[Ayatana] Update manager

["Paulo J. S. Silva" <pjssilva@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

Sorry for the long message, must I need to set some context before going
to the point.

I am trying to bring the discussion on update-manger changes, with its
new pop-under behavior to this forum as suggested in 

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-notifier/+bug/332945/comments/384

The bug report #332945
(https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-notifier/+bug/332945?comments=all)
already have 383 with many ubuntu users stating that they do not like
the new behavior, perceiving it as too obtrusive. Many people, including
me, are restoring the original update-manager behavior (using icons in
the system tray) through gconf. However, this is only a temporary fix
that may not work in the future as stated in

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-notifier/+bug/332945/comments/281 

The purpose of this message is to present an alternative that I believe
is in line with the spirit of osd-notifier and that would avoid the
users of obtrusive pop-unders.

The suggestion consists of:

1) Use notifications bubble when updates are available;

2) Since the notifications are transient in nature, queue them in the
indicator applet (that would require the indicator-applet to be in the
panel by default).

(1) and (2) would apply to notifications on actions that should follow
certain packages upgrades, like restart the machine after a kernel
upgrade or restart firefox.

3) Keep on showing system update notifications in pre-defined intervals
(shorter for security updates, like every couple of hours, and longer
for normal updates, like every day or week).

Let me explain the motivation for this proposal. first, I must emphasize
that I like the new notify-OSD framework and the will to clean up the
notification area. I completely agree that a icon only belongs to the
application area if it represents a running application and allows some
constrained iteration with this application, like in media players
(where you can skip a song, for example, without opening the full
application). The old behavior of update-manager use it to present a
permanent notification that is not tailored to a running application.
This is not a good use for that area.

However, pop-up or under is not a good idea either. It is usually
considered very annoying by many users, see the hundreds of comments on
the bug report cited above and the tens of duplicates it has.

The idea described above tries to build upon the new framework, using
the fact that it already acknowledges the need for queued notifications
in the indicador applet. By doing this, we don't need to clutter the
notification area anymore and the same goal is achieved.

Note that this idea is already partially implemented by C. Cooke, see

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-notifier/+bug/332945/comments/345

I can also code, and I would happily help him to further develop his
code if this idea is accepted as a reasonable in the forum.

Some closing remarks,

* Even if the proposed behavior is not considered good enough to be the
default behavior, it would be nice to have it as an option.

* To make this idea work, it would be good to have use a more neutral
icon for indicator-applet in the panel. Currently it uses an envelop. It
could be the actual icon for the application, which is a silver circle
with the letter i in the middle. 

* For critical updates, it would be nice to change the applet icon to
something more eye-caching. I suggest a red triangle with the letter i
in the middle (that would remind us of the read triangle with the
exclamation mark in the middle that is more or less universal).

Best,

Paulo