Contributor BobPendleton

Ubuntu means something like "being human together". So, why does Ubuntu put the wishes of the software ahead of the wishes of a human?

When a human being pushes the button on a CD/DVD drive the drive should immediately eject. The only time it should not eject is when it is being written to and then a message should pop up telling the human what is going on and as soon as the current write operations is completed the drive should eject.

If files on the drive are open by an application then the application should get an EOF error on the next read or write and be expected to take appropriate action.

It is never acceptable for a computer to refuse the direct command from a human.

Many of the problems mentioned in other postings on this site can not be fixed by Ubuntu/Linux/Canonical. They are completely under the control of 3rd parties.

To get support from 3rd parties you have to provide the kind of data they need to determine how much they are losing by not supporting Ubuntu.

I suggest publishing data on how many computers are doing regular software updates. That number is a good lower bound on the number of Ubuntu users in the world. Break the data out by country if possible.

Publish data on how many copies of the ISOs are downloaded. That number is a good mid line estimate of the number of Ubuntu users.

Create an opt in system to report and collect hardware configurations and report the aggregate data. That gives companies information about the value of the market.

Post the information in tables (and provide the ability to down load it in a format compatible with spread sheets). Post the information in graphs plotted against time to show trends. (Providing least squares based linear and exponential trends lines would be a good idea too.)

Add in a voluntary (and therefore self selected and not statistically valid) survey to show what games/apps Ubuntu users would be willing to buy if they were available. And, let the users submit the names of the applications.

Ok, so that is a whole bunch of ideas. The main idea is to provide the kind of hard data that business need to make business decisions.

I know this is hard for a mostly volunteer effort to do, but seriously, Ubuntu needs a permanent human factors team. The team needs to be backed up by a small group of programmers who can create mockups used in testing. The group needs to include members from many cultures so that they can account for and accommodate cultural differences.

First, the team needs to do HF testing on standard use cases for the existing Ubuntu system. Then they need to use those results to mock up improved interfaces and test those.

The results should be posted on the net so that they can feed back into the groups developing the upstream apps and interfaces.

This task may not be doable by Ubuntu alone, but it still needs to be done. It is also a politically loaded task so the people running the group need the maximum in tack and diplomacy.