Changing the way users are notified of important information is a noble
and worthwhile goal. I agree that a tiny icon can not convey much
useful information to the users. On the other hand, notifying users of
something with a pop-under window is far from ideal. Applications
should not run unless I ask one too. This update was premature without
a better way to notify users already in place.
The fix then, is to improve the way users are notified by applications or the
OS. This will require several things in order to improve on both the old icon
notification behavior and the current opening of an unrequested application
behavior.
1. It must convey more information than an icon can provide.
2. It must be persistent if need be.
3. It must not open an additional application or otherwise forcibly
interrupt a user's work.
I see two fixes for this.
1. An application that gathers notifications from other applications. It
pops up in the current notification area and lets you know that other
applications or the OS wishes to let you know something. When clicked upon it
gives a list of current applications with notifications. Clicking then on the
application in the list will give you a detailed and verbose message. "The
computer needs to be rebooted after those last updates." "Firefox must be
restarted" "There are 12 new updates available, 3 of which are critical
security fixes." etc.
The problem with this approach is we again have to convey to the users
via an icon that this is something they should click on for more
information. This can be worked around perhaps with libnotify popping
up briefly and telling a user that they should click on the icon for
more information. Eventually a user would be at the computer for one of
these and notice it and learn what the icon means. Also, each
application would have to be changed to work with this new system.
2. A portion of the desktop be reserved for such notifications. No
icons would be able to be dragged into this location and accidentally
cover it up for instance. (Say a 'sidebar' location on the right hand
side of the screen). In this 'sidebar' would be a list of recent
messages from the applications or OS to which the user should be
notified. It should have enough room for a basic message "Updates
available", "Please restart computer", etc and a way to click on this
new 'sidebar' to have the appropriate application either run or move to
the front of the screen and acquire user focus.
The problem with this approach is that its completely new to everyone
and would possibly take substantial coding effort just to get the
framework running and more to convert each application to it. It would
also be hidden from users who have a window blocking that portion of
their desktop. This at least could again be worked around with a brief
libnotify message. If they miss it, they'll certainly see it when they
close their last window and are prepared to do something else, or stop
using the computer entirely. (or on next boot before working)
Both of these solutions would require a not insignificant amount of work but
would go a long way to solving the original problem that started this whole
mess - That the notification area can't really notify of much. I'd love to see
a fix make it in time for Karmic, either one of these or some other better
approach.
--
[Jaunty] Update Notifier icon would provide useful status information
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/332945
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