Could you comment on that ???

Tomboy has the option of using a panel applet or an icon in the notification area to offer the same functionality.

There is Music Applet which can be used to launch Rhythmbox (or other players).  Once launched, it expands into [rating|prev|play|next] controls.  It may be closer to what you're looking for.  Better integration with that would be good.

http://www.kuliniewicz.org/music-applet/

I think it is a minor but good idea enhancement, and I see it more as a plugin for rhythmbox and not a core feature, from my point of view.

If no panel applet, please at least add a configure flag (or, ideally, a menu option) for disabling the tray icon. I want my notification area to notify me of things (and iirc the HIG agrees), and with awn and screelets I have plenty of places to view and control rhythmbox when running, and no need to make it save space on the window list. Having looked at the code, there seem to be lots of places that a tray icon is assumed, otherwise I would have brewed a patch and submitted it already.

indeed, I see no good reason for a music player to be permanently stationed in the notification area by default. This goes against the almighty law of the HIG! Shouldn't the icon be deactivated by default for usability and put as a plugin, or a preference to enable?

In the current behavior, Rhythmbox encourages a Windows-like overcrowding of the notification area (aka System tray). Let me quote the HIG on that:

"""
[Warning] The utility of the notification area decreases rapidly when more than four icons are displayed at the same time. Icons that appear only temporarily, in response to specific events, are therefore preferable.

Appropriate Uses for the Notification Area
There are three acceptable uses for the notification area:

1) Displaying a transient icon in response to an event (e.g. arrival of new mail in a monitored folder). Clicking the icon opens the most appropriate window to deal with the event (e.g. Inbox). The icon is removed when the state prior to the event is restored (e.g. no more unread mail in monitored folders).

2) Displaying an icon for the duration of a background activity (e.g. while a document is being printed). The icon is removed when the activity successfully completes, or replaced with a suitable error icon if the activity fails (optional tooltip or balloon to explain problem). Clicking the error icon (or balloon) opens the most appropriate window for the user to rectify the problem.

3) Displaying an ever-present icon to monitor a continuous background activity, such as a laptop battery being charged. Continous notification icon presence should always be controllable by a user preference. Only core GNOME applications may have this preference turned on by default; other applications should turn it off by default. Standard way of presenting this option would be nice.

In particular, you should probably use an applet instead of using a notification icon if:

1) your notification icon would need to be shown all the time, or would benefit from being shown all the time

and:

2.1) clicking your notification icon would do anything other than opening a window or dialog box directly associated with the icon or the event that caused it to appear (example?), or

2.2) multiple instances of the icon would either be required, or could be considered useful (for example, a clock-- a user might want to display a separate clock for each of multiple timezones)

Because the notification area is itself a panel applet, remember that the user may not have it on their desktop at all. Above all, therefore, only use notification icons to provide redundant, non-critical information.
"""

this seems like a very simple and well backed change to rhythmbox but if what simplyw00x says is true, it is a glaring design error that (in my opinion) is grounds for finding a replacement music player for gnome. why has this sat as unconfirmed for ~2.5 years? why hasn't a dev said anything?

Some people want to be able to minimize to tray, people here don't want anything in the tray.. Bugs are rarely confirmed on gnome bugzilla, if they aren't close as NOTABUG or INVALID, this means they are acknowledged. And I don't think any dev care enough about the issue to comment on that bug ;)

Just in case anyone is confused:  the HIG does not have force of law, and "HIG says so" is not on its own a good reason to do something.  Rhythmbox is not in any way an official part of GNOME, so "finding a replacement music player for GNOME" is pretty meaningless.

i would like to apologize if i've touched some nerves but i felt bad for everybody commenting and never hearing back anything. now we at least have a reply from a dev even if it is a couple years after this bug was originally filed

i do realize that the HIG is not having force of law, but don't understand why we can't use it as a good reason along with having people actually requesting an option. perhaps you could elaborate here?

and yes, my 'replacement' threat was totally just me wanting a response. i really like gnome but i don't know why the devs are so opposed to certain things and i won't be in a position to contribute code for a year or so...

So you were trolling?  That's a good way to convince people to ignore your input entirely.

As someone who is not trolling (and has been using rhythmbox with a no-tray patch successfully for many months), I would like to ask if the rhythmbox team would accept a patch that breaks this out into a preference in the GUI (or in gconf) as regardless of the HIG not being 'law', they are still good guidelines, and whilst I am not against people polluting their own desktop with non-semantic elements I would rather keep my own clean.

*** Bug 487162 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

alright, yes i was trolling. i've already apologized but obviously i need to again - sorry.

i also asked you to elaborate on why you feel the HIG and several requests for this feature are not good reasons to have it implemented. perhaps we could focus on this more?

i feel like everyone here is in a catch-22, we can be nice and get ignored or 'troll' and still get ignored

Opportunity costs.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 317982 ***