Contributor 6205

Every time I install Ubuntu, the first thing I have to modify is the font rendering. I use the "sudo dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig-config" command for that.

The Ubuntu system would be more enhanced if it had more sofisticated fonts with a nice contrast.

Every operational system has an unique "look and feel" thing... Ubuntu must acquire its.

Currently Ubuntu packages seem to be compiled using very conservative compiler switches, so binaries work even on (very) old hardware.
Many other linux distributions (like ArchLinux) take advantage of enabling compile-time optimizations, that results in much better experience in terms of 'feel' (compare snappiness Arch or SuSE have compared to Ubuntu on slower machines, like 500MHz).

Since nowadays *everyone* has at least i686 and MMX (you wouldn't want to run ubuntu, if you haven't had it, anyway) these architecture-specific optimizations are not so specific anymore... Why not use it to our benefit, especially that compiler suite (GCC) improves over time, and make ubuntu snappier distro?

Until now it's only possible to read SD cards on multi-card-readers, like ricoh, that are integrated on most laptops on this days. And difficult the wireless options that this cards readers provide.

SD - Works
Memorystick / Pro - Don't Work
xD - Don't Work
MMC - Don't Work

It is better to have an eject button for media in places drop down menu : http://img262.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshotco9.png

i don't care which player it uses, but ubuntu's video playback is very poor. the best player (in terms of stability, post-processing, picture quality, and convenience of clicking anywhere you want in the time slider and immediately jumping to that spot) is helix/realplayer. i watch tons of video on my computers and this is a clear weakness of totem, mplayer, vlc, gxine, etc. i haven't found any player that is stable and has as good a picture as helix, and even that is not as good as realplayer on windows. it would be great to have a dedicated effort to get better support / quality in the default player on ubuntu. i don't even mind fighting thru the codec issues, but even with all the codecs installed, nothing looks as good as an RM clip playing on helix.

A separate partition for /home has been proposed for a long time in the forums. It implies some risks, though, so based on disk size Ubiquity should estimate the amount of space that should be left for / or whether a separate partition should be made at all. Then...

-The first time an user installs Ubuntu, he is given the option to set a separate /home. This option is selected by default, with a size for each partition based on a sane guess:

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/7958/firstinstallaro2.png

-Of course, he can just choose not to set a separate /home. This option will be selected by default if the results of the system test suggest that's the best thing to do.

http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/6498/firstinstallbfs6.png

-Manual install is also possible. Selecting it greys out everything related to separate /home, since it's implied that the user doesn't want to be guided.

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/7976/firstinstallcvc2.png

-If the user set a separate /home, the next time he installs Ubuntu a new option appears and is selected by default, prompting to use the existing /home partition. All other options are still available, though.

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/9034/secondinstalliq1.png

[....]

Work with Google to receive an advanced Linux version of Google Chrome so you can package it and put it in the repositories at the same time of the release.

As a user I want to be able to listen to audio or watch videos with the least amount of setup. I would like to have a single interface (Codec Manager) that lists all of the most common audio and video formats and shows me if I am missing the necessary codec for playback.

Use Case: Enable MP3 playback.
Precondition: MP3s are not currently playable.
1. User logs into the system.
2. User opens the Codec Manager.
3. System displays a list of common audio/video formats.
4. User selects MP3s.
5. System displays some info about MP3s.
6. System displays a list of available codecs.
7. User selects a codec and clicks Apply.
8. System downloads and installs the selected codec.
9. System informs the user when completed.

Other possible features:
- Display a list of audio/video types that are missing codecs.
- An auto-setup function, that grabs the recommended codec for all formats.

Audio and Video formats that should be supported:

Audio:
- MP3
- OGG
- AAC
- FLAC
- Real Audio

Video:
- MP4

[....]

Everyone by now has seen the world famous mockups of what Ubuntu apparently should look like. The problem is that what is shown in those mockups is not yet possible with the current way gnome works.

I worry with everyone clambering for this mythical theme and with time running out before 8.10 ships, what will end up happening is Ubuntu will ship with the same old problematic brown and orange theme that is so hated by a lot of people.

There is a solution though...

The Dust theme
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Intrepid/DustTheme

The Dust theme has gotten a lot of praises on Digg and is easily as sexy as anything I've personally seen for Linux (and I'm not usually a fan of dark themes), bust most promising of all... is actually possible with the current technology we have at our disposal.

It's time to be bold! Stop defaulting to the same brown and orange and make a big bold change. Embrace Dust.

Yes you will get a few idiots who will say it's too like Vista just because it's black, but ignore them people. The wider tech community will praise Ubuntu for finally ditching its dorky themes and becoming sophisticated and sexy. New users will be eager to try out this Ubuntu thing they have heard so much about.

turn on auto-hinting in fonts rendering. It really makes fonts AMAZINGLY good. You Will notice the change

copy and past the following in your '.font.conf' in home folder.






true




somehow this is not the same as doing subpixel rendering or LCD screens with "slight" anti-aliasing.

Ubuntu needs better artwork. Everybody know Fedora and Opensuse look better than ubuntu.
I'm not trying to say that the look is more important than the OS or the current theme is ugly but lets be honest the look is the first impression.

I appreciate the current efforts from ubuntu, but with this level of art I don't think "Ubuntu will surpass Apple in two years" as what Mark Shuttleworth said. I know there are a lot of buzz around deviantart this days, and I hope it makes some changes in intrepid, but with my full respect for the community contribution with the OS; ubuntu should have an artwork team which can be creative and handle this work correctly.

Ubuntu mouse scroll wheel speed is very low...
i think roughly on 3 lines... enable us to change it from a gui!

I love to use Google Earth. And I assume a lot of others too. It would be great to have this program automatically in Ubuntu without the need to install it after installing the OS like Open Office etc.

Ubuntu community repositories (Universe, Multiverse or Medibuntu) should be like Packman is for openSUSE. I'm dissapointed with quality of current repos full of old, obsolete packages. I wish we had one, high quality maintained repository with newest stuff and not only few backported packages sometimes, if any...

Currently would e.g. latest Gstreamer 0.10.7 multimedia plugins make me happy (changelog/improvements are huge), but they are not available for Ubuntu 7.10, but in Suse world you will get excellent services even for obsolete 2 years old version Suse 10.0 and you can search any packages you want and find them also for older Suse versions. Now that' what i call community repo...

If you now install 6 months old openSUSE 10.3 you will get premium support with newest, constantly updated/recompiled packages for lots of applications for quite some time. GetDeb is promissing project, but still far away from Packman - The real long term support :)

And not to mention Suse NVidia+ATI repo, Compiz repo, Banshee repo, Mozilla repo, Beagle repo, Wine and the list goes on... http://en.opensuse.org/Additional_YaST_Package_Repositories

I have a Logitech LX-710 keyboard with a bunch of extra function keys, most of which I cannot program. I had a different keyboard before this one and the same was true. I can program the audio keys (which work by default) and the calculator key, but most others do not work. It would be great if Linux would generate scan codes for those extra keys so I could assign commands to them. The same is true of special mouse buttons.

One program I tried works with non-USB keyboards but claimed that kernel support was required for USB keyboards. Strangely, Enlightment recognizes quite a few more of the extra keys than Gnome does.

I want regular updates of the lastest versions of the applications should be in the Ubuntu backports repositories.

I know is for the security of the system, but i want for example: new drivers updates, VLC, VirtualBox-OSE, rtorrent, alien, and others applications which long time ago are with last stables versions and in the repositories always are the old versions of them; besides some applications launch its latest version for bugfixing security vulnerabilities and giving more stability of the system

We are catching up on usability in the Linux community, but we still have not reached the level of polish of Windows or Mac. Fonts, Icons, Menus, Color Schemes, Themes, Buttons, Tabs etc. are not friendly. Apple publishes a "Human Interface Guidelines" that dictate how a user should interact with a computer. Why doesn't Ubuntu get in touch with some psychologists and designers and develop a common interface approach, one that is different from Gnome or KDE, but still based on them. It would be nice for Ubuntu to have an "exclusive" font, or an "exclusive" menu system.

Display the levels of ink left in the printer cartridges.

This way, the user can know which ink is getting low, when its getting low, and when and which to replace.

Some conceptual mockups;
* http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/8607/inkdq3.png
* http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/553/inkdiagramdk4.png
* http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/3990/inkcartridgenb8.png

When I run Totem and try to watch a movie, it can require few new codecs. When I select each of them, I need to agree that this is okay to install this proprietary codec. But what if the user just doesn't care? I think, In Russia no one cares, because software patents never worked here as I know. So it will be very useful, if you will put this button in that dialog and allow the user to never more say "next, next, next, finish" just to install a simple program. It's not Windows, after all. :)

Hi,

I think that there should be a SPAM program or a simple plugin to be included in Evolution and Thunderbird, which would include 2 buttons (besides the spamassassin or spampal methods): One button to add the e-mail addresses to the White list and another button to add the e-mail addresses to the Black list for SPAM.

So the email addresses included in the Whitelist won't go to the SPAM folder, and the other way around for the blacklisted email addresses.

In other words, thus the user rules over the automatic classification of emails made by the spamassasin or spampal methods.

This is very good way to quickly and securely moving the Junk mail to the right folder, while keeping the jam mail in the incoming mail.

Much like Spamfighter or Spamaware do.