>> Kmail here is always online, which, for an enterprise type 
workstation
>> is what I lwant.  Laptops may benifit from networkmanager, I 
never have
>> and don't need one more thing to deal with in my environment.
>
>This is one reason why I would like this feature to use the TDE 
network
>system, as that system a.) falls back gracefully when 
NetworkManager is
>not installed and b.) is designed so that other network backends 
(e.g.
>simply reading ifconfig) can be added in the future.

In summary, not everyone uses a wireless connection. :-)

We have a place to direct this conversation and patching:

http://bugs.trinitydesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1105

BTW, this is a healthy enhancement request but is not an R14.0.0 
priority.

Darrell