Re: Feature proposal: combined system status menu

[Bastien Nocera <hadess hadess net>]

On Mon, 2013-04-22 at 15:50 +0200, Frederic Crozat wrote:
> 2013/4/22 Allan Day <allanpday gmail com>:
<snip>
> > However, while switching wi-fi networks will require an extra step, I
> > actually think that the the experience will be better with the new
> > design. The current network menu contains a lot of information that
> > isn't related to wi-fi, and isn't exactly straightforward to use - in
> > many respects, the new design will be more straightforward to use,
> > even if there is an extra click involved. Also, we are planning a new
> > wi-fi selection dialog, which should be a big improvement in those
> > situations where you are not already connected to a network.
>
> My main concern is the detection of "application needs network" and
> how it will properly integrate without
> modifying all applications so they interact with NetworkManager to
> request "I need network access".

That can be implemented as a kernel feature with a user-space helper,
very much in the same way that "fieryfilter", a desktop-ish firewall
akin to what exists on Windows, used to do it:
http://0pointer.de/lennart/projects/fieryfilter/screenshots/fieryfilter-0.2-connection.png

We might even get help from the original author ;)
(The code there is likely not the way it would be finally implemented,
the kernel infrastructure has changed quite a bit since 2008)

I also think that we'll need to have more applications, and "desktop
daemons" making use of GNetworkMonitor to check whether they have access
to the Internet before trying to access resources.

Cheers