Comment 28 for bug 248324

The changes in 10.04 seem to have made the problem worse, not better. Clever people in 9.10 used to be able to work around the problem. Now in 10.04 you have to be a true genius, or merely insane, (or find this bug report) to work around the problem.

The proposed fix in #19 is to tell users to ignore the default UNR interface, switch to GNOME, and then spend a bunch of time (both in a terminal, with commands that nobody will ever find on their own, then doing further mucking about on the screen) to customize GNOME so it looks just like the default UNR interface. Then, finally, you can add one item to your panel!!! And the rationale seems to be "it's compulsory".(*) Yeah, we know you made it compulsory not to edit the panel in 10.04. But this is software freedom. We can, and should, change things we don't like.

Is the problem that the UNR interface is "cheating" by using a bunch of GNOME components, but not using a wholly separate set of GNOME properties? (So that you could customize your UNR screen, and customize your GNOME screen, and your home directory dot-files could remember both of those settings.) If it's impossible for one user to have two fully functional GNOME screen layouts, and choose among them at login time, perhaps this should be an upstream bug or feature request to the GNOME folks?

(*) Perhaps this was just a non-native English speaker being unclear "why" it's not possible. The word "compulsory" often has a connotation of people who are ordering you around for no good reason -- like a corrupt policeman might, or like a bureaucrat who cares nothing for you or your freedoms. Like "we'll force you, whether you like it or not".