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I believe "Restart" has its place, for a few reasons:
1) If the beast is already on, and has gotten sick,
"Restart" has a flavor of "kick it and get it going again",
as opposed to "Stop and go back to the beginning".
2) If system or application have been reconfigured and
need a Stop and Start for the settings to "take", then
"Restart" seems appropriate to the situation. The
overall process continues; you merely needed to
perform a quick two-step to keep it going as desired.
3) Microsloth IS ubiquitous, after all, and anybody who
shuts down an NT server (or Workstation) is presented
with a window allowing a choice of "Shutdown" or
"Restart". That is, it's common usage. (Does Win98
offer the same? I forget?)
I'd be more inclined to confine myself to "Stop" and "Start"
only, if I were describing (say) an industrial process in
which "Stop" and "Start" buttons figured prominently.
But then, I've been wrong before, so my career is already
doomed never to achieve Six Sigma... but that's another
thread... ;-)
