My first DontZap use case while testing F11 beta

[Peter Hutterer]

On Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 11:20:10AM -0500, Matthew Woehlke wrote:
> Lars E. Pettersson wrote:
>> The important thing is that this removal can create problems for new  
>> user of Linux. Why should we learn them to restart the whole machine  
>> when it is not needed, and even may create extra data loss, and even  
>> problems with the file system.
>
> It occurs to me... has anyone considered that we are teaching users that  
> GNU/Linux is just as bad as Windows with this change?
>
> It used to be: no, no, this is *GNU/Linux*! An X crash isn't the total  
> system failure it is in Windows, just hit c-a-bs and you're instantly  
> back at your login.
>
> Now we're making X problems into: yeah, you have to reboot, wait for the  
> system to come back... oh, and wait for it to run scandi^Wfsck (and  
> better pray the FS didn't get hosed)...
>
> So much for GNU/Linux being better than Windows.

The world isn't black or white. Since the invention of light we have
greyscales too (I believe this even was a zero-day update, according to the
book of Genesis).

So their X crashed. Tell them that this can happen and if they tick the
checkbox next time they can hit c-a-b to avoid rebooting.

They know now that the shortcut exists, they know they have enabled it
explictly, they know how to disable it if they don't want it. They can even
select the keyboard sequence they want (once we actually have a few to select
from).

You have tought them something, and maybe they feel better for learning a bit
of how their computer works, and that they can with little effort configure
the computer to suit their needs better.

Then again, maybe they don't want to learn this. Maybe they don't want to hit
c-a-b because they don't understand or care that crashing the windowing system
!= crashing the operating system (and hitting the power button is something
they're comfortable with).

Or maybe somewhere in the middle. 

Cheers,
  Peter