I expect UX folks would push back on this with the argument that we should be directly addressing the challenges here rather than cluttering the UI with controls for restart.

What about adding a command line in Crosh or a key combo to trigger a safe restart?  

Currently pwr+refresh will trigger an unsafe reset. It might make sense to do something like ctrl+pwr to force a safe restart.

Please don't add more UI hidden in crosh or behind secret accelerators (which are worse for destructive actions like this one, since they can be triggered accidentally). If something is important enough to implement and maintain, it should be important enough that we want to make it discoverable by users.

I disagree that those use cases justify additional UI:

a) Users shouldn't need to reboot to get a working system. We need to prioritize fixing any bugs that clear up after rebooting instead of telling users to work around them by power-cycling their systems. If these issues happen often enough that a reboot button would be useful, we have bigger problems.

b) It's just as easy to show off boot speed by shutting the device down and then hitting the power button. That's more accurate, too, since the shutdown and boot times don't get lumped together.

c) When should a user reboot to protect against non-persistent compromises? Every time they want to visit a new website?

I agree with derat@ on points a, b, & c though I'm less resistant to adding something in crosh. A restart is the sort of long-tail thing a power user could reasonably expect to do from the command line.

OK---I don't have a strong feeling about this.  It is quite possible that my wish is specific to my use cases.  I don't have a good way of proving this true or false.

Also, I see the point of "fixing any bugs that clear up after rebooting instead of telling users to work around them by power-cycling their systems" but you can also look at it the other way:

1. nobody is telling users to power-cycle: they have long learned it from experience (mainly on other systems);

2. IF there are bugs for which rebooting is a convenient workaround, we shouldn't use friction to rebooting so that their pain will stimulate us to fix those bugs sooner.

Let's not add things to crosh that we don't expect to support in the main UI and that are clearly not supplementary features (like ping).

crosh is a particularly brittle part of Chrome OS. Bad place to put restart controls.

I think I closed this prematurely.  Let me recapitulate (at the cost of repeating myself).

Reasons for a restart option in the tray menu:

1. There are legitimate reasons for restarting.  It is presumptuous to assume that we don't need restarts.  In fact we work hard at making boot fast, because it gives us a chance to verify the system, so we should not mind extra restarts.  Even in the cases in which a restart doesn't help, users will want to try it anyhow, because they learned that it is useful on other OSes (which all have a restart UI).

2. Without a restart UI, restarting is not a good experience because there's no consistent immediate feedback on a power button press when powered off.  So one end up trying multiple times, and because some presses can be lost, one cannot easily tell what state the device is in (on or off) without waiting for several seconds.

Comment #3 says:

"a) Users shouldn't need to reboot to get a working system. We need to prioritize fixing any bugs that clear up after rebooting instead of telling users to work around them by power-cycling their systems..."

This seems backwards.  We should not make user pain be the driving force to fixing our bugs.  If there are bugs that clear up after rebooting, we should both fix them, and let the user work around them (temporarily one hopes) by a quick reboot.

"b) It's just as easy to show off boot speed..."  Showing boot speed is not the concern here---besides, even with a restart UI I'd show it off from a powered-down state anyway.

"c) When should a user reboot to protect against non-persistent compromises? ..."  I do not advocate telling users to reboot for security.  I am mostly saying that we should not mind removing some friction from a reboot, since we have worked hard and keep working hard to make it lightweight.  I think that a reboot is already sufficiently annoying for a user---we don't need to make it more annoying.

Please argue it with the UX team instead of here. jennschen@ and kuscher@ are good starting points. They don't use the issue tracker much, I don't think, so you're better off using email or talking to them in-person. Feel free to loop me in.

No point in airing our dirty laundry in public, I think.

It's not that. I'm just saying that that's the team that will ultimately make the decision, and I don't think they watch the issue tracker. :-)

Where did OS-Windows come from? :-/

Bulk-assigning unassigned status area bugs to me.