Comment 4 for bug 203217

The real problem is that when a new user without existing .g* files in his home directory logs in, gnome loads the fast-user-switch-applet (which doesn't make much sense with so many users as pam allows only users in a special group to log in to this particular machine here). Gnome startup (e.g. panel loading) does not continue until fast-user-switch-applet is initialized, which takes ages. The user can't work for half an hour...

Is there a possibility to disable fast-user-switch-applet for all users? Uninstalling is not an option as ubuntu-desktop depends on it.