Why Restart & Shutdown Buttons on login screen

[Bill Davidsen]

"Rahul Tidke" wrote:
> Hello All,
>   I wonder about these buttons on gnome desktop; do we really need these
> buttons on login screen? Reboot and shutdown allowed before login for any
> user??
> 
The machines are configured for use by normal users. That means that 
many are used by people who should not have privilege on the machine. As 
someone said, with energy costs high, downtime is desirable for most users.

In most cases people with access to the console have access to the 
machine, and can get it to power down in some way other than a normal 
shutdown. Therefore we make it moderately easy for people to do the 
right thing, certain that people who have some need to have the machine 
on all the time will take a moment and locate the configuration which 
allows you to take those options off the board.

The default behavior is what is useful to most people. That's desirable.

-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot