Created attachment 365645 [details]
Patch implementing described option

When a new window is denied focus (for example, because it is a
notification window that has an older timestamp than the last user
interaction) the current behavior is that it would otherwise overlap
the focus window it is stacked under the focus window and flashed
in the taskbar. On a small screen like a laptop this works well,
however if the user has a large screen or multiple monitors, then
mousing to the taskbar is inconvenient, and the user may not see the
flashing taskbar at all (since it isn't in their peripheral vision.)

This patch adds a GConf key:

 /apps/metacity/general/new_windows_always_on_top

Described as:

  The normal behavior is that if a new window is not given the
  focus (since, for example, the user has interacted with another
  window after launching an application), then if the window would
  be stacked on top of the focus window, the window is instead
  stacked beneath and flashed in the taskbar. This behavior can
  be annoying on large screens and multihead setups where the
  taskbar is hard to notice and difficult to get to, so this option,
  if set, disables this behavior, and new windows are always placed
  on top, whether or not they get focus.

  Note that if this option is set, a new window may completely hide
  the focus window but not get focus itself, which can be quite confusing
  to users. Also, note that setting this option breaks the normal
  invariant in the 'click' focus mode that the topmost window always
  has focus, so its most suitable for use with the 'mouse' and
  'sloppy' focus modes.

Upstream bug is https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=599261

To test:

1) Set focus mode to sloppy:

 gconftool-2 -t string -s /apps/metacity/general/focus_mode sloppy 

2) Configure gnome-keybinding-properties to not get the focus:

 gconftool-2 -t string -s /apps/metacity/general/no_focus_windows \
  '(eq class "Gnome-keybinding-properties")'

3) run 'gnome-keybinding-properties' from the command line and verify
  that it does not get the focus; it will be stacked under the
  window and flashed in the taskbar.

4) Configure new windows to be stacked on top:

 gconftool-2 -t boolean -s /apps/metacity/general/new_windows_alway_on_top true

5) Run 'gnome-keybindings-properties' again and check that it is now
   stacked on top of the terminal (but still does not get the focus)