Contributor Ferk

It's kinda annoying in nautilus (or any other file open/save dialog) in the List view to try to find something between that alternating background... not to mention when you have a dark theme and it alternates between BLACK AND WHITE ... ugh.

It's also harder on the eyes for some people. I find it distracting and hardly useful...

The user should be able to choose that color, or at least the tone/transparency! so the user can choose if it's subtle or stronger, or to disable it completely

Having installed a darker theme, i find the fact that OpenOffice themes the work area irritating, i want to have my entry/selection boxes themed darker, it complements the theme, but the area where one works with the layout of a document should not be affected.

Heres a screenshot:
http://img398.imageshack.us/img398/9832/screenshotar5.png

The whole idea of modern word processing, ever since xerox (1981?) invented it is that the document is meant to look the same on the screen as it will be when it is printed, letting the theme effect the document breaks the concept.

This also effects print preview, one needs to export the document as PDF to see what it will look like printed.
GIMP and Inkscape are not effected. nor any other app where i might not want this happening, only oo.

If someone is using a dark theme with Ubuntu, he will probably see all the input boxes and buttons filled with dark colours. This should be fixed, not everybody uses the default light theme.

An OS, no matter how technologically or ideologically advanced it is, should also be visually appealing.
And Ubuntu, being one of the most beatiful (I mean the default appearance here) distribution of Linux still can't compete with Vista (not to mention Mac OS X).
Here I imly the following:
-icons. All the icons should be converted into vector graphics, so that they were scalable (so that they could look the same everywhere).
-fonts. Even Liberation fonts look better than default GNOME's dejavu, but still they leave much to be desired.
-screensaver. Currently, it's just a black screen. Enough said, I guess. Ubuntu should offer aset of nice screensavers, basic, or OpenGL-driven.
-applets. GNOME applets should grow in numbers and functionality. At least I would suggest a wrapper that could display a Web widget as an applet, so that user could simply paste BB-codes from YouTube, Jaiku, Vimeo or else and see it on his desktop.
-3D effects. There shouldn't be a vast number of them, but all of them should be quality-driven. Just look how bad is Compiz rendering as you make anything that drives windows borders into curves - they are edgy and twisted.
-wallpapers. I know, Deviantart contest is on, but here is also another point: Ubuntu should provide numerous wallpapers out-of-box, and all of them should suit the default colour scheme. The same stays for login screen.
-themes. Ubuntu should provide themes that change the appearance more globally. Not only GNOME's appearance, but all the apps, bootloader, login screen, screensaver.
-customization. Changing Ubuntu's appearance isn't really easy these days, since you can't tune up all the aspects in one place. I mean, you can change the theme, but you should work really hard to make your style as sole as the defaut one - Qt, GTK and other (wxWindows, etc) applications share different configs. Just try to switch to a darker theme and you'll learn how many elements would require tuning. Ubuntu can offer great means of customization, but that doesn' mean that an average user is able to make a cool-looking style.
-bootloader. That was already mentioned, but still. Ubuntu should show text mode at all. Currently, it can occasionally fall back to console for a while, which is discomforting.
-hibernation/suspend screen. The same.

[....]

Early, when first computers arrive, it be equipped with monochrome text display, green or gray symbols on black background. The big advantages is it was eye-friendly (because no extra light energy put to the eye) and no matter of refresh rate (again saving your eyes).
Nowadays, when GUI is most-displayed environment, at Microsoft's hand (or no?) the white background brings to standard de-facto. The reason was "the documents in MSWord looks same as on paper, WYSIWYG or so). But no one worry about people's eyes.
Super-bright displays also burn out our eyes.
The solution is turn back to black background, and using white only when preview docs before printing.
Many years I try to set this color sheme on both Windows and then Ubuntu. But always were elements which out-of-control of colors, when programmers use 'black' color instead of 'current scheme symbol's color.
Another example out-of-control items is baloon tooltips in Ubuntu, address & search lines in Firefox, and many more.
A great advantage is 'invert' function of Compiz. It fixes all! But photos looks terrible...
I suggest that developers of Ubuntu must include at least one TESTED dark scheme in distro.
Thanks a lot!

(I added) Important note: 'dark' theme is not gray, but almost black. Absolutely need that *every* letter of text must be more bright than it's background. Including input boxes on web pages, balloon messages, comments displayed when mouse stay on picture.

Originally, i was really against the idea of a dark theme, and maybe i'd still prefer it if Ubuntu would lighten up a little. I understand the organic theme completely, but please...this is an operating system. Anyways, all the dark themes i had seen really turned me off and even the best ones seemed to be loved by some and hated by others. If we're going to have a dark theme, lets have one that we can all agree on. When i saw the Intrepid alpha screenshot, like many others, i gagged a little.

How people interact with their computer is really essential to their satisfaction. This is why aside from features, the software's stability (minimizing annoying bugs), speed (clean code and making everything as efficient and responsive as possible), and interface (look and feel) are the three most important things that should be our focus and be kept at a high priority.
We should really work to increase usability: http://mpt.net.nz/archive/2008/08/01/free-software-usability

I have looked through all the artwork submissions for Intrepid, and of all of them, this is the one dark theme that i would actually like to use: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Intrepid/Wall-light

I first saw it on this Digg submission: http://digg.com/linux_unix/Intrepid_Ibex_Mockup_Designs

Of course, i'm sure everyone will have input to make it even better. This isn't a final design, but vote for the concept so far!

P.S. Please Digg :) Thanks http://digg.com/linux_unix/Vote_for_a_beautiful_usable_Ubuntu

In many cases, I can't configure my webcam or I have problems with the microphone. Now I can use my webcam but only with V4L2 and only 3 programas detect my webcam. It's a good idea can use my webcam in all programs as camorama.

Although not officially a standard, it has been common practice by most distributions that the /bin/sh link points to /bin/bash.

Ubuntu broke this common practice and links /bin/sh to dash.

This breaks A LOT of 3rd party apps, and causes A LOT of unneccessary trouble and support incidents.

If Ubuntu wants to promote dash, it should change all shell scripts to include a dash shebang. But it should NOT mess with the default /bin/sh link.

DON'T say "it's the script writer's fault when he uses /bin/sh and requires bash". We all know that. Nevertheless, a serious distro should not mess around with things that have become common practice even if wrongly so.

The end result of the current situation is that many things mysteriously work "everywhere but on Ubuntu".

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dash/+bug/61463
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dash/+bug/71887
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dash/+bug/141481

Examples of bugs caused by this:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dash/+bug/92189

[....]

Ubuntu currently doesn't upgrade the kernel, it just keeps adding newer and newer kernels to the system.

Currently, the list of kernels installed on a Ubuntu system grows over time. This takes up additional disk space and adds clutter to the boot loader.

Ideally, older kernels should be removed automatically.

Maybe leave current and current-1, but not _all_ of them...

...and other WM behaviour must be improved:

Some fullscreen apps grab most of keyboard shortcuts under their control. Especially 3D games, Sauerbraten for example. So it is impossible to use Alt+Tab with them.
It is also not good if app uses alt+tab in own purposes, but WM overrides it. Or there is high probability of accidental key press.
There should be some way to minimize such apps. Override control over alt+tab, or/and make another shortcut, that would be accessible from anywhere.

There are also situations when popups brake normal work of fullscreen app. Especially when using compiz.

So summing all:
- WM must have *switchable* ability to override alt+tab so it will work everywhere.
- it must have *customizable* alternative hotkeys that would work like alt+tab everywhere.
- it must have ability to turn off/on (and may be override too) other desktop hotkeys in fullscreen (may be customized for different hotkeys)
- it must not interfere in work of fullscreen app if user does not want it. When in fullscreen, new windows must be created minimized, and notify bubbles must be just drawn over fullscreen. No forced minimization because of popups!
- minimization, or popups must not break the app.
- if fullscreen app's resolution is similar or greater than desktop's, it must be minimized when pressing alt+tab (or custom replacement). If resolution is smaller, it *can* be shown in own window (switchable).
- it must have ability to lock/unlock mouse focus when in some windowed app that needs to grab mouse. Do it by some hotkey, like ctrl+F10 in Dosbox. (this addition based on idea #4642)

Many games feature the ability to play with other people. However, the first thing the game will check for is to see if it is currently up to date. When Ubuntu enters version freeze, the games fall out of date, and it can be harder to play them online without finding a 3rd party update or compiling it yourself (Freeciv, Scorched3D, and Battle for Wesnoth to name a few). This also creates issues when different distributions freeze at different times, so it can be hard to play with other Linux users.

Ubuntu should provide a repository for up to date games for games that will always need the latest version to play online.

I would like a version of Ubuntu which have a few software(just essential : Gnome (or another wm), Linux kernel, drivers,... software which are difficult to install and to configure) and what a developer (or a IT student) uses : vim, emacs, gcc, g++, library, etc.

I think it would be very useful to use keyword matching to display a handful of links to similar/related ideas when you are looking at an idea. This would allow easier browsing of ideas which are likely to be of interest to you, and make it easier to spot duplicate ideas and report them.

All it would take would be a small addition to the currently underused left-hand pane of this website.

top is old and well.... old

When you plug in something like a USB dongle, it should be mounted synchronously (-o sync) instead of in buffered mode.

For me, this is far preferable to the minute performance gain gotten by mounting the device in buffered mode. You're very unlikely to be using such devices for anything except data storage/retreival, in which case mounting synchronously is a major benefit. Expecting new users (or those used to Windows XP's behaviour) to know you have to right-click, 'unmount', before removing the drive is not a good idea, as well as just being unnecessary if the device is mounted synchronously. It's also irritating for people like me who know you need to do it, but either occasionally forget or don't want to bother.

Mount the thing synchronously by default. This is what Windows XP does, and it allows you to just remove the drive after any file transfers have finished. Yes, problems will occur if you remove it durung a file transfer, but that's gonna happen in ANY mount mode. It's far more obvious to the user that this will cause a problem than removal of the drive before unmounting. Also stop displaying that 'unsafe device removal' message for devices mounted synchronously.

User directories on ubuntu are easily a mess at the moment. They need more standardisation and more sense to remain clean. If you go to terminal/bash you may discover that your directory looks something like:


/home/auzy/Documents
/home/auzy/.Azureus (Hidden)
/home/auzy/.gnome2 (Hidden)
/home/auzy/Desktop
/home/auzy/.bashrc2 (Hidden)
/home/auzy/readme.rtf
/home/auzy/.Trash (Hidden)
/home/auzy/iffy.rtf
/home/auzy/delete me.rtf
/home/auzy/argggggg.c
/home/auzy/fgdhgfdhd.txt
/home/auzy/Music
/home/auzy/.ooffice (Hidden)
/home/auzy/friendsassignment.c
/home/auzy/friendsassignmentCopy.c
etc.


While you may note that anything with . is hidden normally, what if someone wants to delete the settings for a program? They need to manually unhide it, and sort through the dozens of directories in the home directory to find it. The problems with this is that:

a) Its messy, and certainly not a clean solution
b) Users cannot easily access their settings.
c) Everyones home directory is normally trashed with hundreds of other files, making it difficult to navigate.

[....]

Expansion of Add Remove Programs - show user-provided descriptions, feature lists, screenshots, comments, ratings, integration with launchpad. Initial page should be top-rated apps, or newest apps. Managed by a webapp?

Or... leave it as it is, but create a website displaying all the great software available for ubuntu including all the features mentioned above with apturl links to install.

From #4613 (merged):

It should be indicated how much I'll have to download to install something.

We have download limits here and well... quite often I exceed them. It would be useful to indicate how big the download is going to be.

A long time ago, the Ubuntu Calendar package featured beautiful monthly updated artwork. This was one of the most discussed features at that time. Please revive this package and give us new high quality wallpapers every month!

I think this is a very useful usability improvement. When I highlight a particular field and start typing in it, I don't want the mouse cursor blocking my view. It would be really nifty if the cursor just became invisible for the period of time that the keyboard is being used.

speaking out of experience here :

Ubuntu checks file integrity of FAT32 Partitions on USB disks.

When it detects the file system is corrupt, it makes the disk READ ONLY.

No user notification is sent. The FAT32 partition just goes from read-write to read-only. This is basically a good thing.


But, it would be nice if Ubuntu would display a warning in the GUI when it detects the error and changes disk RW permissions.