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Ubuntu - as we know - uses the Ayatana Project for notification within the OS - aka Notify-OSD

it looks rather like this: Ubuntu Notification Bubble

The notifications aren't clickable, not to mention customizable (anyone ever tried changing the 'notification-properties'

notification-properties?

yeah, amazing.)

despite that, if i'm not around my laptop/desktop, i won't be able to see what i missed.. (unlike in Kubuntu). Xubuntu has a new notification system as well with the same ideal.

On the other hand, there's Growl - An Open Source notification system for Mac OSX - http://growl.info/

It looks much more polished, efficient, and usable (disclaimer: i never tested it nor used OSX)

Growl Notifications Growl Notify Rollup Growl Settings

and yes - it's Open Source. BSD licensed.

i understand that there was an attempt to do such a project back in Jaunty (9.04) - http://colinharrington.net/blog/2009/05/grails-growl-like-notifications-in-linux-ubuntu-904/

and i would be glad to see this rise again..

cheers.

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I always thought Growl was default in OS X and closed source. You've at least cleared this up for me. Thanks :) – Thomas Boxley Jan 1 '12 at 15:41
What's the question here? – Jorge Castro Jan 1 '12 at 15:44
will there ever be a customized notify-osd? – ushabtay Jan 1 '12 at 16:38
This question is pretty unanswerable, you're asking us to guess? – Jorge Castro Jan 1 '12 at 22:24
i disagree. this isn't a brainstorm request, but a question, and it can be answered with a description of the plan for the notify-osd for the upcoming LTS, and whether any of the issues will be resolved, if at all. – ushabtay Jan 1 '12 at 23:12

closed as not a real question by Jorge Castro, Uri Herrera, Takkat, RolandiXor♦, jrg♦ Jan 5 '12 at 20:48

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.

1 Answer

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You will not miss things in Ubuntu. The notification is transient, and if it is something you should react to, then it will be added to the appropriate indicator as well. It will then change color to show you that there is something to be seen. For instance, a notification that a contact logs on or off should probably not need to be reacted to unless you're there when it happens. If you're not there, then you can't react to it anyway and if you want to contact someone, then you'll need to open your contacts in order to do so. So, you get a notification, but not an indication. However, if you get a message while you're gone, then you get both an notification and an indication.

There are other notification and indication systems around. Xfce has a different one, for instance.

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