Well, I think instead of getting rid of it, it should simply be used.
The reason it's not being used, I imagine, is because not all programs
are Gnome exclusive (and they shouldn't be), and this is a Gnome
exclusive feature.
One way to handle this that I can think of right now (and I haven't
slept in a while, so forgive me if unfogged minds find this stupid) is
to have a sort of unified standard for DEs to provide user information
and a standard way for programs to call the information from whatever DE
is active and then let it be used however. [snip]