Comment 3 for bug 429569

This is bigger that evolution.

On a multi-user system, there may be several different mail clients, instant messaging clients, microblogging clients, and other things running. Surely the indicator applet shouldn't show every single option, but instead only show the things the user is actually using?

This may factor into another major usability concern:

I for one was VERY confused about why the mail indicator never told me I had any mail. It seems that it only actually tells you anything if your mail client is open. I assumed that the mail indicator would tell me whether or not I needed to open my mail client.

As such, people have started referring to the menu options in the indicator applet as "Launchers", because they open their applications. This seems entirely backwards to me. My understanding is that the indicator applet was designed to solve the "systray clutter" problem, where every application running can have an icon in the tray.

The indicator should show options only for applications that are *running*, otherwise it falsely gives the impression that those applications *are* running, and that no additional effort is required to keep connected with the world.