Contributor M1r4g3

cdroms are slow, don't allow to modify their content easily, they are weak and not as easy to carry as USB keys.

It would be great to provide Ubuntu as a liveUSB just as Mandriva does. We should be able to carry our distribution on any computer, manage our preferred settings (do I want binary drivers enabled ? what is my preferred resolution ?), etc.

The thing is not to make something transportable, but really a nomad system that could be used just the best way as it could on any computer.

There is a wide community of online artists capable of creating brilliant, unique artwork.

heading: Get your artwork on 10 million desktops

Ubuntu, the world's most popular Linux distribution, needs a new theme. The winner will appear in the default desktop of Ubuntu 8.10.

We're looking for original wallpapers, that match Ubuntu's color palette. You entry should also include a suggested combination of application, icon, and window themes. These can be existing themes, or your own original works - you only need to submit a wallpaper to win.

Work must be CC licensed, and be openable in either Inkscape or Gimp (rest of criteria continues)

Submit your works to DeviantArt and include the words [Ubuntu810].


Good luck!

I'd like an easy way to set environment variables (both globally and for the current user only) and have them take effect without having to log out and back in.

Mac has a very useful feature I wish would be adopted into Windows and Linux: when you tell it to shut down and it asks the standard "Are you sure?" type message, Macs will shut down if it doesn't receive an answer within two minutes. I know to many people that hit shutdown but leave without confirming the command, so the system sits there sucking power waiting.

If the rating for an idea falls below -100, it should automatically be deleted, and its author informed.

A keyboard shortcut that kills a programm, that is currently in focus, or in fullscreen.
If it hangs and no gui way to kill it is possible (can't run system monitor, X stucks, alt+tab does not work), it is yet possible to switch to another console and type killall -KILL process, but first you need to find it's name, to enter it correctly...
So it would be nice to have a shortcut for all this, guided by focus/fullscreen

That i want to say is that ubuntu now is coping a lot of things from windows and mac and we need to keep our personality... we don't need visual control for things and newbies must lear for example a simple sudo apt-get install program... it's easy and the visual program is slow... always is slower that run a terminal command....

Look KDE... it's like windows vista! and ubuntu is getting a lot of thing from mac os x and kde too...


Please keep your personality, anb linux persnality... we need run command in terminal... que need get things from other operating system but don't get ugly and silly things... gnome was very fast at first and that is why i get it and not KDE...

Just think about it... why we use linux and choose linux? Why we use ubuntu?

make an ubuntu for elder people, super simple interface with big buttons, but not looking old, on the desktop soms buttons web 2.0 style with icons that are easy to recognise.

There are many old people in the world who are craving for a spyware and virus free OS, that is simple to setup and simple to use and is easy to maintain.

Give these people an os that is welcoming to them. I have installed manny computers for elder people mainly XP and OSX, but in xp after 2 or 3 months the computer works dead slow because the grandchildren where downloading all kinds of spyware and virusses.

There are two primary media players out there. The iPod and the Zune. The iPod works in Linux. The Zune does not. If the Zune software were able to run in Linux via WINE, then us thousands of Zune owners would be able to get rid of Windows for good.

My idea is a push for Zune software to run in WINE. (Like Google Picasa runs in WINE)

I know this is not directly Ubuntu related, but the Microsoft Zune is a major media player and this will keep Zune owners from moving over to Linux (Ubuntu) as we do not want to brick our $200+ piece of equipment because it's useless if we cannot add/remove media to/from it.

http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=5741

Add live webcam feeds as a desktop wallpaper option in System/Appearance.

The following code, added as a script to Startup Programs, does this (needs a /home/user/webcam directory and *tries* to update every 10 s.), changing the desktop to a window looking out on Loch Ness, Scotland.

But doing this via a nice GUI, choosing from a list of community-suggested alternatives, would be better.

#!/bin/sh
URL=http://www.lochness.co.uk/livecam/img/lochness.jpg
PREFIX=/home/user/webcam
OUTPUT=$URL##*/
gconftool-2 --type=string --set /desktop/gnome/background/picture_options zoom
cd /home/user/webcam
while true; do
wget $URL
gconftool-2 --type=string --set /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename $PREFIX$OUTPUT
#echo $PREFIX$OUTPUT
sleep 10s
rm $PREFIX$OUTPUT
done

A lot of times, when you want to change a format - odf to pdf, gif to jpg, ogg to mp3, doc to odf,.... - you must open a program, load the file and convert it to the desired format. It's such annnoying not to have a right-mouse click option in the nautilus to change directly a file through all the available formats.

I am fine with configuring emacs. But it can be a pain, especially when you have to find the good color scheme.

When I was using redhat, it came with a good set of preconfigured options. Maybe this is a debian/apt issue and emacs is not supposed to be configured. But I know there are many developers and general users where a nice built emacs system would save a lot of time.

Good emacs setup:
1. Setup gnuserve/gnuclient or emacserver to open files in the same emacs frame.
2. Good default color scheme or collection of color schemes.
3. Good default emacs options like good keyboard binds, no wraps, syntax highlighting enabled, etc.
4. optional: Emacs mode for popular languages like python, ruby, etc, xml.

I don't use VIM as much, but it seems that it isn't configure that well right off the bat as well. The default syntax highlighting modes are there, but doesn't come with a default .vimrc file.

GIMP can open lots of file formats.
But Eye of GNOME can open less, why?
This is dumb.

I propose some kind of framework or library in the system that applications can use to access file formats.

This would make all applications be able to support all file formats, and would make it easier to code application software, because it would require less time and code since the developer wouldn't have to use different libraries and write support for file formats manually himself.

All audio software can handle all audio file formats.
All graphics software can handle all graphics file formats.
All video software can handle all video file formats.

Then I can download an update for the system library which adds support for new file formats, and suddenly my old applications gained support for new file formats without I even have to update them.

The current situation has a restricted manager for some drivers (Ati, Nvidia, wireless) and an automatic codec installation system that works less than desirable.

Please integrate both into a "Restricted Manager", with tabs for drivers, audio/video codecs, software and everything that is "not free".

Also don't install ati,nvidia and wireless restricted drivers, firmware blob's and software by default. Ubuntu will then be a totally free Linux-distribution, and that makes Gobuntu unnecessary.

After installation when booting the system for the first time, Restricted Manager should launch and notify the user of all available restricted drivers, codecs and software. The user must be able to check all restricted stuff that he want's to use in one simple tool. Finally, the tool should call upon apt-get/synaptic to install AND configure the user's selection.

The drivers-tab should also make it possible to have different version's of a driver. For example, a stable and "recommended by ubuntu"-driver that will be the default, but also some newer and lesser-tested drivers for the early-adopters.

Pro's:
- All in one tool, not a tool for drivers, tools for codecs, etc...
- Very manageable, user can simply select all that he wants to use and use it
- No more need for another Ubuntu-derrivate (Gobuntu) that complicates things. Ubuntu will again have the imago of a completely free distro that can easily support non-free stuff, no more Ubuntu-bashing about difficult mp3/video/wireless installation

Con's:
- It might take a while to expand the restricted drivers manager to include tabs for codecs etc..
- The developpers may have to think about a way to manage more version's of a driver

By default, the command "rm" does not prompt any confirmation before definitely erasing a file. This could be avoided by activating the -i option by default (for instance, I always define " alias rm='rm -i' " in my .bashrc). Not using the -i option can be a problem, because:

* Windows users are used to the "Trashbin" thing, and may not really understand that removing a file actually deletes in definitely (different behavior when removing a file with the mouse and with a command line)
* On most Linux distributions I know, the "-i" option is activated by default, such as one might expect this as the default behavior, and might rely on it (I know, it's a bit stupid, but I've already done that)
* Even if advanced users can claim that they don't need the -i, actually, they do. Everyone does. In any case, it's possible to use " rm -f " in the cases where -i is really boring.

Make circular scrolling on touchpads a default option in Ubuntu.

Circular scrolling on touch pads compares favorably to mouse wheel scrolling.

Example: when scanning a large webpage for some piece of information, instead of a series of separate mouse wheel jerks to scroll across the page, a single, uninterrupted ("endless") movement can be used. Such circular finger movement can be from quite slow to very rapid, while changing up/down directions does not require you to lift your finger from the surface. This results in quicker visual searches with greater control.

Circular scrolling already works when using Synaptic touchpads with qsynaptics - but it would be great to have it supported for more touch pad models. By adding clever code, perhaps even those which do not support it natively?

Thanks for a great OS/distro.

Its very annoying to carry a whole pc to a place where you can have LAN, just to download ndiswrapper so you can go further trough wireless internet. If it would be added on cd/install, it would take alot of annoyance away.

On startup Ubuntu will sometimes say the disk "has been mounted x times without being checked, check forced". Then it will make me wait to use the computer. Why not do this at shutdown instead of startup? When the user starts up the computer, they're sending a message to Ubuntu saying "I want to use my computer now." Not later. When they shut down, they're telling Ubuntu "I don't want to use my computer now." Do it then.

ZFS Features

* Pooled Storage Model
* Always consistent on disk
* Protection from data corruption
* Live data scrubbing
* Instantaneous snapshots and clones
* Fast native backup and restore
* Highly scalable
* Built in compression
* Simplified administration model

Source code:
http://opensolaris.org/os/community/zfs/source

What Is ZFS?
http://opensolaris.org/os/community/zfs/whatis/

ZFS:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS


FreeBSD has ported ZFS:

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current/2006-August/065306.html
http://www.freebsd.org/releases/7.0R/announce.html

[....]

It would make ubuntu much less intimidating for windows server admins if there was a gui which allowed configuation of common network services such as:

web
ssh
mail
database
vpn
dhcp
ldap
dns

Some of these are easier than others but I have seen very little work on this front and I think it will help win over windows admins.