Comment 21 for bug 174277

The issue of menu organization is almost a "wont-fix because we think it makes sense" kind of issue. I can accept that -- almost.

However, something recently dawned on me! Our System menu is organized by implementation, even though the GNOME human interface guidelines (with which I dearly hope Ubuntu intends to abide) clearly say not to do that. It may make sense in its own right, but this is unintuitive as a component of this desktop environment.

It should not be the user's concern whether installing a printer is system-wide or specific to his user account. Further, it is impossible to guess such things off hand, so the system is not intuitive. To find "Install a printer" the user needs to hunt through all of System Preferences, then all of System Administration because it is not initially known -- and it should not need to be known ahead of time -- whether the printer is installed for everyone, and further that such an act is unique in some way.

Thanks to the new PolicyKit stuff giving us more functional config tools, even that organization by implementation has stopped making being organized. For example, NetworkManager's Network Configuration (in Preferences) can now be applied system wide.

In short, I agree with the notion that this menu needs an immediate overhaul, particularly with more configuration reorganization coming in the next GNOME release. Fedora's menu organization is a good example to go by, although I believe even it still has the Preferences / Administration thing. One thing they have done which is of use is moving inspection tools (such as Network Tools and System Monitor) away from the settings, into System Tools.