Contributor Adila01

Many users HAVE to use Windows-software (sadly).

I found that they just don't know about the existence of wine. I speak of users who even don't know that it is not possible to install Windows software directly in Ubuntu (without wine).

It would be helpful and easy for those users if they would see a message dialog, when they double-click an exe-file. This dialog could explain that they want to open a Windows program and that they could try this by using wine.

Then they should have the possibility to cancel or to install wine. After the installation the exe-file should be started with wine automatically.

UPDATE: In the dialog there should be a brief explanation that not all Windows-software will work in wine and that there might be a better linux alternative. Maybe also a link to the wine website.

In Nautilus, when browsing in Icon View, it is currently impossible to distinguish between document types that provide previews without looking at their file extensions.

For example, if I have 2 similar documents side by side, one is a PDF, the other is an OpenOffice Writer document, they both look identical and I cannot tell which is the PDF without looking at the file extension.

See here for an example in Ubuntu 8.10:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/33359003@N00/3143087405/

Solution: Add a visual cue to the preview icon (either a mini file-type icon (like Windows), or simply a watermark with the file extension (like Mac OS X).

Windows and Mac examples:
http://www.jtbworld.com/images/PDFPreviewHandleralsowithAdobeReader8.1_16FD/ima ge.png
http://images.appleinsider.com/leopard-finder-071008-8.jpg

Kernel 2.6.28 is out! One of the features is stable ext4 filesystem.

We should use it by default in Ubuntu 9.04. Why? Faster fsck is a good reason. 2 to 20 times faster filecheck due to a new feature that doesn't check unused inodes.

See http://kernelnewbies.org/Ext4 for all features.

From Kernelnewbies:

"Fsck is a very slow operation, specially the first step: checking all the inodes in the filesystem. In Ext4, at the end of each group's inode table it will be stored a list of unused inodes (with a checksum, for safety), so fsck will not check those inodes. The result is that total fsck time improves from 2 to 20 times, depending on the number of used inodes (http://kerneltrap.org/Linux/Improving_fsck_Speeds_in_Ext4). It must be noticed that it's fsck, and not Ext4, who will build the list of unused inodes. This means that you must run fsck to get the list of unused inodes built, and only the next fsck run will be faster (you need to pass a fsck in order to convert a Ext3 filesystem to Ext4 anyway). There's also a feature that takes part on this fsck speed up - "flexible block groups" - that also speeds up filesystem operations."

In order to rename (relabel) a USB drive in Ubuntu, one must revert to the command line. Most other graphical Operating Systems allow the user to rename USB drives from the GUI. This support should be added to Gnome.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RenameUSBDrive

Thanks!
--
Kristian Erik Hermansen

My first proposal over here.

I am actively involved in the Linux/Ubuntu audio arena.

After years of being annoyed by the poor Linux sound support, I've written an upgrade script for a manual upgrading ALSA.
Focus is put - first of all - on the drivers of course, to get situation slightly improved. ( http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=962695 )

I regard ALSA to be Up2Date a critical successfactor for Ubuntu/Linux.

Nobody will use Linux if the soundcard doesn't work or just a limited number of features are supported.
Try to google "My headphone jack is not working" "No sound on my PC speakers" "My digital-out is not working". " I got scratchy sound" "I got heavy noise on the speakers" asf, asf. I am not the only one being trapped by ALSA, thus being forced to run a dual boot machine.

In case cards are supported at all, quite often normal users have to play with different codecs, model-ids to be introduced to the module options (docs to be found in ALSA sources tree), complex .asoundrc setups, asf.

There are 100s of threads just in the Ubuntu forums about
trouble with ALSA and workarounds to get them solved.

This is IMO unacceptable. (In case somebody really wants to make Linux/Ubuntu available to a wider community)

Things to be done:

1. Discuss, support or force Alsa to improve its quality related to

[....]

I really like to see an option in calculator to switch to tape mode, like in this picture made with gimp:

http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/8210/calcnewnn6.png

Fedora is currently working on improving the startup experience by implementing Plymouth:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/FeatureBetterStartup

By doing this, transition from Grub to GDM (or KDM or whatever) would be done almost instantly. Plymouth will use a graphical boot mode with a fallback method to text for those computers that don't have hardware support.

gnome-system-monitor provides a cleaner interface than Windows "Task Manager", and provides many useful features including list of processes running, memory and network usage, etc.

This functionality should be more accessible by key binding it by default to CTRL-ALT-DELETE as Windows does--as this is more familiar to users coming from Windows. The current key binding for CTRL-ALT-DELETE brings up the shutdown/logout options, which is already accessible as a desktop button, which is redundant for a relatively less used function.

gnome-system-monitor is an idle interface for monitoring the system and killing processes without using the terminal and provides an interface for doing this that most are already familiar with. Changing it's key binding would make it's functionality much more accessible.

View the idea:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3099/2631616390_a1c79cb507_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3102/2630811421_1ccd353665_o.jpg

The Ubutnu is a popular distribution, and the choice of their standard theme should be made by all by voting. And not by a small group. The community can elect the theme through the Ubuntu Brainstorm.


For the choice of a new theme that is the satisfaction of the majority that idea is essential.

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Edited:
Initially thank you all. This idea may help it to developers in the choice, and can have an extra theme.

Can serve as a basis for changes in the theme chosen by the team of Ubuntu, even if the popular themes are not adopted.

This idea will help.

Summary:
Ability to download only changed bits of files and use much less bandwidth.
Scope and Use Cases:
Ann has slow internet connection. She sees that there are 150MB of updates and decides not to update at all leaving her with vulnerable and buggy system.
Implementation Plan:
Adopt it from Debian?

Previously discussed here, but still not implemented: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=409916

We need to change the default screensaver. The problem with the current screensaver is that the first time you meet it is when the screen suddenly turns black during the installation. That is very confusing for most users, as the first thought always is that the installation has crashed.

I suggest a screensaver that helps brand Ubuntu, like for example the "Floating Ubuntu" screensaver. It could also be a textbased screensaver that could run on older machines witch doesn't support 3D.

One of the things included in Hardy was ufw (Uncomplicated firewall wall), but everything has to be done via CLI. There is a very nice GUI frontend being developed for it and it would be nice if it is bundled as a default package.

Links to the project:
https://launchpad.net/gui-ufw
http://gufw.tuxfamily.org/index.html

It has become obvious that Grub2 needs some extra programming help, as Grub-legacy will no longer be adding new features and the end of Grub2 is nowhere in sight. Canonical should allocate 1 or 2 programmers for a few months to help complete grub2 quickly, so that X86 support might be complete in time for Interpid Ipex.

One could argue that the boot loader is the most important part of the operating system, because if it doesn't work properly (which it hasn't been for some of us), it can prevent every OS from working on the computer. We should treat it with respect, and help them. Despite grubs importance, programmers generally enjoy working on more exciting projects like Gnome or KDE, which is one reason why development is slow.

Grub2 fixes a lot of previous brainstorm ideas including many booting issues (like mine), so completion would close a lot of bugs, whilst also making Ubuntu more user friendly because Grub2 deals with booting issues better.

Voting for this ensures that Canonical allocates some developers to the Grub2 project, which would be a big win for both Ubuntu and linux in general!

Planned Features for Grub 2
* Rescue mode saves unbootable cases. Stage 1.5 was eliminated.
* Dynamic loading of modules in order to extend itself at the run time rather than at the build time.
* Graphical interface.
* Fix design mistakes in GRUB Legacy, which could not be solved for backward-compatibility, such as the way of numbering partitions.
* Scripting support, such as conditionals, loops, variables and functions.
* Cross-platform installation which allows for installing GRUB from a different architecture.
* Internationalization. This includes support for non-ASCII character code, message catalogs like gettext, fonts, graphics console, and so on.
* Portability for various architectures.
* Modular, hierarchical, object-oriented framework for file systems, files, devices, drives, terminals, commands, partition tables and OS loaders.

[....]

My Idea is about improving the help support and take advantage of our huge community.

Ubuntu Help Center

I think that Ubuntu Help center could be a combination of ubuntu forums site, ubuntu brainstorm, launchpad and canonical support.

Here's an example:

Bob has some trouble with the system then he goes to Ubuntu Help Center, he's browsing the Help Index but still he doesn't find any solution. So he goes to ''Don't Find what you need? Go to Online Help'' Then instead of opening the web browser the application shows the following option:

- Go to Canonical Commercial Support
-This goes to Canonical web page.

- Ask the Community!
-If clicked, Help center offers:

-Search in Ubuntu forums for similar issues.( with a text field of course) He types his problem then some Ubuntu forums Posts are shown.

-Post your Problem ( Then he makes a post and a few days later a pop-up on the task bar says ''The user 'x' has answered your post! Click here to see his/her answer!'')
- Report A Bug:
-Shows a text Field that allows him to describe the problem and the information is sent to launchpad.

- You think something is missing? Help us to get better and post your Idea on Ubuntu Brainstorm!


[....]

This is just one of those little things that would be useful.

Canonical should hire at least one full-time upstream developer for X.org and GNOME.

X Server 1.4.1 was delayed by 212 days. X is used by pretty much every distribution, and not only Linux also other operating systems, so it is a very important package. We need the bugs fixed, such as EDID. We need new features such as input hotness, XKB 2, Xi 2 and MPX, etc.

Zenwalk Linux have a Xorg developer, we should have at least one too.

GNOME is also one of the most important packages in Ubuntu, and we should have a developer for it too, so we can make Ubuntu more powerful, functional and friendly.

Currently in recovery menu we have
resume
root
xfix
dpkg

It would be useful to have an entry fsck (or Check disks)
to check filesystems or to plan a check on next startup if the user think there is a problem that a check disk could solve.
This is easier to select partition with arrows and press enter than to type fdisk -l and fsck -* /dev/sd* or so in root mode for the average user.

People who use wubi install to try the system would benefit from a tool that would make it easy to migrate the install to a native (partition) install.

I think that gnome needs more eye-candy and awn and screenlets universal-applets should be integrated into Gnome.

This would bring more eye-candy and functionality to gnome.

what I propose is not to install it by default, it's to really integrate this applications into gnome the awn as another type of gnome panel and universal applets as the plasmoids in KDE. And I don't mean just put them there, there should be some modifications so everything would fit better.

When a user upgrade himself to a brand-new system, mean computer, he'll probably almost lose all of his personal-settings in his old computer. It'd be great to have a 'wizard' to 'transfer' all the files and settings from the old pc to a new one (through a cable, maybe).