One of the small little things that I like about Ubuntu it that is much more polite than Windows XP. What more polite? Let me give you an example. If under Windows XP a window, which is not focused, raises a message window or something similar the entry in the taskbar will start to blink furiously. The blinking effect is so strong that it is pretty hard to ignore and it distracts me from the stuff I am currently working on. In my opinion this form of trying to get my attention is rude. I would compare it to banging at the door of an office. In the normal world this type of interrupting people would not be accepted. If software interrupts you all the time nobody cares.

Maybe the Ubuntu folks had a similar experience. However in Ubuntu instead of blinking they slowly fade the color of the application in the taskbar from gray to orange. Much more polite and less distracting (would like to know how it is implemented under Windows Vista).