FreeBSD has pgrep instead.

Patch below, not sure if maybe Linux dists have pgrep too which would get rid of the list. Also be nice and don't hardcode path to python.

--- ./src/gnome-shell.in.orig   2009-08-08 16:51:01.000000000 +0000
+++ ./src/gnome-shell.in        2009-08-15 13:22:50.000000000 +0000
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/usr/bin/python
+#!/usr/bin/env python

 import atexit
 import optparse
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@
     raise SystemExit("None of the commands %s exist" % cmd_list)

 def pidof(command):
-    pidof_cmd = find_cmd(["/sbin/pidof", "/bin/pidof", "/usr/bin/pidof"])
+    pidof_cmd = find_cmd(["/sbin/pidof", "/bin/pidof", "/usr/bin/pidof", "/bin/pgrep"])
     pidof = subprocess.Popen([pidof_cmd, command], stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
     pids = pidof.communicate()[0].split()
     pidof.wait()