Enable users to configure on the previous 'shutdown timer' feature

[June Oh]

Binary package hint: indicator-session

The automatic 'shutdown timer' feature on the shutdown prompt has been excluded in Lucid, in favor for a faster shutdown time.

However, although this was through decision, apparently there are quite a lot of users from previous versions of Ubuntu and other OSs who miss this feature and want it back. (Reference to the comments on Bug #548415 : https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/indicator-session/+bug/548415?comments=all )

I believe Lucid can save shutdown time AND still preserve user's range of selection by adding a configuration for automatic shutdown timer on the current power options.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

the current behavior is a decision. even a few people previously thought waiting 60sec for the computer to auto shutdown was the right way. thats why the timer was removed

[sem (semitones)]

The dialog still isn't very fast. At least with a timer the computer will still shutdown even if you walk away before seeing a warning message, but you can also change your mind. Why keep people from adding it back?

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

In interaction design we have an awkward word, "workflow". It's used for the steps you go through to do something, even if that thing has nothing to do with work.

At first sight, the countdown seems to offer better workflow, because for some people at least, it replaces a confirmation with an undo. You can trigger the command, go away, and come back within a minute to undo your decision if you change your mind. <http://alistapart.com/article/neveruseawarning>

Unfortunately it often doesn't work, because of something that happens at the end of the workflow. If you happen to have any app open that asks for confirmation before it quits -- most commonly, if an app has any unsaved documents -- that confirmation will happen *after* the countdown, when you might not even be there to see it. So your session will stay wide open until the screen lock kicks in, which is a security problem. Those confirmations can't happen before the countdown, because if they did, apps would be quitting before you even saw the shutdown prompt, including when you'd chosen the command by mistake, which is precisely the problem the prompt exists to prevent.

This will happen more often to some people than to others, but it's unlikely that there's any correlation between how often it happens to you and how willing+confident you are in changing system settings. For example, nobody commenting on bug 548415 even mentioned the possibility.

So, I don't think a setting can improve things. Someday, if even PC apps routinely save state and documents constantly, they won't need to put up save-changes confirmations any more, so we won't have to worry about those showing up at the end of the timer, so we can reintroduce the timer for everyone. But not today.