Rhythmbox and blues

Linux has two iTunes-like applications available for the Gnome desktop - Rhythmbox and Banshee. I lean more towards Rhythmbox for several reasons, but it has always bugged me that it doesn't have the option to minimize to tray when the application close button is pressed.

So instead of continuing to complain about this missing feature, I dug down into the code this weekend. And the code was pretty straightforward, so I added the feature and created a patchset.

While I was researching whether this feature was planned or not, I came across the fact that this feature had been added before and taken out. The removal of the feature was due to the original modification not being an option and the developers did not want ambiguous behavior when the close button was pressed. Well, thank goodness my patch included modifications to the preferences so that the close to tray functionality was configurable :-)

That just leaves the much debated topic of should an app close to the notification tray (this is the subject of many long mailing list/forum threads). I think there is a good case for providing this behavior for long running applications (Gaim/Pidgin also provides this behavior). For the most part, audio players are long running applications that you interact with very little once you start them up. And when I am doing other tasks on the computer, I really don't need an extra application cluttering up my task bar.

I believe that this is all leading up to a long battle with the developers to get this patch added, but it was fun to dig down into the code and make the modifications. Hopefully campaigning for the inclusion of my patch will be just as enjoyable.