I think Ubuntu needs a proper, pretty, functional, simple and friendly Graphical Interface to format Pen Drives and other Hot Plug devices. Because gParted and others do it really good but are generics, a lay person new on Linux or a lay person newly arrived from Windows™ can do serious data loss if he/she choose the wrong device on the partition table for example. And it only format, don't have any special feature to Pen Drives and other Hot Plugs. A Specific GUI (Graphical User Interface) only to Pen Drives and other Hot Plugs like Cellphones and MP3™ players would be so a great feature and help. With unique features like pass and covert videos - using existing codecs like mencode - to MP4™ players for example.
I think it is easy, just create some Glade, Gambas2 or Gazpacho + GTK, cause the features are already there, ready to become together. Like i said, a GUI that links directly to USB or Bluetooth on the System and identify only these devices, use already existing codecs, and already existing functions/commands like mkfs, lsusb and othes, and pop up it all friendly to the user, to let he/she choose safely what he/she want to do.

Edit: +add christopher_lees suggestion - "Right-click on the device and choose "Format Drive...", give it a name, give it a filesystem, and click Format. An absolute necessity."
kernel_script - Just add a gksu on that action and would be perfect.

Examples:

=Hot Plug Devices Config= (HPDC)

"That tool allow you to easy manage all your Hot Plug Devices like Pen Drives, Cellphones, MP3™ players, MP4™ players, Bluetooth Cellphones and others. You can easily and safely format these devices, convert you favorite videos and music for you MP3™ and MP4™ players, and, rip your CDs direct to these Devices"

And some example of tools that could be used:

mencoder, ffmpeg, some code fork from SoundConverter and Sound Juicer, or ,just click on the option on HPDC and call them, mount and umount options specifically for these devices and format options for these specific devices. (like just put some direct paths like mount or umount /media/sda etc)

[....]

Drag&Drop is such a intuitive and simple action - it must be promoted.
There are many things that already work in Ubuntu/GNOME/KDE with Drag&Drop, but there is much that can be improved:

- DnD an image from Firefox to the Desktop should place that image there, not a textfile with the link to the homepage.
- DnD from the icon on the left side of the URL in the Firefox address bar to the desktop should create a .desktop file with a link to that URL.
- DnD of devices onto the Pastebin should unmount them (like OSX)
- DnD of a Desktop file into a mainmenu/submenu of GNOME should create a menu item.
- fix the Nautilus-in-list-view-doesn't-accept-DnD-files issue: Launchpad bug #61237
- DnD file from anywhere (e.g. Desktop) to a folder in the "file open" "file save" dialogs.
- DnD a file into an edit box should insert a file:// link - KDE has this; Idea #3027
from Idea #4105:
- DnD Attachement from Thunderbird to Nautilus
- DnD Files From File-Roller to Nautilus
- DnD Picture from Nautilus to OOo

...and many more, please submit your ideas, I'll put them into the description!


If you like this idea, also look at my other ideas

This becomes especially useful with Hardy, which gives unrecognizable names to the unnamed partitions like "100 GB media" etc.

For example:

Just now i clicked on the pidgin icon in the "quick launch" and it was already open, but still, "Opening Pidgin..." came up in the window list as well as the loading mouse animation for a good 6 or so seconds (it doesn't sound long, but count it out in your head).

It seems like it's thinking "Hey, is this program open? I don't know ill check real quick. Oh i guess it is! But I'm not going to bring it to focus because obviously the user does not want it open so ill leave it how it is..."

A possible solution would be if there was some way of triggering a shortcut icon when its open to behave as an icon would in the notification area. It would be really ideal because you could easily click any shortcut to open the currently open program, instead of just the icon in the notification area.

The only exception would be programs that allow multiple instances such as web browsers.

Using a mouse wheel to scroll in Windows has always had acceleration, so the faster you move the wheel the more the scroll distance increases.

Mouse cursor movement uses (configurable) acceleration, so I can't understand why this feature is lacking in the wheel (admittedly as with all other distros to my knowledge)

I find this provides a much more responsive feel to using the scroll wheel in any application, especially in a web browser

Preferences and Administration in Settings menu are not clear enough

I am not very satisfied with the way the deskbar applet works in Gutsy. Sure it's an improvement compared to previous versions but it needs work. I love copernic application in windows, it does a magnificent work. I am expecting something similar in ubuntu:
- to separate my search results in categories (emails, files, images, videos, etc)
- to have a preview capability
- to be able to spot the exact location of the file I am searching for (which folder/directory?)
- to be able to set the directories we want it to index (in a simple manner even for a noobie to linux like me!)

Hello,

I live in a house with several different nationalities, and we all need to use one pc. It would be nice if we could create separate users which each make use of their own language.

So for example Piet from the Netherlands has a Dutch user account, Ricardo from Spain has a Spanish account, Aleksandra from Poland has a Polish account, etc.

Multiple users can be logged in by using the user switching. But when the second user forgets about the first one and tries to shut down the computer, no warning pops up and it kills all the sessions silently. That's really bad, because all the unsaved work of the first user is completely lost. It would be *so easy* just to pop up confirmation dialog saying, that other users are still logged in and the shutdown can lose their unsaved data. In the fast-user-switch-applet we can see users currently logged in, so this is really a matter of few lines of code to implement. It would often save a lot of cursing. Windows have this functionality.

Example: Alice is working with Ubuntu. Bob wants to read his email quickly. Alice fast-switches to Bob account. Bob reads his email, forgets about Alice's running session and shuts down the computer. All Alice's unsaved work is lost. This wouldn't happen with the confirmation dialog.

This kind of menu bar is very practical. Why have a menu on every window when you're only using one at a time? It saves screen space especially on notebooks and Eeepcs! And it could be provide as an option for users, like an applet for gnome panel (so using it will be your choice)!

This is dynamic menu, it will be different for every window - example: If you are using firefox, the menu will be from firefox, next when you click on pidgin or gimp window, the menu will have the options from main pidgin or gimp window etc.. So besides more open windows, you are using one at a time only!

And if there is no open window, it will be the normal gnome menu (for launching applications).

I'd love to see this option become part of Gnome! Thank You

Please visit this link for more info and screenshots
before any voting!

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/global_menu