An option that let apps without App Indicator support to appear in Ubuntu’s system tray has been removed from the upcoming Ubuntu 13.04 release.
Software and services that don’t make use of the Unity desktop’s preferred tray presence spec are hidden by default (since Ubuntu 11.04), but a hidden setting allowed users to manually re-enable them.
But that option is going away
Requesting the removal of the configurable ‘whitelist’ in the up-coming Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu’s Matthew Paul Thomas (aka mpt) argues that software developers have had enough time to adopt and adapt to the distro’s App Indicator spec.
Mpt has a point.
Ubuntu 10.04 LTS was the the first to introduce the App Indicators spec as part of the distro’s wider push for a consistent and predictable user-experience when interacting with applets in the System Tray area.
Not all bad news, mind…
While the whitelist is going away, support for Windows apps run via Wine, those built with Java, and a few other edges cases won’t be affected. I.e., their tray icons will remain visible.
Why the exception? Mpt reasons that for those, “their developers don’t necessarily know that Ubuntu even exists”, much less be willing to retool their wares to suit its whims.
Not everyone is happy with this plan.
In a comment on the bug report proposing to remove the whitelist, user Ed Guenter rants:
“Thanks for breaking the 5000+ Ubuntu users within our company that “enjoy” using such ancient applications like Sametime, Lotus Notes or Symantec Antivirus. Maybe, in 5 years from now, such applications will accept that unity exist and provide indicators. Today, they dont. Or maybe unity is history in 5 years from now.“
I’ll admit that I personally finding it difficult to think of a single mainstream app that isn’t already using the App Indicator spec.
Skype, VLC, Opera, and the Spotify Linux client do. Heck, even Shutter, whose developers had long resisted adding support for it, relented in an update late last year.
Direction of travel is set; Ubuntu can’t support everything, forever.
Do you use this whitelist and would be affected by this switch? Or, do you agree that developers have had enough time to adapt? Let me know in the comments!