NotificationAreaTransition
We’re replacing the notification area (popularly known as the “system tray”) with a series of status menus.
Some of these are system-centric menus: the clock menu, messaging menu, sound menu, battery status menu, keyboard menu, and so on. Others are application-centric menus, using a D-Bus API based on the Status Notifier specification.
Ubuntu developers are organizing this transition, with Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.10 and Ubuntu 11.04 as targets.
Contents
Why are we doing this?
The notification area is a chronic mess of redundant and inconsistent items, and cannot realistically be fixed without changing the API. For more details, see “Farewell to the notification area”.
My program uses the notification area. What should I do?
Sometimes, the appropriate replacement is a custom status menu (“application indicator”), but often it is not. See CustomStatusMenuDesignGuidelines for our recommendations.
If you do need a custom menu, see DesktopExperienceTeam/ApplicationIndicators for sample code.
How can I help?
Many programs use or refer to the notification area or “tray”. Help us compile a list of these programs, report bugs, and fix them, at /CompatibilityFixes.
NotificationAreaTransition (last edited 2010-05-27 15:20:05 by eth0)