I've been running debian for servers for a short while now, but I'm finally trying to make a full switchover as my desktop OS on my laptop.
I'm pretty much hooked, but I have two nuisances which I'd greatly like to solve. (Well 4 actually, but 2 which I'll address here)
1) When I get a GAIM message I want my panel icon for the message to flash until I address it. (Setting the Urgent hint does nothing for me in Gnome, and in KDE it only flashes a couple of times, and even that only when I select some aspect of GAIM)
2) I use Thunderbird for mail, and when I get a new message I want an obvious visual notification. A popup in the system tray (is there a more appropriate linux name for it?) would be great. I noticed Gnome had a mail notification for my locally delivered mails... I'd be happy if I could tie this into Thunderbird too. Just some way to glance and see I have new mail without opening Thunderbird and scrolling up and down my folder list.
I realize the answer to these, if there are any, probably are very different in KDE & Gnome or any other window mangaer for that matter, to that I'll only say, I'm currently switching back and forth between KDE & Gnome trying to decide which I prefer, so ideally I'd like to handle this in both systems.
Thanks for any insights.