NetworkManager dependency on Gnome-Shell

["G. Michael Carter" <mikey carterfamily ca>]

I decided to give up on my overview page speed issue and look at empathy.   Empathy wasn't connecting at all.  Kept reporting I had no network connection.  Turns out if NetworkManager doesn't control the network -- ie you've bridged your only network card so you can have virtual machines connect direct to the network -- many network related activities don't function, even with a network connection.

Then I needed an application and the overview page is now close to the 200-500 ms range.   Seems all of my speed issues are related to having the network card bridged.   Even my rdesktop is running faster.

Does anyone have their network card bridge?  Is there something in gnome-shell that might be causing this to happen?   Seems rather strange just deactivating a network bridge would speed up graphics rendering.