Comment 91 for bug 439448

@ralemi: it can have a number of effects as it can disable any indicator in the top panel. In no particular order, I've occasionally been unable to:
- connect to a wireless network (no wireless indicator and no alternative way to do this)
- open Evolution, Gwibber or Empathy via the indicator (granted, you can go through the applications menu but when you are so used to using the indicator you sometimes forget)
- log out (the CTRL-ATL_DEL method doesn't offer a logout option, only shutdown, restart, suspend and hibernate)
- open Rhythmbox: as Rhythmbox automatically minimises to the notification tray on start up, if the notification icon doesn't show up, you have no way to open the main window

Considering the number of users affected and how heavily Ubuntu is pushing application indicators (you'll have even more of them in Maverick), I think the importance of this bug should be medium at least.