I beleive this is planned but not yet done, i knwo the kubuntu guys are working on it, not sure if anyoen else is doign it in gnome but I would certainly be interested in looking at it.
That said I really don't like the whole /etc/default thing as it stops you from even one-time starting avahi perhaps with the 'upstart' replacement init stuff this situation can be made better -- avahi not usable for normal users https://launchpad.net/bugs/53911 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
