System settings power saving section has misleading wording

[8765pu]

The power saving section of system settings has the title "Power saving" (all GUI text is translated to English in this report, but I suspect the wording is similar enough in the English localization of the UI that the points still stand). There are some problems with that title in combination with the actual options in that section:

- Screen backlight level
- Automatic backlight level
- Keyboard backlight level
- Dim screen when inactive
- Empty screen (after interval)
- Automatic suspend
- Wireless network: The wireless network can be turned off to save power.
- Bluetooth: Bluetooth can be turned off to save power.

1. Let's start with the problem with the two bottommost controls (wireless network, and bluetooth). Their subtitles in combination with the section title "Power saving" gives a very clear impression that these settings enable/disable *the ability for these components to be automatically turned off in order to save power*, but that's not what they do at all. They're just switches to turn off the components manually, as though the focus of this section weren't to automate power saving but to offer manual controls that are already available not only in their own respective setions of system settings, but readily available at any time in the global system menu in the top right corner of the desktop.

There's no good reason to believe that the Power saving switches are just triply redundant instances of these already highly available switches, since no one is actually that interested in manually managing their power saving from a buried panel in system settings every time they decide to go battery powered or are critically low on battery. What's expected in this section are settings unique to power saving, like automating it during battery power, as opposed to just general preferences about whether you need wifi or bluetooth. It doesn't hurt to suggest turning the transmitters off in the power saving section, but doing it this way is misleading.

I mistakenly turned off the Bluetooth transmitter in this way in an attempt to prevent the system from automatically power it off, during my efforts to troubleshoot Bluetooth. Needless to say, that didn't help, and I was later surprised to discover that Bluetooth was off.

2. The other problem in the Power saving section is that many of the settings aren't really about power saving strategies -- they're just general preferences that would have to be adjusted manually every single time you want to save power:

- Screen backlight level
- Keyboard backlight level
- Wireless network: The wireless network can be turned off to save power.
- Bluetooth: Bluetooth can be turned off to save power.

Sure, they technically have the potential to save power, but then they would have to be micromanaged all the time, i.e. not very useful in practice if you're using battery power on a daily basis. You would have to be extremely proactive for these settings to be preventative of needlessly draining your battery, and they're instead very likely going to be used when it's "too late" and you're already low on battery.

Here are the ones actually concerned with power saving strategies, i.e. preventing battery from draining prematurely:

- Automatic backlight level
- Dim screen when inactive
- Empty screen (after interval)
- Automatic suspend

Notice how you don't have to babysit these settings every time you decide to use battery power, and how they're actually focused on the problem of conserving power before it's too late.

To alleviate these issues, the easiest quick fix would be to:

1. either remove or change the subtitles of the two bottommost to something like "WiFi/Bluetooth can consume a lot of power" which succinctly explains why these switches are here while at the same time not misleading the reader to think the switches control something else.

2. Move the "micromanagement settings" to their own section to clearly separate the more relevant "power conservation strategies" from the "general user preferences for components with potential for high power consumption that can be manually adjusted here if you're in a pinch and are critically low on battery".

The less easy fix would of course be to offer automatic keyboard backlight levels instead of manual controls, and to offer actual automatic wifi and bluetooth power saving (if that's a thing). Not to mention a general "power saving" mode, which is the reasonable level at which regular power saving could be expected to be managed manually.

Ubuntu 20.10
gnome-control-center 3.38.3

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.