Re: Gnome shell suggestions after a bit of usage

[Holger Berndt <berndth gmx de>]

On Fri, 8 Jul 2011 18:20:22 +0200, Florian Müllner
<fmuellner gnome org> wrote:

> As I see it, the use of "notification" icons as a
> way for applications to run in the background has its origins on
> Windows - as there are no workspaces, every running application uses
> precious space in the task bar, so the "minimize-to-tray" behavior
> was created as a workaround.

Tray icons are used for more than minimizing applications. They can
display subtle messages and offer simple interactions in a well-known
place. True, the "I-have-news-for-you" usecase is better handled by
notifications. But neither are status messages ("look-I'm-still-running"
or "Ups-I'm-offline"), nor do notifications offer a quick way to access
the application indepentantly of incomming events
("I-want-to-start-writing-a-mail").

> Given that GNOME3 does have workspaces
> to "move stuff out of sight" and no task bar which could get
> cluttered, the need for the "background" workaround pretty much
> disappears.

I don't agree on the concept to create graveyard workspaces to dump
a random mixture of different background applications. It doesn't fit
with the mental model of an "activity" (it's the opposite, in fact).
It makes it harder and more disruptive to get rid of an application. It
makes it harder and more disruptive to dig an application back out
of the mud. It makes it impossible for an application to start itself
in the background ("Which one is the graveyard?"). Just to name a few
problems.

I see that as an even worse abuse of a concept than we had with the
tray area. Same goes for the recommendation to fire permanent
notifications on application startup.

Holger