread, but I do believe that this
would be the right list to discuss the OP's issue. Isn't this supposed
to be the fedora usability list? If we do come to the agreement that an
icon along with the text makes more sense, then we could request the
art-team, or the team incharge to incorporate the changes.

In the current dialog, I do see a certain usability hindrance. I am
typically used to shutting down my laptop before heading to work.
Recently when I wished to hibernate the system instead, I found myself
taking the effort of reading the text to get to the action that I
intended to perform.

I am not stating that icons are useless. Just that, it is easier for a
lot of people to associate an image with an action. If appropriate icons
were made available, and if I had used those icons through the
menu-items, then at one glance, I would know the button to click on
(within the shutdown dialog).

Regarding the question on the surrounding items being dimmed, I believe
this is a feature that a lot of new generation applications are also
taking up. I do not have the links to prove my point at the moment, but
I shall do my research on get back to you on it. I *guess* the idea here
is to gain the user's attention towards the action in question, but I
may be wrong on this one :-)



Steffen Kluge:

> > It is much more usable, and user frendly - and it has logoff button
> > integrated in it and not separate (as it should also be on fedora
> > IMHO).
>
> I for one are no fan of lumping logout and shutdown together. They are
> fundamentally different tasks, at least if you come from a Unix
> background.

When you say "unix" I hear "servers". Fedora should be more about
desktop and user experience with this great desktop. You should look
more towards the OSX than to unix in these matters. Look just what
Apple has made with an "unix" system when they combined a great user
experience. I still prefer Fedora to OSX, but I must say Fedora could
do better it it borrowed some of the great solutions on OSX desktop.

Different pieces should be logically grouped together even if the are
for different tasks - that is done all the time - so I don't see any
argument not to do it here.

For a better desktop workflow for me it is nor logical to have two
buttons  - especially because you really have to look hard at them to
make the distinction - and if you put them on gnome panel you have two
buttons instead of one.

To be more clear - I am talking about merging functionality of gnome
panel buttons. In "System" gnome menu there is possibly a case for
leaving them separate - but when I look at them now they look too
similar - and it there wasn't text beside them I would have to give
them a really hard look before deciding which button to push.

-- 
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