Contributor Madlax

One thing that I noticed when I tried Ubuntu for the first time, coming from Windows, is that you have less space on your screen because of some certain settings. For example, window buttons are very large, menus (file, edit, view, etc) in windows are also bigger, possibly because Ubuntu uses a bigger font... I notice this the most in Firefox, where the toolbars at the top of the window take up about 1.5 times more space than the equivalent in Windows.
I would really like the Ubuntu developers to work on making toolbars, etc. take up less space and thus allow more space for the real important parts of the window, which is the content, whether that is a website you are viewing, the "sheet of paper" in a word processor, or anything else.
The reason for the larger menus in Ubuntu may be because of accessibility needs, but for the ordinary, non-disabled user, it doesn't make sense to give them less working space on their desktop.

There are at least 13 unpatched security vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel.
Please fix these. Some of them are many years old...

* Linux Kernel CHRP Denial of Service Security Issue
* Linux Kernel Multiple Vulnerabilities
* Linux Kernel Various Vulnerabilities
* Linux Kernel SMP "/proc" Race Condition Denial of Service
* Linux Kernel perfmon Local Denial of Service Vulnerability
* Linux Kernel IP ID Value Increment Weakness
* Linux Kernel Socket Data Buffering Denial of Service
* Linux Kernel URB and IPv6 Flowlabel Handling Denial of Service
* Linux Kernel "syscall()" Argument Handling Denial of Service
* Linux Kernel "is_hugepage_only_range()" Denial of Service
* Linux Kernel Multiple Vulnerabilities
* Linux Kernel Page Fault Handler Privilege Escalation
* Linux Kernel Multiple Vulnerabilities
* Linux Kernel Binary Format Loaders Privilege Escalation
* Linux Kernel Multiple Vulnerabilities
* Linux Kernel IGMP and "__scm_send()" Vulnerabilities
* Linux Kernel Local DoS and Memory Content Disclosure Vulnerabilities
* Linux Kernel smb Filesystem Implementation Multiple Vulnerabilities
* Linux Kernel ELF Binary Loader Setuid File Handling Vulnerabilities
* Linux Kernel ide-cd SG_IO Functionality Permission Bypass Vulnerability
* Linux Kernel NFS and ptmx Denial of Service Vulnerabilities
* Linux Kernel File Offset Pointer Handling Memory Disclosure Vulnerability
* Linux Kernel Sbus PROM Driver Multiple Integer Overflow Vulnerabilities
* Linux Kernel IEEE 1394 Driver Integer Overflow Vulnerabilities
* Linux Kernel Framebuffer Driver Direct Userspace Access Vulnerability

See Secunia for more information:
* http://secunia.com/product/2719/?task=advisories

[....]

Gnome-panel drops behind other desktops in the look and feel of the panel.

There are loads of Ideas e.g. on gnome-look.org about improving the panel and especially the menu. It looks like a lot of people don't like the situation right now.

It would be nice to have some discussion, how gnome-panel could be improved.

Please notice, this is not about changing the panel into a dock, but about extending its funktionallity and look and feel while keeping what we already have, and works well.

Please, refresh the pages about Ubuntu:

http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu/
http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu/desktopedition
http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu/serveredition

-they're old and showing capabilities and screenshots of Ubuntu 6.06

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

[....]

People around the globe that are using/concidering using Ubuntu are afraid that some of their hardware won't work for them. And some are frustrated to buy additional add-on cards to work around unsupportad onboard chips. All this could be avoided with a lookup in an ubuntu Hardware Database Website.

Some problematic hardware can be used with more or less work if helping information is available together with the hardware compatabillity data.

The hardware database can be found at http://hwdb.ubuntu.com/

From idea #47: The data should then be available in a format that is simple for users to browse on-line when considering new hardware.

When i change some hardware pieces i need to configure them manually, ubuntu should recognize there has been a hardware change and configure it.

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!

Installing a software by double clicking on a .deb is now really simple thanks to gdebi. But a a software installed by this method will not be able to auto update. So I propose that a .deb will be able to propose to the user to add a repository in order to stay up to date.

Since Ubuntu is now using PulseAudio, which gives volume control on an application by application basis, there is no need for multimedia programs to use their own volume control.

For instance, if I change the volume slider in Totem this shouldn't change an internal Totem volume, it should change the PulseAudio volume for Totem. The same with Rhythmbox, Amarok, etc.

Having multiple volume controls for the same thing can be really annoying, for example wanting to unmute some music and having to check the Rhythmbox volume, PulseAudio's volume for Rhythmbox, the master volume and physical speaker volume. To me the speaker and master volumes have an obvious reason to exist, but there seems to be no difference between the internal and PulseAudio volume control for Rhythmbox, hence they should be merged.

BTW I proposed this to a PulseAudio developer who said that this is one of the main reasons for having PulseAudio.

In Hardy is in default installation integrated PulseAudio server. Most of applications are using PulseAudio. It will be very usable if will be created PulseAudio Volume Control applet similar to Volume Control applet. After left click on this applet user can see all audio streams named by applications (volume control for stream and icon for quick mute). Same applet is in Vista and for me it is the best Vista feature. Most of audio programs by muting stream from their gui completely mute alsa. This is not good, because i am watching tv in small window and if i want to watch video on web mus i completely close tv application. With this applet i click on it and temporaly mute tv application. Here is a picture of vista volume control http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/images/voume_mixer.jpg. I think better will be if audio streams and their control are oriented horizontally.

Edit: here are mockups:
http://picasaweb.google.com/milan.krivda/GnomeMockups/photo#5192542737460341154

http://picasaweb.google.com/milan.krivda/GnomeMockups/photo#5192698657658087858

http://picasaweb.google.com/milan.krivda/GnomeMockups/photo#5193085617031588306

Promote cross-platform technologies (that we use) to third-party Windows software developers and ISVs.

Promote technologies such as GTK+, Qt, wxWidgets, OpenGL, OpenAL, GLUT, SDL, etc.

This will make it easier for developers to port their software to Linux. This will increase interoperability, and will make our software ecosphere grow, and it will make it easier for Windows developers and users to migrate over to Linux.

Microsoft likes to push proprietary Windows-only APIs and libraries such as Win32, MFC and DirectX to developers in order to lock them into the Windows platform, and avoid interoperability by making it difficult for developers to port software to Linux. This in turns makes it difficult for users who rely on those software to migrate over to Linux.

I don't know how doable this is but it would be useful if we could make Nvidia (and ATI) to release their drivers in .deb prepared especially for Ubuntu. This would easy the installation a whole lot for many poeple as they could get the latest drivers straight from the Nvidia download page. One of the reasons for why I have ended up with windows again is problems with nvidia drivers installation.

I think Canonical should have to support and improve 3D projects, in order to jeopardy the Micro$oft DirectX' API.

It's interesting for all 3D games, or other apps.

I hope 3D developpers will be interested, and will migrate to GNU/Linux.

If they also have some ubuntu branding these are really nice gifts and give aways. Just sell a 2GB or 4GB memory stick for a competitive price. Also might be nice to sell these at exhibitions

I just found some very very useful plugins for gimp at http://registry.gimp.org
It would be nice to have an entry in synaptic to install extra plugins for GIMP from there and not only!
This way we could benefit from all new features being developed by the community.

All the packages in the software repository should include a URL hyperlink to the official website of the software.

So when you read about the software, you can click on the link to get to the official homepage, for more information.

I think it is very confusing that during installation, the screen suddenly becomes black. It would be much better if there would be at least a simple image, so that the screen does not look like the computer just crashed.

There should be a caps-lock warning everywhere, where any manual typing of passwords is required. This way you wont mistype it accidentally leaving the caps-lock on.

In the menu, "Transmission" should be "Transmission BitTorrent client". Just like "Firefox web browser". Newbies to Linux don't know what Transmission is.

idea from:
http://contentconsumer.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/is-ubuntu-useable-enough-for-my -girlfriend/