Glink, a link monitor and configurator for 802.11b CARDS using the Linux kernel with wireless extensions, is, roughly speaking, the GNOME equivalent for this.

The link is cultural. In the public eye, MPs and bankers now look equivalent as elites, detached from the real world, enjoying massive privileges and thinking of them as entitlements.

Each node typically hosted no more than one or two related applications so authorizing a link was roughly equivalent to authorizing the application residing there.