Notify-osd looks are not customizable

I support that.

>Timeout settings: the time notifications stay should also be configurable: some people read faster than others, so the very-sensible default (of x time per n characters) can be good, but some people maybe like y time per n characters.

That would be wonderful. Implement that; put a high priority on it. Make it happen.

Use case: Ubuntu derivative/rebranding diversity.

Derivatives might have different interest in notifications; ie some kind of kiosk distro could intentionally favor full screen, urgency=normal, as a default behavior while a multimedia desktop may want something like elementary's wingpanel-indicator-notifications-bzr (status notifier notification log) and no bubbles.

An adoptable notify-osd would win brownie points for Ayatana Design.

A lot of non-Unity derivatives have already opted for their own ad-hoc notification method.

Just digging around indicator-applet-developers/notify-osd/trunk/src/display.c

/* if there is already one bubble on display
we don't have room for another one */
if (bubble_is_visible (bubble))
return NULL;

not great, but off topic.

on topic:
if (bubble_is_urgent (bubble))
{
/* pick-up the /first/ urgent bubble
in the queue (FIFO) */
return bubble;

}

We replace this, and excuse my bashism, with something like bubble_is_"$URGENCY" (and have no specification == urgent for your default behavior) and let it be set by an environment variable; then the hook is customizable like any other freedesktop feature.

I don't understand this code really:
indicator-applet-developers/notify-osd/trunk/src/defaults.c

gint
defaults_get_on_screen_timeout (Defaults* self)
{
gint on_screen_timeout;

if (!self || !IS_DEFAULTS (self))
return 0;

g_object_get (self, "on-screen-timeout", &on_screen_timeout, NULL);

return on_screen_timeout;
}

x time for n characters?