GNOME should start adopting some of the Zeroconf, and make good use of it.
My task today was using x11vnc and x2vnc to link my two screens together. I’m logged in as the same user on both machines. They have some prior notion of each other. I should be able to just click a “link” button, then click the name of the other computer, and arrange as I like. They should authenticate each other — It’s not that hard. In a large network environment, it could be Kerberos to do that job. In a more Zeroconf setting, they can just use a magic cookie shared key, and a dialog box asking my permission on the other machine.
I can think of a thousand other uses, from file-sharing ala MacOS, to auto-synching my history and bookmarks.