alright for my husband I have to ask this question.
On his computer he wants to have a logout button on his desktop that will trigger the logout sequence just in case the gnome panel fails to load.
I have told him how to logout in the terminal but he wants an easier way to do it.
so can anyone help me on this?
he is using Ubuntu gutsy with gnome
the command I use is "shutdown" or "reboot"
but he needs something that will load gnomes logout manager instead of just shutting down the whole computer.
he honestly needs a button on his desktop that will activate gnomes logout manager and I have no idea what its called

I don't know about creating a desktop logout button, however there are other options.

Alt & Ctrl & Backspace - should terminate your session and send you to the Login Screen.

Alt & Ctrl & Del - Should bring up your Logout Options.