nm-applet uses the notification area not like a proper applet

[Lakin Wecker]

The program nm-applet's name indicates that it is an applet, but it does not
behave like one at all.
I cannot add it through the normal "add-applet dialog". It must be run from a
session, or command line. It uses the notification area, which means I can't
move it around to properly configure my taskbar like I want. It doesn't provide
an exit button, or menu option to stop the program _anywhere_. If you kill it
using killall or kill it restarts itself and re-appears in the notification
area. The only way to stop it is to log out, or to rename the executable and
kill it, or to remove the package from the computer.

It provides TWO! menus, one for left click, one for right click.
The right click menu isn't the same as other applets, and includes preference
settings directly in the menu rather than having a preference option which
brings up a preference dialog.

[Lionel Dricot (ploum-deactivatedaccount)]

I agree that NM would behave like any other applet. This feature request can be, IMHO, marked as confirmed.

[Jonathon Conte (thesicktwist)]

There are definitely some usability issues with NetworkManager and you have touched on many of them. At the very least it would be great if NM could be started from the Applications menu and stopped from the icon's context menu like any other program that runs in the notification area.

[Phil Housley (undeconstructed)]

As far as I can remember the reasons for nm-applet not being an applet:
* It has to appear as needed, which an applet can't.
* The notification area is the only place really shared between DEs.
Back at the time, there were GNOME 3.0 type discussions about this, but no real answers, so it had to be a notification area dealie.

[LKRaider (paul-eipper)]

Additionally, it doesn't honour the panel's color or transparency settings, instead it always uses the same opaque grey background.

[Simon (simon-turvey)]

I'd just like to add confirmation of the comment above that transparency WRT the panel's colours are not honoured.

[patrick_g (patrick-guignot)]

the transparecy settings problem is very annoying.
A screenshot here :

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=132450197&size=o

[Scott James Remnant (Canonical) (canonical-scott)]

Large changes are happening upstream in regards to Panel Applets and Notification Icons; it's very likely they'll become merged into the same thing.

[antistress (antistress)]

see discussion here : https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-discuss/2008-March/thread.html ("nm-applet : Notification Area or Panel Applet ? " thread)

[antistress (antistress)]

see the discussion related on http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=328549 :

"some applications make wrong use of notification area, and these applications should be fixed.

Sometimes, developers have reasons not to fix it : in nm-applet case, i remember that it has been said that nm-applet is not gnome-specific and that it
would be hard to change it into a real applet (instead of sitting in notification area) that would work on several desktop environments. Therefore,
if there is no neutral specification for creating an applet that would work as it in multiple environments, maybe that Freedesktop should have a specification that would describe how to make an applet for the desktop ? But it may be another debate

http://mail.gnome.org/archives/networkmanager-list/2007-March/msg00057.html " (antistress)

and

" The only problem is, like antistress mentioned, that applets are not "standard" like notification icons, and as such there would be a need for the way to make an applet to be standardized by Freedesktop.org, or something. That would bring lots of benefits, not just for usability, but for code reusability across desktop environments." (Jean-François Fortin Tam)

[A.Kromic (akromic)]

It's a feature, not a bug.
This way I can use it in Xfce, and could also under anything with a tray.

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

this bugs feels invalid: it either has to become a "complete applet redesign" bug, or should be split in individual incremental improvements you are suggesting. In any case, discussions of this kind are better be done in upstream bug tracker (bugzilla.gnome.org) or on network-manager mailing list (lists.gnome.org).