Most popular ideas today

everytime i shut down 8.04 i see all the text come up and tell me everything that is happening behind the scenes and frankly i dont care.

on start up i have a nice animated logo type thing.
would be nice if i could have this on shutdown like on shutdown of pclinuxos

http://www.pclinuxos.com/

when it does a shutdown it has a nice logo and says press the escape key for verbose mode.

very professional

At present, many new Ubuntu users are confused when they can't play their MP3 files, YouTube videos and DVDs out of the box. They then get confused when they then have to use this strange apt-get thing to somehow install them, and are then baffled by the term 'non-free'.

My proposal is as follows: either during the install or on first boot, a dialogue should be presented to the user entitled "Installing proprietary software", telling users about why you might need Java, Flash, MPEG-2 codecs and LAME, what they are, and why they aren't bundled with Ubuntu. These explanations should avoid the term 'non-free', because Joe User might not be able to distinguish between free beer and free man - the last thing we want to do is make the user think we're offering something he has to pay for. Ideally, they should use the word 'proprietary'.

If the user accepts and has an open internet connection, they will be presented with the EULAs, after which they will be asked to authenticate to gain superuser access (or, using PolicyKit, simply unlock the keychain to gain root access) and apt will automatically install everything they've asked for behind the scenes. It could even install in the background and operate on a "while you work" system.

I suggest the dialogue also offers users the opportunity to enable the universe and multiverse repositories, after explaining what they are.

If anyone remembers Windows Task Manager, there's this nice little thing, where user can select a visible window and say, "Go to process".

I think there should be a similar feature in Gnome System Monitor, where user can see visible window and say go to process.

This helps a lot for new users, who can't seem to find the process related to a *hanged* application so that they can kill it. So often these users end up restarting their system.

For e.g. A lot of plugins, applications could merely be python processes in system monitor. One has to tediously move mouse over them for tooltips, to find a culprit process to be able to kill it.

labs.ubuntu.com could be created in the style of labs.mozilla.com, and utilised in demonstrating and testing radically new ideas ('experiments') for the desktop.
I'm not suggesting that this replace launchpad in any way. It would simply serve as a gateway to completely new projects in order to reduce the amount of sifting through that is currently required on launchpad (each 'experiment' would have a brief description and a link to the launchpad project, similar to Mozilla Labs).
Some examples of projects that would benefit from this system are:
"Long Term Vision" theme - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Long_Term_Vision, https://launchpad.net/long-term-vision
"Epidermis" theme manager - https://launchpad.net/epidermis/
I'm sure that there are many more, which illustrates the need for the site.
I'd like to hear peoples feedback.

Right below the title f this brainstorm you can read:

"The Ubuntu community has contributed 10907 ideas, 49662 comments, 1064082 votes"

In the same way, how about counting the number of users?

Could be something like:

"The Ubuntu community has contributed X ideas, Y comments, W votes, from Z contributors".

When amarok starts up the first time, it presents a wizard that asks which database should be used. There are links to setting up mysql and posgresql, but that's it.

Wizards should be set up to hand hold the user into setting up the database to work with amarok.

ATM it is very uneasy to edit system files as root with a GUI.
E.g. if you want to edit files in /etc, /boot/ etc... you have to go to the console, get root and edit the files either with nanno or with "sudo gedit" (GNOME) or "sudo kate" (KDE).

It would be a good idea to integrate a "Administrator mode" button or something like this with policykit backend into nautilus/dolphin.

I think for nautilus is something lika that underways, but for dolphin not.
To access root-only directories a question while entering the dir would be ok, but for editing files e.g this is not enough.

Other solution would be - every time I don't have the rights to do something (save /etc/samba/smb.conf e.g.) the systema asks me for the password.

if you have a mouse with a scrolly wheel thing in the middle it would be nice if you can adjust the settings of the wheel via system-> preference -> mouse

anyone know how to setup the scroll wheel so you cam make it skip more or less lines when turned cos you can not do it in the mouse options where it should be :-((

When you want to upload a foto on a webpage (webmail/fickr etc.) you get the upload selection window in which you need to select a photo. You cannot see thumbnails in this view, which is quite annoying. So you need to go back in the file manager and see what the exact file name is of the photo to select it.

If ubuntu wants to become more accepted by multimedia using people (http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/07/shuttleworths_u.html ), it needs to be extremely user friendly with simple things like this..

When a user opens ubuntu he is presented with so many icons for gnome,ubuntu,applications,games,accessories etc.But there
isnt single icon for linux mascot tux i only see it in wallpapers.A tux can be in boot screen,splash screen,in search window,in nautilus,application icon or filesystem icon etc.Make it look good and appealing,now that linux is getting popularity people shouldn't miss tux on Desktop/laptop.whether in office or home.people relate linux to tux,windows have some wierd unnamed icon in taskbar start button,they keep it in every wallpaper.If linux has a icon they should use it.

I love firefox and i think it is better than konqueror, so if it is already as default on UBUNTU why not on Kubuntu? In order to achieve this they should be integrated. Read KDE wiki for more info.

''Firefox is a cross platform web browser, it's modular, has an active user base and motivated fan base, has many extensions and about 2.5 million lines of code.

KDE is also cross platform, modular, active user base, third party additions, 3.8 million lines of code. So quite some similarities.''

''Users like a consistent look and feel, UI configuration (colours and themes) should only be done once and shortcuts should be consistent.''

http://wiki.kde.org/tiki-index.php?page=Firefox+KDE+Integration

take any application in Ubuntu and shrink the size of it from full screen to say the size of a cigarette pack for argument sake.

notice how on neither the left or the right side of the window you just created there is no scroll bar to move the application around inside the window you just created.

nor is there a scroll bar at the top or bottom to move the application round to left or right in side the window you just created.

in other words if you want to have 2 or 3 or 4 apps running inside the same screen you can only work with one at a time usually as you have to maximize the screen.

this is a major setback :-((

I install Ubuntu, but Evolution can't read my old Outlook/Outlook Express e-mail!

Is this the dark ages?

WE NEED A LIBRARY to convert all the e-mail formats: Outlook, OE, Apple Mail, Notes, Evolution, Thunderbird, etc.

- Full-featured clients like Evolution and Thunderbird can use the library and write their own wrappers to get near-universal import and export.

- Since it's a library, small e-mail clients can get the same benefit.

- A standalone installation script can use the library to migrate a user's e-mail and settings on a fresh install.

Other uses will appear.

I figured out how to convert my e-mail (readpst) - but I'm a geek who likes solving problems like that. To attract non-geeks, it must be easier!

::::::RESTORE FROM TRASH:::::::::::
Sorry this idea got trashed,i mean triaged sounds technical but please explain whats the fate of "restoring from trash in gnome".
Although i dont know how hard it is fix this bug,why it got low priority in gnome(while 70%+ users like to be in every default install,i call it "quintessential feature".
I have an idea first try to implement below ideas
Merged:
[Best idea got 1200+ votes great]Idea #60: Restore deleted items trash bin
Idea #11030: Improve Recycle bin & Delete files
or There can be two options additional provided to user when a user accidentally deletes a file to trash[please warn before moving to trash?].
1)Restore to original location,one or more
Right click on item(s) in trash>>restore to original location
2)Restore it to Home directory if above options doesnt work/not feasible(due to permissions etc).
more related and got less importance issues
3)Can we integrate Trash Folder in nautilus?
4)Idea #58: Trash folder on diskette, USB,hard disk
5)Clean root trash,delete files from flash(forcibly 6)sometimes doesnt get easy to trash due to errors/permission)
7)Idea #6537: Empty root trash
8)Idea #10751: Get rid of second trash can under ~/local/share
9)More configuration/references for setting size of trash,arranging by date/size.
i partially agree with
Idea #5468: "Restore last item" for trash icon,wonder what if have many deleted items
Sorry being too elaborate just wanted to get attention of developers on "TRASH/Recycle bin" related problem
also those above ideas got mixed share of votes.

Dont misunderstand me but post install of ubuntu,if a user forgets to format a drive or wants to make change to partition:create,delete,edit he has no liberty(people say there is partitioning software in install cd or use from repository GParted etc).but imagine for a new user he doesnt understand anything he wants to do after install and offline user(s)[no internet connected user(s)].solution is similar to
Disk manager below idea
Merged:
Idea #323: Disk Manager by default
But with more functionality like formatting drives even local media or external devices but should warn with visual and messages before applying serious changes.//sadly xp has this for years-Disk manage feature.i came to notice when i got new harddisk from friend which he wanted to format all partitions from fresh 160gb.
I like to see better support for FAT32/NTFS/mac's apples format HFS(hierarchical file system),HFS plus now in macosx,ufs(bsd also supported in mac).please integrate device/disk drive renaming capability too.
It should have GUI,good looking too
Related:
Idea #2736: Graphical Interface to format Pen Drives an other Hot Plug devices

Due to the problems regarding wireless network there should be a section helping new users to configure it when having problems.

It could be a simple page with a small checklist:
"Is your device switch on?" (some laptops can switch on/off the device by some button)
"Is your wireless access point configured?"
Etc.

At the same time, giving an option to use "auto-NDISwrapper" for installing the drivers (and a guide howto).
Idea "Include auto-NDISwrapper in 8.10": http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/11295/

Gimp should implement adobe bridge like architecture
As Gimp is standalone widely acclaimed application to build high quality graphics it should be better integrated into some applications of its stream.Natively Gimp supports some formats like Xcf which doesnt get support
but while working with some similar application like krita,blender,photo editor software,flash for linux(gnash_?) or silverlight like application,dreamweaver cs3 like screem,bluefish etc it wont work fine.it should abilty to import/export some files so that they can share files in between easily.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Bridge
Bridge architecture will improve the core functionality of linux applications.Even Visual studio integrates into MS Excel,MS Access very well.

Exact wording or phrase Search will not only improve search engine results but also speed,less resources.I was wondering if this can be implemented in both Brainstorm and Ubuntu system too.while using Google search i found using keyword inside inside quotes "" can yield me that exact result that iam looking for,just a suggestion if it can be done,when i tried Brainstorm search keyword "TOP 10" i was presented with numerous results although i dont know on which page i have the answer.
In the past i also suggested for Title search in Brainstorm which is also good solution to problem while searching Brainstorm.

Nautilus shows sidebar when a external disk or external device is connected like external hdd but why doesnt it show always.Choice:make it default or make it optional.view>>show sidebar?
sidebar in nautilus make life simple and improves usability,easier navigation to disk drives,folders and favorite places like home,photos etc.There are some ideas already but no clear idea as mine

:::::::::::Appeal to all Linux users and Ubuntu community users::::::::::::::
Linux users who want better support for there hardware that they purchased or like or endorse/suggest others to buy etc) like for eg:I like Nvdia,Intel,iomega,samsung etc
most popular brands,new brands etc And software powerdvd,power2goCyberlink ,Nero,system mechanic,tuneup utilities,photoshop,dreamweaver cs3[adobe]
and even Games Wow,Cod,battlefield earth etc.
Not only you should have good or best hardware to play games but check for compatibility before buying.when buying a car etc we check for after sales-service so it must be mandatory for linux users to check for compatibility with Linux ask for support from manufacturer of hardware/software/game publisher Through mails,posting on forums of there company website,chat with company people online etc before diving into Linux for support although i agree Linux tries its best but windows users esp get easily tired to read manuals and search help in ubuntu forums.Sometimes its necessary for people to demand more from manufacturer who are reluctant to support Linux,over drivers like Nvidia did recently,this way they will be pressured and soon react to Linux support
Imagine a million user request for os alternative to windows can push DELL to offer linux(ubuntu),then the whole power of linux community/old windows users/mac users[that will/already switched to linux].
WHAT RESULTS CAN WE EXPECT.Only combined effort of Linux community can break the shackles.I can see a day when every hardware/software/games works in Linux as a whole.