The "Device Profiles" function is more to what they're called at standard BOINC front end projects "Computing Preferences". There is a structure before them being the 4 Pre-Set profiles plus Custom which opens up the detail computing preferences as they're called elsewhere. This shields starting crunchers at WCG so they do not get bombarded with a large block of options new members are bound to not understand in full.

As for footnoting differences to standard BOINC layouts... there's more fields where options are given varying names, the most frequently asked about "Resource Share", where here it's called "Project Weight" (See FAQ on Pre-Sets listing all the differences).

Regarding the other naming conventions, if the webmaster reads this, I'd like to propose the renaming of the profile section "Available Projects" to "Available Researches" so that aligns with the webs Research section and removes any ambiguity there may be.

Another thought that had crossed my mind a few times is proposing to move the research selections above the presets. That would remove another confusion existing where comments are made that members do not see an Update Profile in the client message log or think the options have not saved, since only changing the science selections under custom causes the radio button indicator to 'appear' on revisit as e.g. Maximum Output, 'hiding' the research selections for a given Device Profile.

At any rate, we'll pass your suggestion.

2 edits: for amplification

Sorry, I missed what whc means... a mnemonic not known to me, so not fully catching what you say.

Yes, if you make a change in default/home/work/school profile at any project, they push across to all other projects. This is so if you visit e.g. Rosetta and look at venue Home, you see what you last did at WCG. Conversely if you do something at Rosetta, you should see the changes appear in the WCG device profiles. This was by design to make multi device management easier with local prefs (BM Interface since I think 5.8) to allow specific device changes.

Now, a little secret others can explain as it is 'unsupported'. At WCG you can create more than the standard 4 profiles. This means you could create Office-Tower, Office-Basement, Camper, Boat, Submarine, whatever name than means something to you. Some have used project names so called them HCMD2, HCC, FAAH etc. Not yet heard what happened to devices that are attached to e.g. Office-Tower here and Work at Rosetta or PrimeGrid or whatever.

edit: take a pick what whc means http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/WHC