
Growl creator responds to Mountain Lion's Notification Center - shawndumas
http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/18/2807481/growl-creator-responds-os-x-10-8-mountain-lion-notification-center
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jsdalton
I still feel quite bitter about the way Growl handled their move from a free,
open-source app to the paid App Store version. I understand their desire to
make money from their work, but they utterly abused their own notification
system to incessantly remind me to upgrade. I had installed Growl on several
family members' computers and it was quite frustrating for me to have to
explain these messages and uninstall the software for them. It seems to me
that requiring the paid version for upgrades and/or Lion compatibility and
leaving existing versions unmolested would have been a more diplomatic
approach.

I feel bad saying this, but I don't feel much sorrow over the fact that
Notification Center will likely obsolete the product.

~~~
masklinn
> It seems to me that requiring the paid version for upgrades and/or Lion
> compatibility and leaving existing versions unmolested would have been a
> more diplomatic approach.

They did handle the transition badly on PR grounds, but the way things
actually were was very different: MAS's Growl application actually is mostly
for configuration purposes, the new growl framework embeds the notification
display in the apps themselves (see Mist) and you don't need growl at all to
see notifications.

> I feel bad saying this, but I don't feel much sorrow over the fact that
> Notification Center will likely obsolete the product.

Notification Center is only for MAS applications, so non-MAS or cross (MAS and
non-MAS) applications wanting to display notifications will still go through
Growl.

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llambda
This really isn't much of an article. How about we just link to the actual
blog post[1] instead?

[1] [http://growl.posterous.com/growls-response-to-
notification-c...](http://growl.posterous.com/growls-response-to-notification-
center-welcom)

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dangson
It took me a while to actually find the response on The Verge's site. Here's
the direct link: [http://growl.posterous.com/growls-response-to-
notification-c...](http://growl.posterous.com/growls-response-to-notification-
center-welcom)

Customization and flexibility might save Growl. There will always be people
who want to use different themes for their notifications (I personally don't
like how the Notification Center ones look in screenshots I've seen).

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speg
I've never used Growl for more than 10 minutes. Last time I tried it a few
years ago it didn't seem to work with some default (i.e., Apple) apps. I'm
very much looking forward to notifications because they will have exactly
that.

~~~
reidmain
Yeah when I upgraded to Lion I stopped using Growl. The App Store version
somehow screwed up support for the apps I used it for most. Having a simple
API that all developers can hook into and not have to worry about Growl's bugs
is a welcome improvement.

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mattparcher
What interests me now is the possibility that Growl could act as a bridge to
the Notification Center for the many non-Mac App Store apps and miscellaneous
system/hardware events.

I’m not as confident as Growl’s developer that this would technically work,
with Apple’s approval—at least not as smoothly as I’d hope (would “Growl” show
as the app name instead?)—but I’m curious to see what’s possible.

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lbotos
If Apple really wanted to kill growl, they would have allowed non-appstore
apps to use notification center. I think growl will survive this, but I'll
probably uninstall growl as the apps that I want notifications for are already
in the appstore. I'm sure there are a few others like me, but on the flipside,
I'm also sure there are a few more diehard growl fans.

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benologist
Summary spam.

[http://growl.posterous.com/growls-response-to-
notification-c...](http://growl.posterous.com/growls-response-to-notification-
center-welcom)

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js2
See <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3605822> instead

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st3fan
Personally I think that Growl will soon be a thing of the past. It is hard to
beat a well integrated solution that Apple provides.

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aggarwalachal
Growl is in for a tough one here...

