New GNOME Status Notifications
More stuff from SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10…
As a laptop user, I like to know when a noteworthy event occurs on my system, such as a network connection or a power event. In SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, the events appear on the desktop like this (click for the full 1024×768 view):
The notice appears at the time of the event, then fades out after a couple of seconds. (I’ll note that the fade away is made very graceful by Xgl/Compiz’s fade effect.)
Close up, the notices look like this:
As multiple notices come in, say a low battery warning or the AC power becomes unplugged, any other notices that have not yet cleared get bumped up by the incoming notice. Looks a bit like this:
Overall, the net effect is a smooth and conservative method for informing the user about important events on their system.
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In related news for people who live and die by the performance of their laptops, Robert Love has been making great strides to liberate us from the wall-tether. His superb work on wireless and battery life are making life on SUSE Linux Desktop 10 so much better than on previous distributions, SUSE-based or not. For example, check out these posts from Robert to see some of the stuff he has recently done for wireless:
- NetworkManager managing four wireless cards at once
- Explanation of how NetworkManager uses paired SSID+MAC address of wireless access points in trusted lists, which prevents simple spoofing of trusted networks (LINKSYS or NETGEAR, for example)
- Support for wireless crypto, including WPA.
[Update 28JUN06: My bad. Robert tells me that he himself has done little work on battery life. It happened elsewhere.]
