Shutdown/restart dialogs make it unclear whether people should wait

The solution proposed by mpt seems to address the bulk of the problem: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SessionTerminationConfirmation
I'd recommend the dialog is changed to that.

Shouldn't the message be more descriptive like
"You have trying to shut down the the computer"
"Unless you press Cancel, the computer will shut down in xx seconds".

This message makes more sense than "This computer will shut down in XX seconds"

When the user clicks on any of these three actions:
* shutdown
* logout
* restart

He will be greeted with dialog boxes like

Are you sure you want to close all programs and log out?\n\nUnless you cancel, you will be logged out in 58 seconds.
Are you sure you want to close all programs and restart the computer?\n\nUnless you cancel, the computer will restart in 58 seconds.
Are you sure you want to close all programs and shut down?\n\nUnless you cancel, The computer will shut down in 58 seconds.

I havn't checked out the patches. Will being doing it now. Just posted it so that anyone who wants to do it can also help me out.

mpt now has an approved wireframe of this.

Instead of changing the message, I suggest changing the text on the buttons in the dialog, from "Restart" to "Restart now", and so on.

I agree with David, changing the button is clearest way to address the problem. For additional clarity, we can also change the message as previously suggested.

Why not just skip that dialog at all (unless triggered automatically)? Even Windows7 changed their shutdown button to just shutdown instantly. The first time, it's unusual, since you are used to annoying "Do you really..." questions by Microsoft, but after the first time, you just love it, and it's actually one of the most remarkable features of Windows7 which I remember.

So now, even Microsoft stops showing useless "Do you really want to ..." dialogs, but we (Linux world) insist on having them?

@maxauthority: some early versions of Windows Vista shut down immediately when one presses the computer's shutdown button, with no confirmation. I had an acquaintance who had a laptop with such a Windows version. Guess what his friends do to play pranks on him? They quickly press his computer's shutdown button while he's still typing a document.

I've made a patch as per Omer's suggestion. Please review

Thank you for your work there, lucid is interface and string frozen now so that will likely be for next cycle

Actually, after an updated design that is here:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SessionHandling

This was implemented in indicator-session 0.2.5.