Re: 'Switch User' action

[Rodrigo Moya <rodrigo gnome-db org>]

On Fri, 2003-12-05 at 19:00, Mark McLoughlin wrote:
> Hi Rodrigo,
> 
> On Fri, 2003-12-05 at 17:11, Rodrigo Moya wrote:
> > Hi
> > 
> > Attached is a patch that implements the 'Switch User' action, making
> > that show up both on the 'Actions' Menu, and on the 'Actions' applet
> > menu. It just misses an icon for it.
> > 
> > I don't know what people think about this, and if this is really enough
> > for fast user switching, but I wanted to send it to see what people
> > think.
> > 
> > If this goes in, I think gdmflexiserver should be changed to allow the
> > user to choose an already existing session from a nice and simple
> > dialog.
> > 
> > So, what do people think?
> 
> 	Well, there are two questions, really:
> 
>   1) Is gdmflexiserver as it stands suitable for this ?
>
I don't think so. I think there should be a step before running
gdmflexiserver. That is, when selecting 'Switch User', there could be a
dialog that displays the list of users currently connected, and an
option to start a new login. Then the user would select what to do.

Also, we would need the work on the gnome-screensaver to include a call
to that dialog, probably.

>   2) Is putting this in the Actions menu a good idea ?
> 
not sure. I followed sisob's advice, since I had this already
implemented as an applet
(http://rodrigo.gnome-db.org/news.php?23/November/2003), which seems to
make less sense than the 'Actions' menu.

> 	I'll only answer the second as I'm running an oldish version of gdm and
> what I'm seeing may be better now. When I ran it I thought it had just
> crashed my Xserver :-)
> 
right :-)

> 
> 	I guess the things you need to look at when deciding whether or not
> something should go into the Actions menu are[1]:
> 
>   + Is it something that a large proportion of the user base will do
>     pretty regularly?
> 
hmm, I think it will be a very common thing, in shared computers.

>       In this case, I think not - surely, most users will only ever use
>       one account? And even if we thought a lot of users use more than
>       one account, surely switching between accounts wouldn't be that
>       common ?
> 
I can't really answer this myself. I do use this feature myself a lot,
not sure about other people.

>   + Is it a confusing feature ?
> 
>       Again, in this case, no matter how well we implement it, I think
>       the concepts might turn out to be too confusing to put it in
>       such a highly visible place. "Switch User ... do you mean logout
>       and let someone else take my seat?"
> 
Maybe 'Open Session' or something more implicit that says it's just a
temporary change?

cheers