Removing the user list from Gnome 2.28 login screen

From a security standpoint, it's not wise to present a list of users at the logon window. Why give intruders an idea of the accounts on the system, after all? Why make it easier for them to guess for access?

Unfortunately, Gnome 2.28, which comes with Ubuntu 9.10, uses the dropdown list by default, and what's worse, doesn't give you any easy and intuitive way of changing it. That's just sad.

In order to modify this, you'll have to open a terminal window and execute:

sudo -u gdm gconftool-2 --set --type boolean /apps/gdm/simple-greeter/disable_user_list true

Idea from Ubuntu Tutorials: Remove the User List from Ubuntu 9.10 GDM.