Description of problem: The rhn-applet 'throbs' when there are critical updates to be installed. This is due to some code in rhn_applet.py that creates an anim from the critical icon with various alpha settings and proceeds to cycle through them on a timer. There are also some anims for other state transitions. For performance on low bandwidth connections (e.g. via VNC) there should be a way to disable these unnecessary animations, e.g. a command line switch.
Why not disable the applet? Or, perform the updates necessary to cycle the applet back to the check mark?
Well I could disable the applet but that would have obvious security implications. As for performing the suggested updates, sometimes I'm doing something such as patching the existing kernel source (e.g. with alsa drivers) which means I don't want to install the latest updates. Therefore I'm left with this thing throbbing away in the corner. If there were a way to disable it, either through a switch. a pref or a menu option I could then ignore it for the duration of the session.
The way the applet works right now is, once you've clicked on the 'throbbing' applet, it reverts to a solid exclamation mark, without animating. Is this 'good enough', or is there really a use case for having no animation at all? The code to disable all animation isn't that difficult, I just hate to add 'yet another option' unless the current behavior is really a problem for some people. I haven't tried using the applet over VNC, so I guess I don't know what I'm missing.