[Ayatana] Desktop Silent Mode

["frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx" <frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi List,

we all are familiar with variations of "Silent" modes on our mobile telephones.
Voice messaging has been a normal thing on desktop computers and notebooks/netbooks for years, since we have Yahoo Messenger with voice, Google Talk with voice, Skype and many more to mention.

When busy, occupied or in a "Do Not Disturb" state of mind or activity, we need a way of silencing incoming calls and other in that moment trivial notifications: Silent Mode.

Silent Mode
* mute notification sounds

* mute NotifyOSD bubbles
* mute ringtone for incoming calls
* don't popup update-manager automatically

What is the current implementation of this on the desktop?
Mute all notification sounds:
* "mute all" via Sound Menu

Mute NotifyOSD bubbles:
* uninstall NotifyOSD manually
* disable bubble notifications in Empathy
* disable Empathy
* use a different DE
Mute ringtones:
* go offline
* disable Empathy/Skype
* "mute all" via Sound Menu

etc...

we can save ourselves a lot of annoyance by introducing Silent Mode finally.
Synonyms for this use case have been "DoNotDisturb", Busy mode or NotAvailable to name most of them.

The high level concept of Silent Mode active during a Desktop session is that the user has a simple way of enabling an disturbance-free experience in order to be able to focus on an important task, work, project, conversation, movie, audio or what have you.

Has anyone started speccing this out already?