Ctrl+Alt+Delete Important in Bad Platforms

Bobbie on Friday 10 March 2006 16:42

The argument remains valid to date. Ctrl+Alt+Delete remains that 'red alert' sequence, which indicates something had gone wrong. Repeated se- quences as such reboot the computer, which is adverse to intuition. No It is utterly unnecessary

Nowadays, the infamous Ctrl+Alt+Delete is extended. It serves as a panel for system monitoring, pbuttword changes, and so forth. Ctrl+Alt+Delete has become such a fundamenental piece of knowledge that every computer user simply mustbe familiar with. Even the dumbest among the computer user- scommunity have the skills needed to reboot or rid themselves from an of- fending process-application. Is this how "ease of use" is perceived and defined by Microsoft? I rest one case.

Take GNOME as a contrary example. If an application is detected to have reached a halt, GNOME will prompt the user with a two-option pop-up, which enables the application to be shut down or be left alone. This happens very, very rarely.

Let us look a little deeper, shall we? Linux has far better functionality for achieving the needed task and circumventing unexpected perils. Consid- er the case where access from the outside (text-based terminal without root privileges should suffice) enables the user the get rid off rotten processes. Then, consider the expressiveness of operations such as:

reboot

kill

Could it be any simpler? Could a GUI ever make it easier to analyse what goes on underneath and then intervene? Well, guess what... KDE has this option. Not only does it enable one to kill processes from the GUI (Ctrl+Esc, which I find to be more logical than "delete", as well as easi- er to reach if you are handicapped or have a single hand), but it also al- lows you to 'swat' them using Ctrl+Alt+Esc, then 'smacking' the unwanted windows. On top (pun intended), you can also change virtual terminal and move to tty1, for example, using wonderful text-based tools like 'top' (gives more details than Windows does) to remove rogue processes.

So Windows, in that respect, is far behind GNU-Linux. Windowsdependson the ability to force a reboot, but its facilities for achieving it are the equivalent of a pool cue for field plowing.

Best wishes,

Roy

-- Roy S. Schestowitz Software patents destroy innovation 4:45pm up 2 days 9:22, 7 users, load average: 0.28, 0.62, 0.59