Ideas for 4.2: global configuration

[Jasper Huijsmans]

Hey all, 

I thought it might be a good idea to try and come up with some ideas for
4.2 that can be implemented within a reasonable time range. IMO it is
important that we do new releases fairly often to get feedback for our
new ideas.

Apart from all the features and fixes in the separate modules, I'd like
to keep an eye on issues regarding the desktop environment as a whole.

So, the first idea I want to propose is about global configuration.

I think all configuration should have a system config file. This will
allow system administrators to create a custom default for all their
users. This should include settings manager plugins.

This should be really easy to do (even for someone without intimate
knowledge of the code. hint, hint ;-). Some plugins and programs already
do this, but not all I think.

Related to this is to allow locking down of the configuration. I tried
using the XFCE_DISABLE_USER_CONFIG variable for this, but currently the
panel crashes when you set it (related to icon themes). Perhaps this
could better be done using a system config file or simply the existence
of a file ${sysconfdir}/xfce4/disable_user_config. 

It would be nice to support this I think. Allowing specific things to be
locked down would require quite a bit of work but an initial
all-or-nothing approach should not be too hard (don't popup the settings
dialog, disable related menu items and only read system config files).

What do you think?

	Jasper