Postings by Mathias on February 4, 2011
Automatic suspend when closing the lid
There is this big discussion about automatic suspend when closing lid as only user visible option going on. Let me share a little tale about the implications of that feature:
A long, long time ago... A young student just bought his first notebook few weeks ago and this was a big thing as even such entry class notebooks were really expensive those days. After long studying and working on assignments this student decided it's about time to get home, closed the lid of his brandnew notebook to let it suspend, put it into his bag and walked out of the building. He had to take the train to get home. As always at this time the train was crowded. No chance to take the notebook out. Two hours later or something that guy was home, had eaten something and took the notebook out of his bag to face shocking news: Automatic suspend didn't work, the notebook was running all the time in the bag. Bad air circulation had killed the notebook.
Without giving the user a visibile option to disable automatic suspend, with teaching users to really on this inherent unreliable feature (applications shall be permitted to inhibit suspend!), I really wonder if GNOME has put money aside to compensate users killing their notebooks with broken automatic suspend.
PS: It was my notebook dying, and I spent something like EUR 1.800 back those days.
PPS: I know the (L)GPL's no-warrenty clause, but I am not convinced it holds in court for such obvious misbehavior (INAL).
