Comment 8 for bug 388708

Dominic, thanks for the bug report. Unfortunately, this is not a paper cut. This issue was discussed at the last Ubuntu Developer Summit <https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/desktop-karmic-gnome-control-center>, and the consensus was that the problem can be fixed only by a non-trivial change, and making any trivial changes in the meantime would be more disruptive than helpful. One of my priorities for this cycle is to finish designing a reorganized settings interface <http://live.gnome.org/SystemSettings> that will replace these two submenus, but that will not be implemented for 9.10.

It used to be the case that, as Jonathan Ernst wrote, "Preferences affect only the current user and Administration affects the whole computer". But with the advent of PolicyKit, that is no longer true. The Keyboard Preferences window lets you apply your keyboard layout system-wide, the Network Preferences window lets you apply your proxy settings system-wide, and conversely the Users & Groups window is under "Administration" but lets you change your own password and account details without entering an administrator password.

See also bug 174277 and <http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/80/>.