>If growl didn't exist, every application would provide its own mechanism for notifications
As I see it now, as a developer, growl doesn't exist anymore. I loved using it both as a user to receive notification and as a developer to send them to users, but I now I feel there is no way I can rely on it anymore.
Even if I was selling my software instead of giving it away, I'd have a hard time asking users to swallow that pill "oh, now go buy this other thing to make my software work".
Growl could offer (for a reasonable license fee) a version of the Growl framework that works regardless of whether the user has the "full" version of Growl installed on their computer.
Users could buy Growl from the App store for a way to centrally manage notifications, change the notification style, send notifications between computers, etc.
(As that is what they're doing) I'm sure its a smart business strategy for Growl, because it maintains Growl's momentum and developers have less reason to seek alternatives and introducing those alternatives to the users.
But its just not something I'm comfortable shipping.
As I see it now, as a developer, growl doesn't exist anymore. I loved using it both as a user to receive notification and as a developer to send them to users, but I now I feel there is no way I can rely on it anymore.
Even if I was selling my software instead of giving it away, I'd have a hard time asking users to swallow that pill "oh, now go buy this other thing to make my software work".