is there a reason to upgrade growl?

[mattkime]

i have 1.2.2 on my machine. it wants me to pay $1.99 for 1.3.

thought experiment - even if it were free, would there be a reason to upgrade?

[Spock]

No, that seems too much for 0.08.

[StingMe]

...but you don't need Growl installed to get notifications. - When developers update their application to support Growl 1.3, Growl will no longer be required for them to display a notification to you. Think of these updated applications as Growl, and the Growl application as Growl Pro. The Growl 1.3 SDK includes a framework which can display a notification, even if Growl is not available. Developers use the same API. Please see our documentation in the SDK regarding Mist. 

From http://growl.posterous.com/growl-13-a-su...or-changes

[estnyc]

I've gotten so much use from Growl over the years, I had no trouble paying the modest fee, to support the developer. You should, too.

[tahoedrew]

I thought Growl goes away in 10.8 anyways?! Seems like an attempt to get just a bit more money out of consumers...

~A

[deckeda]

I haven't yet seen a reason to update to the pay version. Gonna wait and see how 10.8 affects the scene. Sounds like there may be some double-notification for some apps happening there.

[guitarist]

I paid the fee, because it's so modest, a cup or two of coffee, not a big deal.

But then (and this is just my subjective experience) found I don't really need Growl and am just as happy without it. I'm guessing that Growl was really useful before a lot of apps began to do notifications of events. And being notified of something I already know about, or don't necessarily need to be notified about, it makes me wonder why I need it. I understand it can be customized, to do, or not do, all kinds of things, but I find its usefulness so arbitrary and minor, it's not with the effort to customize it. So, I disabled it. After paying for the update. Here's one reason why:

One thing I don't like about the update is that it parks itself up on my menu. (though I suppose this can be turned off) and I already have so many utilities that want access to that bar up there, I already have a sting of icons up there in my menu, loading when the computer boots up. Most of which don't really need to integrated that way. A few won't really affect performance, but I'm inclined to think that mini-apps that load that way, lots of them, just increase the number of "always active" processes that just eat up memory and processor, even if each one individually is using only a tiny amount.

Is it just me? Or do lots of utility developers think their app is more important than it is, and by default, load as part of the OS's standard menu? I wish they'd stop considering this such a great idea.

The previous version of Growl didn't park an icon on my upper menu. It was invisible, and only appeared when called for. Now it wants to grow up and be a 'must-have' utility that takes space on my menu. I was happier with the previous version. It was rarely visible, and it was free.

In the end, all it did was make me ask myself "Why do I need Growl?".. and led to me deciding to disable it altogether.

[StingMe]

guitarist wrote: The previous version of Growl didn't park an icon on my upper menu.

It did/does if you check "Show Growl icon in the menu bar" - don't know what the state of this is with a new install of 1.2.2 though.

I still don't really see what "Think of these updated applications as Growl, and the Growl application as Growl Pro." means - if notifications show up for Growl-enabled applications without having Growl installed what does "Growl Pro" really offer?

A little info: http://growl.posterous.com/

[deckeda]

Sorry, didn't read the links.

't sounds like to me that with the old Growl, Growl had to be installed for any app that was "Growl aware" to notify. Now they're saying that if an app if "Growl 1.3 aware" the app will do its own notifications. Growl proper would still have to be installed for apps that may be Growl 1.2 aware but not 1.3 aware.

I may have that wrong of course. And the odd thing is, as more apps become Growl 1.3 aware, *no one* (end users) would have to buy Growl. Maybe they intend to get developers to license it for a small fee, in which case we'll all have bought Growl one way or another in the end.