Mac users have enjoyed an almost universal support for Growl for years. Almost all good Mac applications support Growl and just use it if it is installed. This makes the whole experience with notifications very pleasant. Windows on the other hand has never had a single an unified experience for user notification. Growl for Windows (and Snarl) is trying to be that. There are some problems with that however:
- Both Growl and Snarl have been in development/beta for a long time. Growl and Snarl are consumer software and need to be easy to find and install. You don’t really expect everyone to find the best version of a software on SoureForge and install it?
- There is no single application directory for their plug-ins. No reviews, ranking, bug reports. Nothing. Try finding a Google Wave notifier for Snarl now.
- The biggest problem with both Growl for Windows and Snarl is that their plugins are stand-alone applications. That is just stupid. I can write an application and use Growl for my notifications if it is installed. But why should I install a separate application if I just want to have Gmail notifications? This means a separate install, separate tray icon, separate “Start with Windows” settings and no unified configuration experience. What’s wrong with Firefox plug-in system. Snarl and Growl plugins don’t have to talk to the host application like an external tool. The external API is for external applications.
Should I start a new open source Growl for Windows replacement?!
5 comments ↓
I agree – both systems would need more apps supporting it directly. But this is something the developers of the apps should do – we can only advertise that we are there and it is quite easy to implement them.
As for external apps: Snarl has such an interface (this is the difference betwenn “Apps” and “Extensions”. Until now no one (including me) wrote extra extensions (there are some included as you might know). Why? In my case because I like to have it as external apps
So if you think this is your greatest pain just mail me and we will give you an documentation of the extension/plugin-api of Snarl
while i agree completely that GfW and Snarl are not yet to the level of Growl on Mac, i think that there are some other points you might have been confused about.
1. GfW and Snarl both have stable (non beta) releases available with big ‘Download Now’ buttons right from their homepages. both offer a standard Windows Installer installation, so it is as simple as clicking Next,Next,Finish. (Snarl’s files are hosted at SourceForge, but i dont know why that would matter)
2. GfW and Snarl both have sections of their websites devoted to listing apps and plugins that support them. Neither offers rankings or user comments, but Growl/Mac does not offer this either. It is the goal that apps integrate support directly, thus reducing the need for extra plugins and helpers, so at that point, there would really be nothing to review anyway.
3. As stated in #2 above, the goal is that applications will build in support natively just like they do on the Mac. However, in the mean time, people want to get notifications from their favorite apps that don’t yet have support built in, so plugins and helper apps fill that gap. as to why some plugins are standalone apps in their own right, that comes down to the specific app. some apps have a plugin system (firefox, pidgin, winamp, etc) that allows developers to write plugins that run in the external app’s process. some apps dont offer this, so the next best thing is a helper program that can watch/poll for notifications and then forward them to the notification system. it is a balancing act between ‘why are there so many plugins required’ and ‘why doesnt app X support Growl/Snarl yet?’.
As the developer of GfW, I agree with Sven that both apps still have room for improvement and getting more apps to support them natively is always a top priority. i appreciate the feedback – hopefully my comments will help clear up some of the misconceptions.
Ok, so … I’m just writing this to say that even though the first two replies are from the devs of those other projects, THEY are both right.
Both have “been in development” for a long time — that’s a good thing.
Both of them are in Version 2.x — they haven’t been “in beta” in a very long time (although they still release betas of new releases, they have solid non-beta releases with installers etc.).
As on mac, Growl and Snarl exist for the purpose of unifying notifications from apps you (already) use — not for creating new notifications. I don’t see why Growl and Snarl should have a plugin system for people to write … what? web-scrapers? email-checkers?
Anyway. No. there’s no more room for growl clones. if you have ideas and coding time, help advance one of the existing apps, or plugins for your favorite apps to make them growl/gntp/snarl compatible or help start campaigns to get apps to implement this natively.
[...] ← Why Growl for Windows and Snarl suck? [...]
Thanks for the comments. Here is my reply:
http://sajadi.co.uk/dflat/2009/12/windows-notifiation-framework/
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