Default installation has many "Additional startup programs" in Startup Applications Preferences

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

Ubuntu Natty daily 20110327, all updates installed as of 20110401

1. Install Ubuntu and log in for the first time.
2. Launch "Startup Applications".

What you see: 21 "Additional startup programs" are listed:
* Bluetooth Manager
* Certificate and Key Storage
* Check for new hardware drivers
* Disk Notifications
* Evolution Alarm Notify
* GNOME Login Sound
* GSettings Data Conversion
* Network Manager
* Personal File Sharing
* Power Manager
* Print Queue Applet
* PulseAudio Sound System
* PulseAudio Sound System KDE Routing Policy
* Remote Desktop
* Secret Storage Service
* SSH Key Agent
* Ubuntu One
* Update Notifier
* User folders update
* Visual Assistance
* Zeitgeist Datahub

There are two problems with this. First, The presence of so many items in this list makes it more difficult to see and recognize any items that you have added yourself. Second, the presence of basic system functions like "Network Manager", "Power Manager", and "PulseAudio Sound System" makes it more likely that well-meaning people will turn them off thinking they don't need them, and then be surprised that -- hours or days later, after they next restart -- the OS stops working properly.

What you should see: While most of these things should be optional, none of them (with the possible exceptions of "Evolution Alarm Notify" and "Ubuntu One") should be present in this list. Instead, whether they run should be configured in more context-specific places. For example, whether the login sound plays should be configured in the Sound Preferences "Sound Effects" tab, not here. And whether software updates are checked automatically should be configured in the software update settings, not here.

This may become a tracking bug for fixing the individual startup items.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. The issue that you reported is one that should be reproducible with the live environment of the Desktop CD of the stable release - Oneiric Ocelot. It would help us greatly if you could test with it so we can work on getting it fixed. You can find out more about it at http://www.ubuntu.com/download . Thanks again and we appreciate your help.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

No it isn't. The live session might have the same startup programs as a full installation, but if it does, that's coincidental.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Hum, Matthew is that still an issue in Oneiric where we did hide all the entry in the default installation? What the bug is requesting we do then?