Contributor Ubun2ideas

The Android netbook is coming.

Ubuntu can either be ready for this, or it can meet it's own demise.

Imagine: An OS that can provide all the basic functionality to satisfy most users, with tons of new apps and none of the learning curve or maintenance complexity of traditional Linux distributions. Moreover, this OS has a stable API for developers and stable specs for hardware manufacturers and device driver writers. More still, it's an *integrated* platform that's fun and simple to use, and runs on hardware that is lighter, cheaper and more energy-efficient than traditional laptops. Oh, I forgot to mention, it's also supported and endorsed by Google. Can you now see how the Android platform has the potential to be an 'Ubuntu-killer?'

The time is now for Ubuntu to either adapt or die.

** This idea is NOT a dup of http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/14568/ **
I am NOT proposing to retool GNOME to allow it to run Android apps natively.

Instead, I am proposing that Ubuntu should use it's considerable expertise and direct some considerable effort at turning their current netbook offering - Ubuntu Mobile Edition - into an Android Netbook OS. **GNOME does NOT need to be a part of this.**

In fact, it's probably far better if GNOME is not a part of the Android netbook at all. Why should it be? What could it possibly offer that the native Android user interface already does not? Besides, Android is designed to run on much less resources. According to idea 14568 "applications need to run well on 300mhz phone CPU's and RAM-friendly." By that same reasoning, why in the world would you want to tack on all the weight and resource demands of GNOME? In the end, you'd be wasting far too many system resources for things that are redundant or entirely unnecessary.

Still, Ubuntu has a lot of experience that could help it to create the first Android netbook offering.

[....]

My idea is that we should thank CodeWeavers for their good spirit and generosity by offering fully-functioning versions of their flagship products for free - for today only (Tues. Oct 28, 2008)

CodeWeavers CEO Jeremy White was good to his word, and for today only, Codeweavers is giving away free, fully unlocked builds for both Linux and Mac of Crossover Pro and Crossover Games. Both can be downloaded here:

http://down.codeweavers.com/

In addition, on the same webpage, serial numbers to unlock existing Crossover products can be requested -- also for today only.

I know this is a commercial and proprietary product - the programs are modified, proprietary versions of the public and open-source Wine source tree with additional patches and tools - and that some in the community may object to my mentioning it here. OK. Object.

I was surprised to find out other users in my computer are allow to browse and open my files in /home.

At least user should have a tick box option to set his home dir as private.

which is equivalent to give 0 rwx access to the world. Shouldn't be too difficult to do this.

=> Develop a rating system for third party software sources (like PPAs), and integrate that information directly into Synaptic package manager.

Details:

Instead of displaying large, scary warnings every time we try to install non-official software packages, the system should help us to better understand and manage that risk. Elaborating on a comment mentioned by swegner in an earlier idea (http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/14689/), I've outlined a way to do just that:

Develop a rating system for third party software sources (like PPAs), and integrate that information directly into Synaptic package manager.

Imagine: you launch Synaptic, and open the ""Third-party Software" tab, which now contains two (nested) tabs within it. The first tab shows what is currently there - the list of currently added sources. The other, new, "PPA" tab would display an updated descending list of popular PPAs -- (PPAs are third-party software sources hosted on Canonical's launchpad.net site.)

On the right-most column, each PPA would have a star rating, (just like packages currently do in the Add/Remove dialog.) Perhaps, there also could be a way for the user to click on or next to the rating and be taken to a webpage or forum where both users and the PPA maintainers could post comments. This would give further re-assurance to the user, and provide helpful information, like conflicts or issues that previous users have faced. Perhaps this forum might also be linked somehow to launchpad and/or a bug reporting system, so that devs, the PPA maintainers and bug sqwashers alike could get more immediate feedback of how their software was behaving 'in the field'.

Each PPA listing could also have an icon (and a tooltip) beside it showing the program or software package that it is associated with. This way, users would not have to try and guess what that PPA was for just by reading it's URL -- I mean,
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/googlegadgets/ubuntu hardy main

[....]

** SEE lengthy discussion below in comments **

ALSO: if you like the discussion below, please consider reading and voting on the new idea that came from this discussion at: http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/14784/


There should be an option in Synaptic which searches if there is a PPA -- which is NOT ENABLED in your current software sources list -- but contains a more recent version of the package you are looking to install.



It's bad when you don't know which repositories you need to add to your software sources in order to install the latest version of a package.

Worse still is when you *thought* you were installing the latest version of a program - and sit through the whole install process - only to find out that you didn't.

We should solve this problem.

When you do a search in synaptic, it should (optionally) discover if there is a PPA which contains a more recent version of the package, and then offer - with 1-click - to add the repository and mark the packages for installation.

In addition, when synaptic queries the PPA's, the query should be handled by a central PPA dispatch that knows which PPA is designated to handle requests for that package, and pass the request on to that PPA. That way, the err, 'unoffically official' PPA that is meant to handle installs for that package will be the one that responds.



[....]

Android is an open source (100% apache 2.0/GPL now) linux-based mobile phone platform developed by Google. It uses a java-like bytestream language to be CPU-independent, secure, fast (applications need to run well on 300mhz phone CPU's and RAM-friendly. Unlike the iphone platform, developers still maintain a high level of flexibility. Even slow computers would be able to run Android apps well.

We should allow gnome to open android programs as if they are native applications. Since android uses a native linux backend anyway, getting GPS and other such devices to work seamlessly with android apps should be easy.

This would be especially good portable ubuntu devices, because they often benefit from the same apps as mobile phones. And, we would gain a vast array of secure web enabled applications that are easy to use, innovative, and pretty, with the added benefit of being cross platform compatible with the latest mobile phone apps. Integration would probably not require consuming ram when you aren't using any android apps. But this would be a big win for us.

Some Android applications laptop users may benefit off:
Cooking Capsules
Picsay
Splash Play
Cab4me

By integrating GPS into Ubuntu laptops, the vast array of Android location-aware applications would instantly give us an upper hand in usability. The code is already pretty much done, we just need to integrate it! So lets do it for 9.04.

The title basically explains it all. We need to have an option to install Ubuntu in a fully-encrypted disc, right at installation time from the LiveCD.

This would make the usage of Full Disc encryption more widespread and more user-friendly and would save a user from having to download a second ISO of Ubuntu (for the Alternate CD).

The user could opt to install a fully encrypted disc from the Ubiquity Installer and proceed with passphrase/keyfile to setup the encryption. At least have it as an option for users.

This would greatly benefit laptop users who are prone to theft and can easily choose to encrypt the disc at installation.

A lot of people use workspaces for specifics needs: one for internet, another one for coding, a third one for openoffice etc.

But with Gnome, the only way to always open an application on the same workspace is to use tools like DevilSpie witch are not user-friendly.

So why not had a simple "Always open in this workspace" option when you right-click on a application title bar ? (for exemple between "Only on this workspace" and "Move to the left" options)

I looked high and low for a good IDE that can be used for application development in c/c++ (GTK/GTK++). The ones I use are "code::blocks" or "Anjuta", which are not rich in features.

Gedit is good for files and not for huge projects. Eclipse is huge and primarily meant for Java. Kdevelop is meant for KDE and not Gnome(which is the default WM in Ubuntu).

I really hope the editor would have the following features.

1) IDE should be able to display inheritance relations.
2) syntax helper.
3) a damn good GUI supported debugger. one that works with individual files and project. People should not be made to create a project to debug a single file.
3) support for various version control systems (cvs/svn/git)

there is similar idea i like it too but what i want to see
integration.usb pen drives right click>>format
***opens menus to format pendrive with
**type of format>>fat etc
**type of format quick or deep
**if possible integration with clamav for virus checking

next its not just formatting usb,external hdd.but make it easier to format even mounted partition>>not through right click but through gui.this should be root accessible only.
***also add entries to gparted for usb and external hdd
i only see mounted partitions in gparted.presently there is no way i can format usb pen drives.
*****lock system drives not to partition,mounted drives.
like /var,/,/swap etc also do warn before formatting fat and
ntfs partitions about loss of data.

I've often wished I could take a screenshot of firefox and get the entire webpage as an image. This should be a feature of the screenshot tool in Ubuntu.

A fantastic front-end to OpenOffice has been developed. Currently it is only available for Windows, but will be ported to Linux shortly.

As this new front-end will be available under the GPL we should use it in Ubuntu (or see if upstream would be willing to include it).

OpenOffice is often accused of looking archaic, not only that but we need to catch up with the interface of Microsoft Office 2007. Something you might not notice at first glance are the new templates, they're far nicer than the ones OpenOffice ships with (shouldn't be difficult to remove the Chinese symbols if required).

Is Ubuntu easy to use for beginners ?
That's the question. Unless you suppose that only computer fans spend lots of time chatting on the forums (with the mythic Ubuntu community) and look at the (brilliant) Ubuntu documentation, it is in our interest to make everything about Ubuntu easier.

Indeed, an average computer user won't look into the documentation.

It would be better if as soon as the CD live begins a guided video tour would appear to introduce the user to the main elements and the setting up of Ubuntu.

But even more important, once Ubuntu is installed, there should be a possibility for the user to initiate a video that will guide him on:
- how to install a program
- how to modify the internet settings (important).
- the location of the important files
- Which are the most important programmes, how do they work, where are they located (open office, amarok, emesene/amsn, evolution, firefox, gimp, rythmbox, ...)?
- how to modify the desktop (3d effects, change the wallpaper, change the theme of icons and skin ..)

There should be at the first Ubuntu boot a little pop-up box that indicates that there is an explanatory video available.
A user could choose either « I already know everything about Ubuntu » and skip the video, or, if he's new to ubuntu, he should have the possibility to watch any video as many times as he wants.

These videos have to be the most accessible items at first (why not give the user the possibility to put them directly on the desktop?).

Moreover, those videos could be available on the ubuntu site. So that beginners could watch them before downloading and testing ubuntu. Indeed, it is better to see a short video before downloading than having to download the live cd and try it.

[....]

I have often wished I could share my cellular internet connection with those around me via wifi, and I think this is something that would distinguish linux. A simple menu option in the network manager wouldn't cause too much clutter I think.

NetworkManager 0.7 offers many, many feature that are urgently needed in hardy/networking.
I think it will be included in Intrepid Ibex, but since hardy is a LTS release it would be fine to have it at least in the backports repo.

Ubuntu applications that use the network could use the status of Network Manager to provide more appropriate messages and behaviours. For example, when not connected to the network, instead of having Thunderbird tell you

"Error connecting to ***** server".

You could get

"You are not connected to the internet"

That could also save some time because the mail client should simply not even attempt to check for new mail when there are no network connections. The same general principle could apply to any browser.

Another example: If you start Firefox while the network connection is getting established, it could wait for it instead of giving you a "Page not found" screen.

Even synaptics doesn't seem to know when you are connected to the internet and gives you an error message. The list of examples could include audio players, IMs, apt-get, etc.

I am sure other people can think of more interesting examples that I could add to this idea.

Right now,the user is left blind when trying to connect to a wireless acces point fails.It should at least show an error message with description of the problem or a possible solution

When I place icons where I want them, particularly mounted drives, it gets a little annoying for them to get messed up when I arrange everything else, or when I try to double click the icon and it gets moved from my jumpy hands.

Ideas with bogus claims, or ideas which are actually bugs appear to be on the rise. We really need a Brainstorm testing team that can certify the quality of ideas, and whether they are ideas or bugs quickly (ideas which aren't consistently repeatable aren't bugs).

Because it isn't the job of brainstorm admins currently to do so, so often it is not done. Instead claims about performance increases go unchallenged until someone (generally me) points out there is no proof. Or tests it personally and works out that its inconsistent.

To outsiders, this also makes ubuntu look worse, because people are making bogus claims which don't make any sense. I know from experience that testing many of these ideas is an easy job, and a team of 1 or 2 people could quickly validate the claims made by the ideas that matter, within half an hour each day.

And, it helps guarentee better quality in Brainstorm, whilst helping filter crappy ideas from upstream developers who might be peering in.

Update-manager just shows a list. I have no way of knowing which repositories are behind which updates.

What is to prevent a third-party repository from pushing updates for *any* package on my system?

Example: Say I add the repo for Banshee media player. I expect (and trust) it will only push updates that involve Banshee, but what is to stop them from pushing a non-banshee related update? Maybe it's a bit paranoid of me, but I'd like to know which updates are coming from which repo. Then, at least if I see a third-party repo pushing an update for something like sudo, then I'll know something is fishy - but right now I have no way of knowing where the updates are coming from, and that bothers me.

Also, the update-mananger, could possibly group the update list by repository.