Theoretically if you write a GUI-based software for Linux there are requirements to comply with, with these all neatly documented over on the Freedesktop web site. Nevertheless, in actuality, Freedesktop is extra of a unfastened assortment of specs, a few of that are third-party specs which have by some means change into the de facto customary. One instance of that is the StatusNotifierItem spec that gives a means for functions to create and handle a ‘system tray’ icon.
This function extremely helpful for offering a constant option to customers to shortly entry performance and to see software standing. Sadly, as [Brodie Robertson] notes in a latest video, not everybody agrees with this notion. Regardless of that Home windows since 95 in addition to MacOS/OS X and others present comparable performance, Gnome and different Linux desktop environments oppose such system tray icons (regardless of a in style extension), with an inevitable dialogue on Reddit because of this.
Though the StatusNotifierItem specification is listed on the Freedesktop web site, it’s below ‘Draft specs’ together with one other, apparently internal-but-unfinished System tray proposal. In the meantime DEs like KDE have built-in first-party help (KStatusNotifierItem) for the specification. There’s at present an lively Freedesktop Gitlab dialogue on the subject, whether or not StatusNotifierItem ought to even be within the listing, or change into an authorized specification.
With the specification mired in forms and a number of camps pushing their very own thought of what ‘the Linux desktop’ ought to seem like, it seems like an actual disgrace that the Linux Customary Base effort died a decade in the past. Customers and builders simply need their desktop atmosphere to return with zero surprises, in any case.
