Mount, unmount and eject removable devices

[Stephan Arts]

On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 12:35 PM, Jannis Pohlmann<jannis at xfce.org> wrote:
> On Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:55:57 +0200
> Jordi Pujol <jordipujolp at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hello to all,
>>
>> I was testing the XFCE desktop for a Live distribution.
>> and noticed that the options to mount, unmount and eject removable
>> devices are not shown in a logical behaviour, that should be:
>> when is mounted: ummount
>> and if the device is not mounted: mount or eject
>
> Thunar is designed with simplicity in mind. We don't want redundant
> elements in the GUI. And unmount is redundant.
>
> The majority of people use volume management like this:
>
>  a) they plug in a USB stick or a CD and they want to use it -> mount
>  b) they decide to detach the stick or eject the CD -> eject
>
> There's no need to confuse users with a state inbetween. We're gonna
> stick to mount/eject and we're not introducing unmount again.
>
> We might consider adding eject when not mounted for drives that can be
> ejected, like CD drives with media. Because sometimes, you don't want
> to reach for the physical eject button (although this is a bit stupid
> because you need to reach for the CD slot anyway to get your CD out of
> the computer).

I remember my old laptop, where I had to reach for the floppy twice,
once for the eject-button and once for the disc which had been
propelled across the room. (sometimes even more then that because it
hit something on it's way, reducing it's structural integrity.

-
Stephan