Contributor Ubuwu

Firefox has spell-checking. Word processors have spell-checking and auto-correct. Pidgin has spell-checking and an auto-correct plugin. Thunderbird has spell-checking but no auto-correct. Some text editors have spell-checking, others don't.

But each of these programs uses its own engine and its own dictionary, duplicating the same overlapping functionality in many different programs, wasting developer effort, and resulting in incomplete dictionaries/functionalities. Why?? The Linux/Unix philosophy is supposed to have a bunch of small, well-written components that do one thing and do it well, which are then used as components inside other apps.

We should have a single spell-checking and auto-correct (and grammar check/autocorrect?) engine, and it should be available for ANY text input field in ANY program (including single-line forms, search bars, quick find, etc.), with a single centralized dictionary that gets updated on a regular basis, and a single centralized user dictionary for each user. Then I can define new spellings or corrections (or remove ones I don't like) and have that change automatically be used for all apps.

Also, it would be best if users had a trivial way to optionally upload their custom-defined words back to the central servers, so that they can be added to the next release and benefit everyone.

Statistics are a great tool when wanting to determine the future direction of software development.

The Ubuntu mirror network can collect (if it doesn't do so already) usage statistics for the packages provided by Ubuntu, as well as the weekly/ monthly change in Ubuntu usage.

Publishing this statistical data will allow for the developers to know on what to focus their effort, and how to best prioritize their effort.

Please publish whatever usage statistics you can procure.

A feature that's possible but not intuitive in Ubuntu today is the setting up of one PC as "multiple workstations" - i.e. connecting two keyboards, two mice and two monitors to one PC and having two users log in and work independently.

I would love to see this feature made simpler to set up, as it would be great for a lot of home users (e.g. buying a one powerful computer instead of 2 or 3 computers for the kids), as well as in schools, internet cafes etc.

Additional information:
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/42731
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=221174
http://netpatia.blogspot.com/2006/09/multiseat-computer-with-ubuntu.html
http://netpatia.blogspot.com/2008/01/coming-soon-multiseat-in-ubuntu-804.html
http://netpatia.blogspot.com/2008/02/multiseat-computer-with-ubuntu-804.html
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=707796
http://research.edm.uhasselt.be/~jori/page/index.php?n=Misc.DualSeatX

Keywords to avoid duplication: Multihead / multiseat / multi-head / multi-seat

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=221174

[....]

When downloading multiple .deb files from external repositories (for example, getdeb), the applications are often provided as multiple .deb files, forcing the user to manually find out and fix the dependencies between then.

Please create a wrapper around the .deb files, that will resolve those dependencies automatically.

Preferably, this will allow 3rd parties to provide a single whatever_install.deb file, allowing both for providing 3rd party software easily, and relieving the end-user from doing so manually.

Include Xorg-edit, a GUI editor for xorg.conf, by default on Ubuntu.

I see a lot of people that don't have their monitor resolution set properly, and have to edit xorg.conf to do so.

If it comes by default, it will be a great and helpful tool for lay persons and beginners.

Info:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=156243
http://www.deesaster.org/progxorg.php


If it is not possible, at least, put it on the Ubuntu repositories.

Ubuntu's bootloader is a stark black and white screen, filled with confusing options. It gives newbies a moment of indecision, as they try to figure out if they are supposed to choose something, and wonder why there are three or four Ubuntus listed. Then the timer finishes counting down (starting from 10), and the newb begins to feel like he's getting in over his head as his PC boots into Ubuntu.

Too much information up front, stark text-only display, painfully long countdown timer. What would be the alternative? Well, when a Fedora PC is booted up, the first thing the user sees is a graphical splash screen, and "Booting into Fedora (kernel version) in 4 seconds ... " The user can press a key to interrupt and select from kernel versions or alternative operating systems, or just let it boot into Fedora.

Can't we create our own attractive bootloader? Or, failing that, copy-and-paste Fedora's?

Problem:
The default install of Abiword comes without .odt support (and misses many other formats). The user has to install the abiword-plugins package to work with .odt files.

If I had not explicitly sought for Abiword's .odt support I would have reverted to OpenOffice.

Spending extra time to make Abiword compatible is quite a high barrier for normal users (=users that expect an application to work out of the box).

Solution:
Abiword should support .odt by default. Either recommend to install the abiword-plugins package when installing Abiword or integrate the plugins into Abiword (means they cannot be removed).

At least integrate .odt support somehow BY DEFAULT.

OpenOffice.org 3.0 is sheduled to be released in September.
Today a beta version of the project was released with a lot of long awaited features:

http://marketing.openoffice.org/3.0/featurelistbeta.html

Beta version for various OS can be downloaded here:

http://download.openoffice.org/3.0beta/


OpenOffice is one of the most important OpenSource and Free Software and it's vital part of Ubuntu.

I suggest to create a ppa repository for OpenOffice 3.0 development version in order to test it thoroughly before the final release.

Similar ppa repositories for AbiWord 2.6 and many other smaller projects have already been created for Ubuntu.

Replace initscripts with upstart events. Our boot sequence is currently slow, full of race conditions and poor interactions, especially with competition between the series of tasks run by sysv-rc, udev and sometimes just with the kernel. We developed upstart so that we could have a truly event driven boot sequence that would be fast, reliable and flexible; we should take advantage of it.

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.

A research team from CMU came up with a way to repair photos by patching missing/dodgy sections with similar ones from other photos.

I propose we build it into our photo tools so that users are able to automatically fix their pictures in a natural looking way automatically. Granted they may end up with a few foreign trees in the photo, or the shoes might not match at the end, but users would not be able to determine the real photo.

Neither OSX nor windows seems to do this yet, but it has many practical applications. More information is available here:
Scene Completion Using Millions of Photographs (Thanks Ubuwu for finding it)

It's very annoying to try to find the binary file in Firefox/Mozilla's "Download" -> "Open With" -> "Other...(Select Application)" dialog. When you're compiling Mozilla for X11, shouldn't they detect the menu system?

Every release lots of new programs get added to the repositories. A lot of these go unnoticed to most users. Please make a webpage that shows off all new programs that are added, either when they are added in the development release or all at once at release time. This should include screenshots, a short description/review and an apturl link to easily install the program.

A basic version of this could even be produced by an automated program. A more advanced version including reviews would require more effort.

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.

Personal configuration in the first session.

Example 1:
Do you have Wi-Fi or Blutooth?
If don't use it, the system or script will be remove configuration to Grub or in the session initial make boot more fast.

Example 2:
Do you have HP printing?

Others configuration:
Splash Screen; PC or Lap Top; Questions about boot; initial programs that will be running in start; update System, configure ubuntu drives and codecs restrict, and many other configuration.

It wold be access in the Sistem/Administration when is will be necessary.

A kind of 'package me' webpage from the launchpad.net database, would be very useful.

Would be a page where a packager, which may not know what about to package next, would pick from this database result list, and helping starting the packaging process, whatever he is MOTU, Debian, or whatever.

I think this would also help on reducing the pressure of noise from the Debian packaging mailing lists.

The calender applet in the gnome panel should support sunbird and other calendars.

(K/X)Ubuntu has not got any graphic tool for the scanners installation (Mandriva Linux and openSUSE have got it).
Not exists a GUI to load the binary firmware files of the scanners. It is necessary to search in http://www.sane-project.org/sane-supported-devices.html the scanner, view the back-end and go to find the name of the firmware file at the back-end's homepage (for example: http://snapscan.sourceforge.net/ ), to download the firmware from their manufacturer web site (or from their drivers CD), and modify by hand the firmware pacth in /etc/sane.d/snapscan.conf.

This is not an easy way and it is difficult for new users, and it is impossible to do if they have not got an Internet connection (to read the how-to to make it).

A new, great version of VLC (0.9.2) has been released.

It would be really great to make an exception to the feature freeze rule and let this new version of VLC ship with Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex.

I'm sure most Ubuntu users will thank you for it!

Mail Notification monitors your mailboxes for new mail. When new mail arrives, Mail Notification alerts you by displaying an icon in the notification area. Moreover, a mail summary an be displayed in the icon tooltip, a sound can be played, and notifications containing useful action buttons can be popped up.

One of the goals of Jaunty is the blurring of web services and desktop applications. This is an easy chance to integrate email into the desktop, no matter if it is webbased or not. Mail notifier supports everything from yahoo, gmail and hotmail to evolution and thunderbird, blurring the line between webmail and desktop email applications.

More information on http://www.nongnu.org/mailnotify/
Available from the repositories: apt:mail-notification