title: Cross-platform desktop notifier in Python
body: <p>I am looking for <a href="http://growl.info/" rel="noreferrer">Growl</a>-like, Windows balloon-tip-like notifications library in Python. Imagine writing code like:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt;&gt;&gt; import desktopnotifier as dn
  &gt;&gt;&gt; dn.notify('Title', 'Long description goes here')
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>.. and that would notify with corresponding tooltips on Mac, Windows and Linux. Does such a library exist? If not, how would I go about writing one myself?</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Does Mac come with a default notifier? Is <a href="http://growl.info/" rel="noreferrer">Growl</a> something that I should install separately?</li>
  <li>On Windows, I assume this may require <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32/" rel="noreferrer">pywin32</a>?</li>
  <li>On Linux, assuming GNOME, is there a GNOME API (using gnome-python) that does this?</li>
  <li>Can I make notifications 'sticky' (i.e., don't fade out ever) on all platforms?</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p><strong>Update</strong>: My preference is to <em>not</em> depend on gigantic GUI frameworks like PyQT4 and wxPython for a simple task such as this.</p>