GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 357801
define terms for user actions relating to removable media
Last modified: 2018-10-03 13:43:37 UTC
There need to be clear, jargon-free terms for the actions associated with removable media. For example, with a USB flashdrive, a user must 1. unmount the drive in Nautilus 2. physically unplug it The key problem is that in the user's mind, there is only one action: 'remove my drive from this computer', but the system requires two, a software step and a physical step. 'unmount' is an ugly jargon word, and we need an alternative. However, using something like 'unplug' confuses step 1 with step 2. Some possibilities: - disconnect - remove from system - unattach - put away
Maybe the word should convey the reason that they need to do this: They can just remove a USB flashdrive physically, and they computer will not complain, but they _might_ lose data. (MS Windows complains, presumably to help the user learn how to do it properly, but the warning is obscure and hidden.)
(In reply to comment #0) > Some possibilities: > - disconnect > - remove from system > - unattach > - put away > All these (to me, the non-technical reader ;) ) imply the same thing - physically removing the device from the computer. Any term used should not be confusable with actually removing the device. Alas, I have no better suggestion than the ugly 'unmount'.
The more I think about this, the more I think we're approaching this from the wrong angle. There are no clear terms to distinguish between software disconnecting (unmount) and physical removal. Users don't know about the need to unmount, and just pull the thing out whenever they feel like it. The devices come with an activity indicator. Users can reasonably be expected to think like this: * light on -- device busy, don't unplug * light off -- device not active, unplug if you like So surely the software should bend to the user: we should remove the need to unmount and switch off the light whenever the device is not longer transfering data. ... that's the ideal. Obviously, that's not going to happen soon. So we still need to think about terms.
Windows: "Safely Remove Hardware". (A bit vague -- "remove"?) Mac OS Classic: "Put Away". (That was targeted at files and file servers.) Mac OS X: "Eject". (Fine for CDs, but "Eject “ftp.mozilla.org”"? Craaaack.) I suggest "Safely Disconnect". That distinguishes it from just pulling the device out, which it implicitly defines as unsafely disconnecting.
The GDP style guide is outdated and unmaintained, so any changes are unlikely to be pushed there without a full rewrite.