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One nice thing about recent Ubuntu is that even though they hide the password box, you can start typing on the unlock screen and your text will be entered into

by strken 7y ago

One nice thing about recent Ubuntu is that even though they hide the password box, you can start typing on the unlock screen and your text will be entered into the password box.

saagarjha 7y ago
Why hide the password box, then, unless you think that users learning to type and have magically it go somewhere invisible is a good UI design… (Interesting aside: I complained to someone on the Mac Safari team that it was difficult to search open tabs, and he told me that apparently this feature already exists! You go into the tab overview, and…just start typing. A little search bar will pop into appearance in the top right corner. Why it couldn't just be there and have keyboard focus from the start, I have no idea…)
- Jtsummers 7y ago
  Worse, this creates a bad habit. What if the UI changes and now it's the username that pops up first, not a password box? So it's a hard-to-discover feature, and a misfeature unless you elect to keep this behavior forever.
  - Spivak 7y ago
    Because this only happens on the lock screen when there's no user to be entered/selected. There's no slide-up on the initial login.
- wmf 7y ago
  macOS hides the password field to encourage people to use Touch ID instead, but Ubuntu probably doesn't even support fingerprint login...
  - ajosh 7y ago
    Ubuntu does support fingerprint login if you have supported hardware.
  - Spivak 7y ago
    Every mainstream Linux distro supports fingerprint login natively just by virtue of using PAM.
    - saagarjha 7y ago
      Funnily enough, so does every Mac by virtue of using PAM ;)
- TheKarateKid 7y ago
  Wow, I would’ve never guessed that. Apple has a terrible habit of burying obscure UX features. It’s a shame really because these undocumented features mean 99% of people WON’T ever use them. Isn’t that counterproductive to engineers? Why aren’t employees speaking out against this?
jjoonathan 7y ago
Unless slack steals the focus. Happened to me a few weeks back. Then slack gets your password and enter key, and the login screen doesn't.
- DDR0 7y ago
  Steam remote streaming did something similar, while on the road with my laptop it presented me with my Kubuntu login screen... so I logged in, fine... and now my computer at home is sitting unlocked and unsecured.
- Spivak 7y ago
  The irony being that there's a vocal group of GNOME users complain that newer versions full-stop prevent windows from taking focus and install an extension to being the behavior back. Can't please everyone I suppose.
  - zzo38computer 7y ago
    It wouldn't be a problem if it is an option which can be configured, I think.

by strken 7y ago

One nice thing about recent Ubuntu is that even though they hide the password box, you can start typing on the unlock screen and your text will be entered into the password box.

saagarjha 7y ago

Why hide the password box, then, unless you think that users learning to type and have magically it go somewhere invisible is a good UI design… (Interesting aside: I complained to someone on the Mac Safari team that it was difficult to search open tabs, and he told me that apparently this feature already exists! You go into the tab overview, and…just start typing. A little search bar will pop into appearance in the top right corner. Why it couldn't just be there and have keyboard focus from the start, I have no idea…)

Jtsummers 7y ago
Worse, this creates a bad habit. What if the UI changes and now it's the username that pops up first, not a password box? So it's a hard-to-discover feature, and a misfeature unless you elect to keep this behavior forever.
- Spivak 7y ago
  Because this only happens on the lock screen when there's no user to be entered/selected. There's no slide-up on the initial login.
wmf 7y ago
macOS hides the password field to encourage people to use Touch ID instead, but Ubuntu probably doesn't even support fingerprint login...
- ajosh 7y ago
  Ubuntu does support fingerprint login if you have supported hardware.
- Spivak 7y ago
  Every mainstream Linux distro supports fingerprint login natively just by virtue of using PAM.
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    Funnily enough, so does every Mac by virtue of using PAM ;)
TheKarateKid 7y ago
Wow, I would’ve never guessed that. Apple has a terrible habit of burying obscure UX features. It’s a shame really because these undocumented features mean 99% of people WON’T ever use them. Isn’t that counterproductive to engineers? Why aren’t employees speaking out against this?

jjoonathan 7y ago

Unless slack steals the focus. Happened to me a few weeks back. Then slack gets your password and enter key, and the login screen doesn't.

DDR0 7y ago
Steam remote streaming did something similar, while on the road with my laptop it presented me with my Kubuntu login screen... so I logged in, fine... and now my computer at home is sitting unlocked and unsecured.
Spivak 7y ago
The irony being that there's a vocal group of GNOME users complain that newer versions full-stop prevent windows from taking focus and install an extension to being the behavior back. Can't please everyone I suppose.
- zzo38computer 7y ago
  It wouldn't be a problem if it is an option which can be configured, I think.