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Shuttleworth Proposes Overhaul of Desktop Notifications

Posted by timothy on from the activated-but-not-in-use dept.

Thelasko writes "Mark Shuttleworth is considering a controversial overhaul to the way Ubuntu manages notifications." I'm not thrilled with all of the changes proposed, which would mostly value simplicity over confusion at the expense of flexibility and permanence. But anything that would make more people read over and specifically approve the wording of error messages and other notifications is a good thing.

11 of 306 comments (clear)

  1. Huh? by timeOday · · Score: 5, Funny

    Can't I just dump a stack trace to stderr and be done with it?

    1. Re:Huh? by Eudial · · Score: 5, Funny

      Can't I just dump a stack trace to stderr and be done with it?

      But then the user might miss it! Clearly, when our programs crash, we must hook things up so that it automatically kills X11, opens up vim, splits the screen into subscreens with a stack trace, dmesg, hexdump of the core, etc.

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      GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
    2. Re:Huh? by calmofthestorm · · Score: 5, Funny

      Doesn't windows have that feature?

      Sorry for the troll, couldn't resist;)

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    3. Re:Huh? by gzipped_tar · · Score: 3, Funny

      But... but you must make sure the trace dump comes in pretty, anti-aliased, glossy fonts!

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      Colorless green Cthulhu waits dreaming furiously.
  2. The model for success. by gandhi_2 · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is one case where I think that Microsoft has been the industry leader.

    White lettering on azure field, clearly states the information, and no user can ignore it or work past it.

    "A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer..."

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    THL phish sticks
  3. Re:confiuration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    No wonder you have a pain in your ass! Most people have a hard time shoving one monitor up there, never mind two! And then rotating it? You're hardcore.

  4. Here's my proposal by Atrox666 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Every so often the interface should generate a dialog box that says: "Are you an idiot Y/N" If the user consistently answers no then the dialog boxes disappear. If they just click yes on every box in front of them then the operating system trojanizes its self to save other people the effort.

  5. Re:WT...? by Clandestine_Blaze · · Score: 3, Funny

    What are these mysterious notifications that won't invoke a desire to perform some sort of action from the user?

    Microsoft's notifications usually invoke a desire to throw the computer across the room.

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    Best "String" Ever!
  6. Re:WT...? by mcgrew · · Score: 4, Funny

    "You have unused icons on your desktop"

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    Free Martian Whores!
  7. Re:KDE 4 anyone? by vigour · · Score: 3, Funny

    HOPEfully, Shuttleworth recognizes that this is *not* new and can make it play nice with KDE instead of having his guys create a completely different standard.

    In the article, Shuttleworth says they're working with KDE.

    What? you actually RTF? I thought people stopped doing that here around 2004?

  8. Re:KDE 4 anyone? by darkpixel2k · · Score: 3, Funny

    In the article, Shuttleworth says they're working with KDE.

    What? you actually RTF? I thought people stopped doing that here around 2004?

    Back in 2005, they posted an article that we're supposed to start reading the articles again. Didn't you read it?

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