Ending a Session

When you have finished using your computer, you can choose to do one of the following:

Log out, leaving the computer ready for another user to begin working with it. To log out of GNOME, choose System ▸ Log Out username .
Shut down your computer and switch off the power. To shut down, choose System ▸ Shut Down and click Shut Down on the dialog that appears.
Depending on your computer's configuration, you can also Hibernate your computer. During hibernation, less power is used, but all of the applications and documents that you have open are preserved and will still be open when you resume from hibernation. You can resume from hibernation by moving your mouse or pressing a key.

Some vendors and distributors allow you to hibernate your computer in two ways, often called Hibernate and Suspend. Both of these will preserve your open files and applications, but one will switch off the power to your computer while the other will leave the computer running in a state that uses less power.

When you end a session, applications with unsaved work will warn you. You can choose to save your work, or cancel the command to log out or shut down.

Before you end a session, you might want to save your current settings so that you can restore the session later. In the Sessions preference tool, you can select an option to automatically save your current settings.

GNOME Desktop User Guide

Ending a Session