Theory question on desktop and gmc

[Michael Bannister <mjb resnet gatech edu>]

Hi all. I thought up something the other day and was trying to figure it
out. Currently in gnome gmc and the desktop appear to be the same
program (ie if you want desktop icons, gmc has to be running, even
though you have no windows open. Also, every time gmc crashes (which is
fairly often) all the desktop icons disappear and are then recreated
when gmc respawns). Why is this? Wouldn't it be a better idea to have a
sepereate, small program to manage the desktop icons and have it run gmc
when someone clicks on "Home Directory" or something similar?

This would also help out on the problem of a user needing to temporarily
run a root gmc. Two gmc's could be run at the same time w/o them
fighting over the desktop. Also on the "temporary root" issue: the
mandrake update utility allows you to run it as a normal user, and when
it needs root access it asks for the password. Does anyone know how they
got that working?

Michael Bannister