Back to Mobile View

Skip to Content

Growl developers describe the app's major changes

by Steven Sande Nov 13th 2011 at 2:00PM

Growl, the notification system for Mac OS X, was recently updated to version 1.3. While "dot updates" to apps usually don't signal a major change, that's not the case with the latest version of Growl. In a post on the Growl blog, the team described the major changes that have taken place:

Growl is no longer free. The app has a full-time development team, and all of the money made from the sale of the app on the Mac App Store goes toward supporting the continuing development. Growl is available for US$1.99, and the team reported that without moving to a paid app model, development would have ceased. It's still, however, an open source project.

Growl doesn't have to be installed for you to get notifications. When developers update their apps to take advantage of Growl 1.3, Growl no longer has to be installed for users to get notifications. As the team puts it, "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."

Growl 1.3 supports sandboxed applications. Sandboxing is becoming a requirement for any application on the Mac App Store, and would have broken Growl had the team not made changes. The team says that Growl 1.2 and earlier will no longer work with sandboxed apps.

Out-of-date apps don't work with Growl 1.3. Some apps will need to be updated in order to work with the new version. Developers can contact the Growl team for assistance, and users can download Growl Version Detective to determine if an app works properly with Growl.

It's still Open Source. The team says that Growl "will remain Open Source for as long as people want to be able to modify the code." The source code is available at their Google Code Hosting project under the BSD license.



View Tags

Related Stories

Categories

Software Mac OS X

In a post on the Growl blog, the team described the major changes that have taken place
 

Add a Comment

Sign in »
*0 / 3000 Character Maximum Comment Moderation Enabled. Your comment will appear after it is cleared by an editor.

36 Comments

Filter by:
Kurt Schwind

Just deleted growl. It's a convenience application. Most of the apps themselves check for updates so it's mostly redundant. And it irks me that it costs money now.

Bye bye growl.

December 09 2011 at 7:08 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Richard Servello

I deleted growl because since they decided you need to now pay for it I was getting nag warning EVERYDAY to upgrade!! F That! I may have paid for the update if not for that!

November 16 2011 at 11:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Modano

Love Growl. It's cheaper than a grande latte!

November 14 2011 at 12:09 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
MJ

If you have Growl 1.2.x you can quiet the daily update notifications just by going to the Growl preference pane and turning off update notification. It's not hard.

November 14 2011 at 6:52 AM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
An Idle Dad

If Growl itself is sandboxed (and since it is sold through the Mac Store, I assume it is or will be), how can it receive notifications from other apps?

If notifications need to be built into other apps and 'Growl doesn't have to be installed for you to get notifications" why download Growl at all?

November 13 2011 at 11:14 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to An Idle Dad's comment
Klaus

I have the same question, if we can consider Growl on the App Store as "Growl Pro", then why do we need Growl Pro, if apps are able to make notifications themselves when using the new SDK? I think I'll just hold on to the current non-App Store version I have, hoping that my apps will eventually be updated to support Growl without having the app installed.

November 14 2011 at 6:23 AM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Klaus's comment
xxp84

I'm assuming that with no Growl [Pro] installed you'd be unable to do the stuff you do today in the Growl pref pane, namely customizing and tweaking each type of notification from each app. themes, where on the screen they appear and for how long, sending things to an applescript, listening over the network for growl notifications, etc. The stock stuff in the API for other apps would probably just display notifications in some default way.

November 15 2011 at 3:50 AM Report abuse rate up rate down
Allan Leedy

They have made it their mission to hector me with update notifications on a daily basis. I don't think I can make them stop, except maybe by paying the $2 for the upgrade. If they can do that, what's next?

November 13 2011 at 10:45 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
5 replies to Allan Leedy's comment
BeyondtheTech

When they went to a paid model and hit the App Store, I happily purchased it. These guys really added a valuable layer to a slew of applications which more than earned my few bucks of thanks.

November 13 2011 at 8:39 PM Report abuse +2 rate up rate down Reply
gormster

If it's open source, what's going to stop me compiling it myself?

November 13 2011 at 7:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
5 replies to gormster's comment
elwood

The new version is only compatible with OS 10.7 so Snow Leopards need not apply. I love Growl but not too impressed with Lion but that is the directions things are going.

November 13 2011 at 7:08 PM Report abuse -1 rate up rate down Reply
jamesvdm

Growl has lost my respect. Every Mac I've seen in the last week has had a persistent Growl prompting the owner to update, but clicking on the Growl asks them to buy from the Mac App Store. Your average user does not know or care about Growl! Nor should they have to.

November 13 2011 at 6:17 PM Report abuse +3 rate up rate down Reply
Buy an ad here

Tweets

© 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.