Comment 180 for bug 332945

Pausanias, the notification area is not a "guarantee of authenticity" in either Windows or Ubuntu. In both OSes it can be used by third-party applications, including malware. And in both OSes the vendor is clamping down on third-party use, though in different ways. We're at an advantage, because most Ubuntu applications are Free Software, so we can patch them and send those patches upstream. Microsoft has to resort to more code and interface bloat: a dialog listing all notification icons past and present, with options to prevent them appearing in future. <http://howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/clean-up-past-notification-icons-in-windows-vista/>

We did not make this change with the idea that it would be a "battle", but in the knowledge that it's better done sooner than later.