Contributor RyanPrior

Every day (literally) hundreds of translation suggestions and/or modifications are generated in Rosetta. Due to some current limitations in Rosetta, it is fairly hard for translation teams members to keep up with the flood of information or even know about contributions awaiting for review/approval. My intent is to describe a mechanism by which translation teams can better administrate the contributions sent by Rosetta users, provide useful feedback and take a first step toward a better relationship with upstream projects.

This is probably not super-critical in this day and age of monolithically-sized hard-drives on the cheap, but it does pertain to smaller units such as the EeePC, and perhaps older machines.

Synaptic and Apt-Get have a great feature whereby the tool estimates the download size and expected drive usage upon installation, however it doesn't compare that value against the actual free drive space on the system. It is perfectly possible to attempt to download 100MB worth of updates that will consume 200MB of disk space after installation (total 300MB) when you only have 50MB of actual disk space free.

A simple query of the drive and a message dialog advising that the downloads and/or installation cannot be completed due to lack of space would save many a new user from tearing their hair out when Apt-Get kicks up a stink about being unable to perform any other task (such as removing apps to make space) because it has an unfinished installation that needs to be sorted out first.

Apparently, because firefox is trademarked, we cannot remove customisations added by Mozilla (such as the default ebay search engine link, which is only there because they pay mozilla, but only promotes ebay's rubbishy Paypal, and demotes competition).

By changing its name, we can get around that (similar to iceweasal and Debian).

It will still be exactly the same firefox, only difference is the name, and flexibility in what code we can change in it.

Unfortunately there are many people who get scammed into paying for DRM-crippled media which is heavily restricted.
I have heard about people who got scammed and wasted lots of money, then reformatted their computer and none of the media they had payed for would play, and others who were unable transfer the media to their portable media players, or use the media in their car stereo.

Therefor I recommend to warn users about the dangers of DRM.

I have made a a couple of conceptual mockups. The basic idea is to make the user aware that the media he have is DRM-crippled, and to inform him about the DRM and how it restricts him.

This is just a conceptual mockup. It could be better and more informative. Perhaps less intrusive.
* Browsing files with Nautilus (notice the icon/emblem)
* Checking file properties in Nautilus
* Warning in Rhythmbox (if playback failed)
* File properties in Rhythmbox
* Icon in Totem (non-obtrusive)
* Warning in Totem (if playback failed)
* Error in VLC (if playback failed)

Ubuntu could offer a website/mechanism for people to request updated or new versions of software to be added to repositories (such as Universe if FOSS, Multiverse if Free Software, etc).

Brainstorm is cluttered, or soon will be, with these types of requests. Although they are useful, they do not fit the purpose of Brainstorm 100%. (in my opinion)

This website could also allow people to cast votes on requests and add comments etc.

If this idea is adopted:
Besides popularity, Ubuntu could prescribe certain standards of quality and testing to strengthen the chances of a particular piece software being added to a repository.

There could even be some form of quality repository ladder structure that developers could try and move their particular applications up. The community could then (more easily) be able to see what projects are struggling when it comes to "quality" and maybe provide assistance (in the form development, docs or testing).

Often you play a game and need temporarily swotch to another task. There should be a shortcut to minimize a fullscreen application to free the desktop.

I don't understand why we need to choose the key (or password) type of our wifi network.

I always try all the possibilities (hexa, ascii, 64, 128bit...) and cross my fingers for it to work.

The best thing to make working my wifi network is still the command line and iwconfig or edit manually /etc/network/interfaces. With these solutions, I never have to specify which type of key i'm using, and it always works.

Can ubuntu simply detect automatically which type of key we have to use ? Or if it is not possible, it could try each type one per one, if one doesn't work, try the next, ... until we have the connection working.

I get tired when trying to change font to another...

I don't need all these arabian, chinese fonts... and fonts that didn't change font look.
Too much fonts that I will never use in the fonts list.

I want it like in windows - just a few!!! (10,15) unicode fonts for everybody with full support of national characters.

The installer already asks if you would like to import data from a Windows installation, it would be nice to add email to this list. This would greatly improve the ease of migration from windows.

Hello!
When you use Ubuntu in any other language than English, when an error message is shown, of course, it's shown in your own language.
...But, as the best way to solve the problem, is googling it, and as most of the documentation there is in english, it would be a good thing to have a button (or a right-click entry) on that kind of message to print (or copy to the clipboard) the exact syntax of the original message. When we try to translate it ourselves, we can't really now how it was written in the original message thought there are different translations for a single message that could be used.
This would also be great to help us submit bugs.

[EDIT] : As some of you said, showing standard error numbers would help us finding response, and wouldn't force the users to install English languages packs)
[/EDIT]


Thanks

Brice

Add 64-bit support to Wine.

Wine currently only supports 32-bit applications.

Right now, Wubi allows Windows users to install Ubuntu and, if they no longer need it, uninstall it. However, there is no way to easily uninstall Windows if it is no longer needed any more.

I propose that an item be created in Add/Remove that allows all Windows components to be removed, including having the Windows boot loader replaced entirely by GRUB, leaving the fully functioning Ubuntu installed on an NTFS partition.

Remove Mono and dependent applications from default Ubuntu Desktop CD. Mono occupies a significant amount of the valuable space on the live cd that could be used for translations and other things. Applications using mono use much more memory than their non-mono counterparts. Functionality can be provided by other applications that are just as good.

This will NOT remove Mono or any of the applications from the Ubuntu repositories, just the default Desktop CD. (Although removing them from the CD may mean they don't need to be in Main anymore)

This affects two applications included by default: tomboy and f-spot. Tomboy can be replaced by either sticky notes or zim and f-spot by gthumb.

Make it possible to share files with FTP instead of NFS or SMB. So user of any operating system (Linux, MacOS, Windows) can use this files.

Currently, Compiz works well with the workspace switcher and so forth. However, there are two features missing that would increase Compiz's integration with multiple workspaces. (If I'm missing something big, feel free to add it in comments!)

1) Compiz supports multiple wallpapers (one per workspace) but Nautilus doesn't, meaning that multiple backgrounds is only possible if you disable Nautilus from drawing the desktop. There are patches to this online... couldn't this feature be added to make Nautilus and Compiz work together more nicely?

2) Gnome-panel only refreshes the buttons for minimized windows after Compiz's animations have finished. This may seem like a minor glitch, but if you are used to switching workspaces frequently, it would be very useful to have each workspace's window button panel reflect the windows on that screen, not the screen you are coming from - especially for users of the desktop cube.

This becomes especially useful with Hardy, which gives unrecognizable names to the unnamed partitions like "100 GB media" etc. For example right-click on the partition and bring up it's options, where you can change the label.

for any application it should be completely the same: to access local file, or to access file on shared resource (samba).

at the moment, Totem plays all (lets say that all) local video files. but it plays only half of those files that are on remote machine accessed through samba.

MPlayer plays those remote files which Totem refuses to play, but MPLayer throws errors if you try to seek within those files.

on windows there is never any diference (just a lag depending on the bandwidth) for any application if you use local file or remote.

and it is definitely problem on the machine with samba client side but not on samba server side: i have hosted lots of video files on samba server and i play them all from windows without any problems, but i get described experience when i try to watch same files from ubuntu.

i guess this is not an easy fix (samba or filesystem interface or even kernel should be fundamentally reworked) but sooner or later this should be fixed (better sooner).

Currently it is very difficult to setup and control access to shared folders without editing conf files and reading detailed instructions on all the variables. I propose that sharing (specifically Samba) be given a well worked GUI and some real TLC to bring it up to standard with the experience on Windows or OS X.

For example, by default a share should be accessible as Read Only by anyone on the network without a username or password (guest access). While guest access should be turned on by default, it should also be easy to turn it off, and if desired to give guests read/write access to the folder.

You should also be able to specify local users who will have read/write access, and these local users should sync with smb users invisibly (ie: the user doesn't need to know that there are two password databases being used).

I propose the Properties window for a folder should contain a Sharing tab with all the options available to choose. I also propose a Shared Folders option in the Preferences menu should list the currently shared folders along with their settings, and provide a button to take you into the dialogue where you can set the options.

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.

Software from http://www.portableapps.com is Free Software for Windows tweaked and packaged up so that it runs from a single folder without needing installation, editing registry keys, etc. It is really useful to have on a FAT32 USB stick, since it gives access to familiar programs on any Windows machine.

These programs generally run under WINE, but there are a few small glitches like multiple PortableApps icons appearing in the notification area and not going away, etc. I think polishing up these few remaining issues would make general use of Ubuntu more enjoyable, especially since having Free Software with a "works anywhere" assumption that breaks down on a Free Software OS like Ubuntu can seem rather unprofessional.

Voters please keep in mind that the point of PortableApps is that it works on machines where this software cannot be installed. Using Add/Remove in an Internet Cafe, University computer lab, office, etc. is not an option.