notify-osd 0.9.19 released
Major user-visible changes are the new vertically centered positioning of bubbles, the initial fade-prevention (if bubble opens with mouse-pointer over it), tweaked fade-out opacity and updated body-text height.
notify-osd 0.9.19
ChangeLog:
- updated sizing-factor of body-text height to be 0.9 EMs (of system-wide setting) according to body-text spec
- implemented fade-prevention when bubble is opened while mouse-pointer is over it/within proximity-fade area
- fade-out value now set to 40% as stated in interaction spec
- added support for automake-1.11’s slient output
- added valgrind make-rule
- experiment with centering bubbles vertically, sync. bubble always goes above center-line, async. one always below it
- ensure GErrors are correctly freed
August 27th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
[...] Here comes notify-osd 0.9.19 http://macslow.net/?p=381 [...]
August 27th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
The fade-prevention is really great but I don’t like the new bubbles’ positions, is there a way to configure it (config file, gconf, …) ?
Anyway thanks for your work.
August 27th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Hi,
I have to say I was bit confused when my 9.10Alpha today showed notification in the middle of the screen. I kinda liked when it was on the top. Also and even from your screen casts the width of the bubble is too wide. Beside this little critic I really like the new notification system. The font, the effects is really good.
Perhaps if there would be configure dialog that would allow me to specify default wdith, font size (not everyone is able to read this currently small messages) and lets say allow me to specify where the popus should appear and in which direction the other pop-up would then it would be perfect for me.
Anyway did I say thank you for really great work? There should be Donate/Appreciate button somewhere near here so people can spend few bucks as an appreciation of your work!
August 27th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
>> experiment with centering bubbles vertically, sync. bubble always goes above center-line, async. one always below it
sucks
August 27th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
[...] http://macslow.net/?p=381 [...]
August 27th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
Thank you *SO* much. This fixes my biggest problem, not being able to catch the notifications at the top-right. This is *amazing*. Seriously.
Great work. Thanks a *million*. Love it.
August 27th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Actually I really dislike the fadeout when i move the curser close to/over.
It’s probably the only gui i’ve ever even seen that dissapears when move my curser over it. Everything else is the exact opposite, namely activated or hint’s of a possible action. It’s like bandaid of fixing a notifications that can’t be moved (window)
It’s highly confusing/backwards for me at least :(.
Looks pretty though….
August 27th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
Thought it was a bug making it show in the middle…
Really unnatural.
August 27th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
Nice work! Personally I think the mouse fading detection is broken though; if a notification appears where my mouse is, there is a very high change I am looking/working in that area and that this notification is going to be an impediment. This opinion has been voiced on the ayatana list as well. The old behavior of starting faded in may not have been optimal but I think it was more usable and less in the way. Perhaps it should fade partially in then out again when it appears this way.
August 27th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
[...] http://macslow.net/?p=381 [...]
August 27th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
Yeah true, thanks for great work!
But this middle screen pop up is very annoying and I love it in top right / bottom right where we’re all used to have it
August 28th, 2009 at 6:21 am
I’m not on the ayatana mailing list, but I think the vertically-centred notifications are too intrusive. At the top corner the notification only covered empty space or the edge of a window title and toolbar. In the middle it often covers content.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:06 am
Congratulations! Great job. Is there already an advanced setup to disable or enable each option?
August 28th, 2009 at 11:20 am
@ Julien, Robert, Pavel, Jack, Michalxo, Chris: The new position is - like mentioned in the ChangeLog - an experiment. Depending of feedback from users it’ll stay or be reverted.
@ Michael: You’re actually one of the two or three people who like the two new features
@ Frej: The fade-on-hover is meant to support the click-through/see-through capability of notify-osd.
@ Mike: We might try to suppress the initial fade-prevention if the mouse is kept still (while being within the proximity-fade area of a bubble).
@ Vladimir: There’s not going to be a configuration UI for notify-osd. We rather want the defaults to be rock solid. That’s why we collect feedback from users on any issues with notify-osd.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
very nice improvements but i really don’t like middle screen pop up !
August 28th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
“There’s not going to be a configuration UI for notify-osd. We rather want the defaults to be rock solid. That’s why we collect feedback from users on any issues with notify-osd.”
This is just completly stupid and at this exact opposit where i want things goes on my OS.
Is there a way to desactivate this “not configurable” thing ?
August 28th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Took some time for this notifyOSD to grow on me, now that it has, I love it, nice work Mirco.
But this experiment on position, middle of right edge?
Not working for me. Don’t mind if it ends up that way by default, but user preferences should be a choice.
If not by some GUI, then by tweaking gconf keys.
Thanks.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
I’m not very impressed with the new position where should we post our feedback on this decision?
To be honest I’m less impressed with the decision to not allow configuration of positioning because there are people with visual problems that need that kind of customization.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Adding in my feedback, let us choose position, top, middle or bottom, left, right or centre.
I see no reason for it being hard-positioned and that seems very backwards, ubuntu (and linux) is about openess and ablity to change etc etc, not allowing us to change it is such a stupid thing to do.
Trying new things is great for defaults, but not allowing us to change = rubbish.
August 28th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Positioning the notifications in the middle of the screen is plain awful. It’s annoying and in the way for applications. It was better up in the right-hand corner. Either restore that or let us choose where to put it - I’d prefer the latter.
But in the middle of the screen? Awful in every respect.
August 28th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
You say : \There’s not going to be a configuration UI for notify-osd. We rather want the defaults to be rock solid. That’s why we collect feedback from users on any issues with notify-osd.\
t’s shocking, we are under linux
precisely because everything is configurable.
if one day I want to see my notice at the bottom of the screen and the next up?
So if notify-osd is more configurable project has no future
Please let the user the choice
August 28th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
First of all: in general osd-notify rocks, I love it!
However, i’m not a fan of the new screen position at all. If you’ve got a visually busy window open (eg: browser displaying a web page) it tends to get lost in the clutter. I also think the dimensions of the bubble (ie: wide and flat) look odd marooned in the middle of the screen. A squarer, rounder, or just plain bigger bubble would look better in the middle of the screen IMO.
In general though: experimenting = good. Keep it up!
August 28th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
It sure would be nice to be able to position the OSD notifications so they pop-up where I want them to be. Just the same as notifications on KDE4. Middle-right position just doesn’t feel natural, and I can see lots of complaints from casual users who want a consistent interface between releases.
August 28th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
Not a fan of the change to Notify-OSD in which a notification bubble is set to the middle of the screen. It is a disgrace in which we have not much say on the matter.. what’s going on with Ubuntu lately? Ugh.
August 28th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
I wish someone would make that cursor default in Gnome, because the ‘windows’ one is ugly and old. I love the oxygen cursor used in KDE4 and I usually install it and use it under Gnome as well.
Please do something about it if you’re a coder
August 29th, 2009 at 12:06 am
First of all excuse me for my bad english…
I am not a Ubuntu user, I use Gentoo. I have installed notify-osd in my gentoo box… everything works except volume and brightness control (when I change volume or brightness level appears the old osd, I know that it is due to gnome-power-manager, but it seems that the patch is ONLY for the ubuntu users…) and notifications ALWAYS appear only by one, no two or more at the same time when an application or more than an application sends a notification at the same time… Till now I hadn’t find a solution for this… (I don’t know how to say that in english). Now this matter about position on the screen…
Ubuntu is going to be restrictive? Notify-osd and its patches might not be only for ubuntu users… Ubuntu has token many things from linux community… Also ubuntu might contribute to linux and respect its philosophy: FREEDOM! Notfiy-osd might be an example of this.
August 29th, 2009 at 12:31 am
I’m running Ubuntu Netbook Remix and the new position of the notifications in the middle of the screen looks looks terrible. The previous position worked very well and this is a case of “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it”
August 29th, 2009 at 3:03 am
Sorry to say so, but giving the user NO choice is a sign of poor interface design. Especially a notification - but not limited to that - is a very *personal* thing that should provide the user with the ability to configure it thoroughly to his full satisfaction. If a user want his notification to scream for attention with flashing and a gaudy color - let him configure it. If a user want a decent and translucent notification - let him configure it. If a user wants to set up another font (in another size perhaps)… you get the point?
Why not add the possibility to drag the damn thing wherever I like it? OSDs like from exail or amarok let me do this, so it isn’t a thing, that can’t be done with too much an effort. A good user interface is one, that gives me the CHOICE to put it up the way that fits me best. It’s NOT the job of developers to chose it for me as an absolute. The developer can chose a good default, right, but leave the rest up to the users.
August 29th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Hello,
I also like this new position in the middle : as I have all my bars / docks on the bottom of the screen, I never saw notifications when they appeared at the top, so now it is very good.
But like many others, I would really prefer to have the choice for the position (right bottom), this would be the best !
Anyway, thanks for the good job done
August 30th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Hello,
I also like this new position in the middle : as I have all my bars / docks on the bottom of the screen, I never saw notifications when they appeared at the top, so now it is very good.
But like many others, I would really prefer to have the choice for the position (right bottom), this would be the best !
A discussion on Launchpad asked for having possibility to modify position :
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/notify-osd/+bug/346095
Anyway, thanks for the good job done
August 30th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
I liked the old position much more than this one. +1 for top right notifications
August 30th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
I really like the new features. The text is a much nicer size now. And I like the fade/blur on mouseover, it makes it much less intrusive. It was confusing at first, I expected clicking on it to do something. But it’s a nice feature in case it comes up covering something.
Except the positioning. If it were fixed somewhere, the middle is a really awkward place. Any corner would be preferable.
Of course, the best would be to give a simple option as to where it should pop up. It seems that different people have different preferences as to where works best for them.
August 30th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
Another vote here for moving the default notification area back to the top right, although user preferences would be great too.
August 30th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
Don’t mean to hijack/flame/troll, but it’s pretty obvious that there are very few, if none, users that would prefer *NO* configuration. I really dislike the whole Ubuntu/GNOME mentality that configuration is bad, and everything should be dumbed down for the user. This is GNU/Linux, not Windows, or heaven forbid, MacOS. Please, GNOME and Ubuntu developers, please listen to the users. Defaults are good, but nothing replaces configuration. Either extreme, whether an excessive emphasis on so-called “rock-solid defaults”, or an excessive emphasis on configuration is bad. The reason I use GNOME and not KDE is because I’d like middle ground. This is not middle ground.
The only reason users complain is because they like the software, not because they hate it, so there’s no need for “go use X then” comments. I have, however, removed notify-osd until there’s at least a minimal configuration interface. I don’t want to have to apply patches to everything I want to customize. That kind of defeats the purpose of a desktop environment…
August 31st, 2009 at 6:06 pm
The new OSD is nice & I +1 on if it ain’t broke don’t fix it (First time i saw it in the middle right of my screen i thought gnome was broke & been looking around to try to fix it back to the top right (where it used to be) I liked it there as when I got a pidgin message or anything. I could see it without opening up pidgin & having to check it all the time @ the moment it’s so confusing, checking a website or writing in Openoffice & the osd box show’s up half way down the page
August 31st, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Hi
I like the notifications with instant messenger, but I find it difficult to find different phrases different. I mean, what is the difference between a message and the next? If they use the same colour something is needed, perhaps a line separator between them.
September 1st, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Thank you for having listened to our complains.
Keep up with your good work
September 1st, 2009 at 5:30 pm
I also want to say thank you for providing some basic configuration (top-right/middle-right)
Although, bottom-right would also be nice
September 5th, 2009 at 12:27 am
right, any way to install this in jaunty please?
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:55 pm
The idea is good, but implementation is plainly terrible.
If this thing will not have any way to configure its’ positioning (either one of the corners or consistant with the position of the notification area on the screen), it just deserves to be dumped into /dev/null - all of it! Or just make gnome-panel(s) unconfigurable - then the position of notification area will be always consistent with the position of the notify-osd “bubbles”. I just plainly think, that Linus is right, when he sometimes speaks out about some people as “idiots”. This kind of implementation of the concept is just idiotic.
October 5th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
@miniature
I actually think that most people who ask for configuration just want different default values. So, what do you really want?
October 10th, 2009 at 10:46 am
We want the possibility to configure it like we want !!!!
We want to configure our os like we want!!!
is it so hard to understand???
October 17th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
I think that we need something like KDE4 is having now when 4.3 came out - it has the option to adjust the location if the notifications (4 corners + 4 middle positions for each side).
As I said again - if this thing would stay in the current retarded state, then it is just the right moment to start to use some other notification system.
November 1st, 2009 at 4:58 pm
When can we got it on gentoo ?
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:23 am
@MacSlow: I’ve always been a big fan of the notifications. More precisely, I am huge fan of the objective of the notifications — to notify me of what’s going on without getting in the way. I’m not a fan of the new position of the notification, so that’s a thumbs down from me, but what is worrying me right now is that you said there will be no way to configure the notifications at all.
Taking away the option of changing how my desktop works and looks like is going back a huge step in my book. I understand you guys want the notifications to be “rock solid”, but there are always variables to remember.
November 2nd, 2009 at 5:00 pm
The idea is good in theory but even in the video, you see that the upper-most notifications are used much less than the dialogue below it.
I’d understand if something more often-utilized like Gnome-Do filled the gap, but people who don’t rely on Keyboard Hot-keys see this as a waste of prime real estate. Please allow us to config this for ourselves!
November 4th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
Suggestion:
Make Gconf keys. This way you follow the Ayatana guidelines, and still advanced users have a chance to tweak it a little bit (like choosing position and orientation/gravity).
Thanks a lot, and NOTIFY-OSD rocks (except for beeing not configurable :P).
Best regards.