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Suspend and hibernate names

GNOME
GNOME

Microsoft Windows and OSX have decided on names for the sleep actions and it's about time Linux did the same. We are hurting the user experience with ad-hoc and confusing policies about naming.

Developing gnome-power-manager (and a chunk of the power management in HAL) gives me first-hand experience of the ways users, distros, packagers and developers can and do get this wrong.

From an Ubuntu bugzilla entry:

here's from NOTES from 'hotkey-setup'
When the machine should be put to sleep in some fashion:
KEY_SLEEP signals Suspend to RAM (Suspend, technically called "standby")
KEY_SUSPEND signals Suspend to Disk (Hibernate, technically called "suspend"...)

I hope this page can convert some of the wacky/zany/confusing/crazy software out there to stick to common names.

I'm now trying to get project, vendor and distro buy-in so that we can all be using the same names. Comments appreciated.

"Pause" is perfect!

I think "Pause" is perfect for suspend-to-ram. It has a very good analogy in the audio/video recorder/player world, with which a computer-using person MUST have been in contact.

As for suspend-to-disk, it should just be the default way of shutting down the system, because it powers up where you left it, which is really what should be expected. The name for suspend could then be "Stop" or "Off" or some such, and would also coincide with the audio/video terminology.

Reboot should be needed only for those cases where you need to, er... reboot, and could be named "Reset", or "Restart", or it could have no name and just happen when you press the reset button.