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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: [KDE Usability] Users cannot find where to "safely remove" USB
From:       Peter Grasch <grasch () simon-listens ! org>
Date:       2010-04-11 21:26:32
Message-ID: 201004112326.32767.grasch () simon-listens ! org
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On Sunday 11 April 2010 20:02:28 Peter wrote:
> On Sunday 11 April 2010 16:35, Dotan Cohen wrote:
> > > That is of no interest for the user. Nowadays USB is highly used for
> > > removable storage, operating systems need to adapt to that. All the
> > > time some system is not used for what it was intended; but it is used
> > > because it serves a need.
> > 
> > I agree. My comments about "how to implement that" were not
> > disagreement, rather, they were serious questions. Like I said, the
> > machine should adapt to the user. Now come up with the technical
> > implementation.
> 
> While I understand your interest, I question whether this list is
> appropriate for such a discussion. I raised the point that the problem was
> a system one so members would realize KDE (with other desktop developers)
> are attempting to resolve a problem they should not, imho, have to
> address.
To really fix this at a system level you would need to implement transactional 
file systems - file systems that can handle interruptions at any time without 
taking damage. Those exist but are not commonly used. Microsoft tried to push 
an extension version of FAT (TFAT) and even they failed to get users to use it 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transaction-Safe_FAT_File_System).

Personally I think the main issue is awareness. In my experience most people 
are ok to wait for something (within reason) if they know how long it's going 
to take.

I seriously think that the performance drop of synchroneous disk access is an 
acceptable price to pay for that extra data safety. All the infrastructure is 
already there. With sync mounts, the progress indicator of transfers displays 
the _real_ transfer - complete with ETA.

"Safely removing" should not be needed after the transfer has completed.

This makes the following use case perfectly acceptable:
User copies File X to USB key;
User waits for transfer to complete;
User pulls USB key out as soon as the transfer window closes;

The performance drawbacks are considerable but IMHO worth it.

You can try it: Mount a USB device like this (in a terminal):
$ sudo mount /dev/sdXX /mnt/test -o sync

Adding this option to the KDE automount would be as easy as changing a line in 
kdelibs/solid/solid/backends/hal/halstorageaccess.cpp.

Greetings,
Peter
-- 
Peter Grasch
SIMON listens e.V.
http://simon-listens.org
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