Contributor Warbo - Ubuntu brainstorm

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The Ubuntu community has contributed 21986 ideas, 135057 comments, 2615221 votes

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Contributor Warbo

Fix Flash Crash In Firefox And Other Web Browsers

Written by tdrusk the 29 Feb 08 at 01:14. Global category: Multimedia. Not an idea

If Ubuntu wants to be a serious operating system they need to fix video playing on sites like Youtube and such. My browser always crashes and it is very annoying having to force quit all the time.

1141
votes

See the 41 comments or propose a solution (latest comment the 15 May 12 at 07:21) >>

Remove 'Stop' and 'Reload' buttons from Nautilus toolbar

Written by Eldmannen the 24 Apr 08 at 18:09. Related project: Nautilus. Implemented

I propose to remove the 'Stop' and 'Reload' buttons from Nautilus toolbar.
They're useful in a browser, but not in a file manager. Nobody uses them. They just clutter.

10
votes

See the 14 comments or propose a solution (latest comment the 30 Apr 12 at 18:04) >>

Better Calculator

Written by spyyder the 17 Mar 08 at 17:31. Related project: Calculator (Gnome). New

Calculator need more functionality particularly for conversions (weight, currency, distance, graphing etc..) Possibly even integrate with commercial calculators (TI-xx, Casio).

Windows 7 Calculator is going to include several new functions
and the Mac OS X Calc already includes these features.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqZkkqgSJ4A

208
votes

See the 13 comments or propose a solution (latest comment the 12 Apr 12 at 08:03) >>

People buying a preinstalled computer with Ubuntu are a bit lost

Written by risbac the 15 Jan 09 at 13:04. Global category: Usability. Won't implement

Look at this story: http://www.wkowtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9667184

With Ubuntu being now available from vendors like Dell, it's quite obvious that some people absolutely NOT familiar with Linux but very familiar with Windows will buy computers with Ubuntu and will try to do things the same way they were always used to do. And of course it fails, and they feel frustrated.

865
votes

Solution #1: Show an introduction at first boot on preinstalled computers

Written by risbac the 15 Jan 09 at 13:04.

I think that when it comes bundled on computers like Dell's ones, there should be some kind of introduction on the desktop the first time you boot the computer. Some kind of "Coming from Windows? Learn how to do the same in Ubuntu".

Then it should explain the biggest differences:

-Openoffice is compatible with Word, you can save docs using Office format
-you don't use Windows softwares or CDs anymore
-you don't download & install softwares from internet like on Windows,
but use the built-in software (and you give more details and
advantages)
-you don't need to install the drivers and crap softwares from
hardware vendors just to access internet or install a printer
-etc... etc...

As usually, to have good ideas is great, but if you don't promote them the good way, it's just useless. Maybe Canonical should consider that and work with Dell to make sure the transition is easier. That would benefit both to Dell and to Canonical. Currently new users are a bit
left in the mist. I agree that it's possible to find this info, but you have to look for it. I think it should be displayed on the desktop, when you boot for the first time.

368
votes

Solution #2: As #1 but wider reaching

Written by Oli the 15 Jan 09 at 15:05.

While I think there should be a full tour for new users, I think it can be made better for more than just Dell/other-preinstall customers.

I thinking a full "support centre" where users can learn how to do things, and to an extent, automate certain initial-setup tasks.

One example would be networking. Give the user tasks based on what hardware is available. If they ask for wireless networking, check to see if the driver is working. If it's not, get ndiswrapper set up. Finalise by walking them through the network manager applet.

Similar things for printers, scanners, phones, alternative software, Wine, codecs, etc.

The most important thing (in my eyes) would be some form of IRC integration. There are hundreds of people in #ubuntu that can help so why not leverage it better?

The interface has to be simple. I'm thinking the user initially just sees a text box asking them what's wrong. They type their question, click a button. Behind the scenes, it connects to IRC as guest-3423483. We all hide that from the user. When somebody replies to them (prefixing their name) that message gets shown to the user.

385
votes

Solution #4: Vendors should clearly specify that this computer uses Ubuntu

Written by Primož Papič the 16 Jan 09 at 00:26.

eugene2k has provided an interesting story: http://www.wkowtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9667184 now it dosen't say how well specified that the computer uses Ubuntu instead of Windows, but I guess not enough as this probably wouldn't happen if it would.
So Canonical should demand that vendors specify and educate users that the computer that they are buying has Ubuntu instead of Windows.
And that vendors should provide informations that are presented in solution #1.

185
votes

Solution #5: Seamless File-Format Integration

Written by tchalvakspam the 23 Jan 09 at 18:29.

File-format issues should be cleared up as the attempted use occurs, not in text that the user may never read or connect to the actions that they do later, so:

First attempted use of an exe file should point at Add/Remove Software as a better solution, and then offer to install Wine.

Opening a .doc file in open office should result in defaulting to saving in .doc format, and OOo already provides an explanatory "microsoft format document files aren't very open, are you sure you want to save in that format" message.

89
votes

Solution #6: Slight menu re-branding: "Add/Remove..." -> "Get Software"

Written by tchalvakspam the 23 Jan 09 at 18:40.

The "Add/Remove Software" concept has been polluted by windows' horrible non-open-repository methods of dealing with installation.
In windows, Add/Remove Software effectively means: YOU-CAN-ONLY-REMOVE-SOFTWARE-HERE.
In ubuntu, Add/Remove Software effectively means: YOU-CAN-ADD-99999-DIFFERENT-APPLICATIONS-HERE. (Personally I rarely if ever bother to even uninstall software, since there is rarely any disadvantage to having it lying around dormant, a major contrast with Windows).

The ability to add free applications in a few clicks is the BIGGEST advantage of Ubuntu, but it is under-emphasized and under-promoted.

Making this ability a more obvious and clearly different-from-windows feature of Ubuntu would be an all-around win.

87
votes

Solution #7: More documentation and help system like Windows Vista

Written by JoeLeKiffeur the 29 Jan 09 at 01:51.

(My English level is not very good)

1) Many beginners in the world of GNU/Linux think Ubuntu is not difficult to understand the GUI, but can be lost by a lack of documentation. I note that there are too much GUI softwares doesn't have help, or haven't the famous F1 shortcut.

2) Windows Vista have a great search feature in documentation pages. This feature can search documentation in all pages of all softwares I think. We can't waste our time with this help system.

3) A general tutorial icon in the desktop could be a good solution because beginners could find many informations about how works the system, and how to be helped offline (Linuxian must be easily helped despite internet connexions problems).

49
votes

Solution #8: Package, compress and install a snapshot of the Help wiki

Written by Warbo the 29 Jan 09 at 22:12.

The Ubuntu help wiki (help.ubuntu.com and help.ubuntu.com/community) is a great resource for help.

Whilst forums and IRC are good for specific issues, they're not too good as a reference since you need to wade through everyone else's specific problems, and often don't find much reference-style documentation.

The Help Wiki is organised and categorised, constantly being updated and is an informative resource about the Ubuntu system.

I was tempted to say that only the networking pages should be packaged, to help people get online and access the rest, but that's rather elitist since not everyone has Internet access.

To keep size down only the latest revision is needed, only pages applying to default setups and common needs (ie. keep restricted formats installation instructions, don't need Enemy Territory installation instructions), only a static format is needed (ie. no Wiki software) and only those applying to the release of Ubuntu they're packaged for are needed. This should be a reasonable size when compressed with 7zip.

-104
votes

-120
votes

Solution #10: Stop dumbing down the user. Show under the hood as soon as possible.

Written by gcbzzzz the 4 Feb 09 at 02:05.

Teaching the user that linux you can't break anything like windows (flashing registry edit warnings), and it's all just a bunch of simple text files, will make more good then an introduction that 110% of the experienced users will just curse to death every time.

Makes every GUI app tells what it's doing. Or at least put help button near the action that tells how/what it's doing.

Something like gparted does with file/device names and commands would be awesome.

E.g. network manager, it should at least mention that when you add a interface there, you are adding a couple of lines to /etc/network/interfaces. Who here knows that? I only know because i used older distros. The point is, if the user wants to do something that does not have a visible button, he will panic. knowing the files help him search online.

68
votes

Solution #11: Find supported hardware utility.

Written by nloewen the 11 Feb 09 at 23:47.

As part of the solution, there should be a utility were a user can search for different hardware that they are thinking about buying. with different categories for printers, scanners, wireless cards, etc. It should tell the user weather the hardware will be automatically detected, needs to be set up, needs some form of windows driver, needs a driver available from the manufacturers web sight, is not supported, etc. and should give instructions on how to set it up. This would be extremely helpful for the new user who doesn't know what hardware to buy or how to set it up in ubuntu.

29
votes

Solution #12: Add a choice to start it then or later, and have it start on next boot

Written by PC Expert 001 the 13 Feb 09 at 14:35.

Because of all the old computers out there, some people are repairing them to make a small profit. Because they can't spend $100s on Windows, as well as the compatibility issues with older systems, they look at Ubuntu to run them.

Because it is a good idea to test the computers, you need to be able to boot into the OS. But, because of an introduction, it would also have run and not played, so there should be an option that you can tell it to run the introduction on the next boot from in the OS.

38
votes

Solution #13: Focus on high-quality: Have essential offline help & an interface to online/wiki

Written by jamessnell the 13 Feb 09 at 17:27.

There should be a basic integrated/offline tour feature intended to get users online & browsing.

Beyond that, there should be an interface/hooks in to the already well-established online documentation & user forms.

High-value documents need to be prioritised so the user has to dig deep to be exposed to untested or really convoluted solutions/instructions.

21
votes

1
votes

Solution #15: Tell the user directly that Ubuntu is better than Windows

Written by shane.halloran the 17 Feb 10 at 20:47.

I know it may sound too simple, but directly saying at the start of any tutorial "Ubuntu is better than Windows, here's why...", and then stating very clearly why, would be an effective approach to reducing the number of users switching-back to Windows.

Of course, factors such as security, speed, etc are mentioned.

See the 29 comments or propose a solution (latest comment the 19 Feb 12 at 03:36) >>

There is no way to install 32bit software on a 64bit ubuntu

Written by eugene2k the 15 Jan 09 at 13:30. Global category: Usability. Implemented

Some software doesn't have 64bit packages, or it's rather hard to get those. For example just to install skype on a 64bit ubuntu system, the user must go through a guide on how to add medibuntu to the list of repositories, or download a version of skype that doesn't require installing. Other software has only been packaged for 32bit systems.

71
votes

4
votes

Selected solution (#2): Put architectures in a generic graph, like package dependencies

Written by Warbo the 17 Jan 09 at 07:49.

I'm not a fan of special-cases, so I thought about making this more generic, and applicable to other situations. I propose that architectures can declare support for each other, for example amd64 can support i386, i686, etc. which implements the above solution, allowing its own packages as well as its supported packages to be installed.

It could also be applied to other situations, like Loongson 3 MIPS processors from China which also support x86 code. In this case a new architecture loongson3 could be made which supports mips and i386.

This would be built into dpkg and apt.

Very little mirror overhead would be needed, since such architectures wouldn't need their own packages, they could use any which they support (which are already sitting on the mirrors as I write this).

Perhaps there should be a priority, for example with loongson3 it would be better to have mips than i386, but this could simply be done by having them in a config file, and checking each one listed in turn until a match is found, and putting mips ahead of i386.

See the 8 comments or propose a solution (latest comment the 6 Jan 12 at 19:55) >>

move the trash icon away from the edge of the screen by default

Written by barbedsaber the 18 Apr 08 at 06:55. Global category: Accessibility. Not an idea

every time I used to try and drag something to the trash, I would accidentally drag it to another workspace. It was driving me insane. I eventually decided to move my trash icon away from the right of the screen, so now it is on the other side of my workspace switcher. If a new user is skeptical, it might take one annoying thing to close their mind to change, so I propose we have what I did (which only took a few seconds) as the default setup.

what do YOU think?

-28
votes

See the 6 comments or propose a solution (latest comment the 8 Dec 11 at 19:58) >>

Import any device drivers written for Windows for Linux

Written by balaji the 28 Oct 08 at 00:57. Global category: Hardware support. New

The most difficult part is when you get a new piece of hardware and really love it because it has all these cool features and find out later on that it will work only on Windows. Nothing can be worse than that, especially if you have done away with Windows. This means there is a perennial fear in the minds of a Linux user that the day his computer contracts a brand new hardware for which the Linux community has not gotten down to write drivers, he will not be able to use his computer on it. Obviously MS does not even care if a new hardware product is released, because all hardware vendors give closed source drivers that can run with Windows.

Hardware vendors have their own reasons to keep their source code closed - we cannot force them to release the code. Often source code of drivers reveals information about their hardware that may be critical for them to compete. Obviously therefore, they don't agree with the OSS philosophy. But just because he has written his driver for Windows, should you have to change your operating system. You are now forced to choose between letting the hardware take over you and you give up Linux for Windows or, letting the OS take over you and forget about the $120 you spent on the fresh piece of hardware that you needed so badly and instead choose to continue on Linux (just because you are crazy about OSS). The second option is a sacrifice - and I don't think Linux users should have to pay the price for using the OS.

Legally, a person that buys a piece of hardware (say some scanner from some obscure manufacturer) has chosen the hardware. The hardware vendor cannot force him to choose the Operating System on his computer. But when a hardware vendor writes drivers only for Windows, he essentially forces Windows down the throat of his customers whether they like it or not. (This in itself should be a violation of the customer's rights.)

So how do we fix this? Let's see why manufacturers have a problem writing drivers for Linux. People often say that these are the reasons why Linux suffers for drivers.
1. There is no way he can figure which distro of Linux he should support.
2. He has no clue in what format Linux accepts drivers. There is no standard driver format like Windows has .dll or .drv.
3. Noone pays them to write Linux drivers. This probably is least of the problems. I don't think Microsoft pays hardware vendors to write drivers for Windows.

[....]

17
votes

Solution #1: Import Windows drivers into Linux

Written by balaji the 28 Oct 08 at 00:57.

Import the driver written for Windows into Linux. This fixes a lot of problems. Often vendors provide an installation disk with the driver written for Windows (because the manufacturer prefers to write in a known standardized format and also, perhaps he wants to keep his source code confidential). And Linux should simply import it for our needs.

This could be a hard task depending on how they packaged their driver. Was it contained in .dll/drv/inf files or does it come in some other format? Whatever be the format, they will for sure use some known (standard) format that will surely run in Windows. In other words, we should be familiar with this:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms809956.aspx

If we do that, we shouldn't need to rewrite drivers for every piece of hardware.

This is what the above will potentially lead to: Given any piece of hardware (even if it has drivers written only for Windows) all you have to do is run a piece of software that will extract the machine code of the Windows driver (which was shipped with the installation disk) and automatically build a Linux driver from that. Alternatively, we should provide a driver development kit (to all vendors) that works perfectly with the same code used to make an Windows driver. They can surely recompile their driver for Linux and ship the closed-source driver to you.

[...]

If the Linux community implements this idea (or at least makes a DDK like Microsoft - a slightly inferior idea to simply importing drivers), the hardware compatibility issue which people often have in Linux will completely disappear. At least your hardware vendor can never say: "It works fine in Windows, though."

Of course, none of the extracted drivers should directly affect the kernel. Instead, they should only be part of peripheral hardware drivers that are called by the kernel in a protected manner.

10
votes

Solution #2: Start 'Ubuntu certified' logos to make Linux compatibility popular

Written by balaji the 17 Jan 09 at 16:21.

The real problem however is in all fairness, the fact that hardware vendors often make products that use non-standard protocols. Reverse engineering these protocols is a daunting task.

One way to prevent this is to make open protocols popular by rewarding those that use open protocols supported by Linux. So for example if an HP printer carries a 'Compatible with Ubuntu Linux' logo, it will do a load of good:
1. It will attract customers that have only Ubuntu to choose such products that carry these stickers. Obviously, other hardware vendors will see the stronger competition and will try to get these logos themselves too. To do this, obviously these vendors will be forced to use open standards and protocols and favor them.
2. Canonical could charge a small fee to test the hardware on their platform and provide the vendor the 'Compatible with Ubuntu Linux' logo. This is one other source of income for Canonical too.
3. Customers will become aware of Ubuntu Linux. Awareness will make Linux a popular alternative to other OSes. Right now, we are not able to cross the barrier because the general public is unaware of Linux.
4. If however a vendor still chooses to have a closed standard protocol for his device, the competition will force him to write his own Linux drivers and package them in apt, yum or rpm packages or all of them. In fact such vendors are encouraged to provide a CD that will work on Linux and install their product and their driver for the OS. Such vendors that provide their drivers through CDs should be given a different sticker - 'Can be installed on Ubuntu Linux'. The logo should be different to make it clear that these products do not in fact support standard protocols but do provide packages that will install in Linux and you can still use it in the mention distro of Linux.

[...]

This sort of campaign will really help Linux build a strong base for hardware compatibility. Hardware will either be automatically compatible with the OS or can be installed using the vendor's CD.

The real problem however is in all fairness, the fact that hardware vendors often make products that use non-standard protocols. Reverse engineering these protocols is a daunting task.

One way to prevent this is to make open protocols popular by rewarding those that use open protocols supported by Linux. So for example if an HP printer carries a 'Compatible with Ubuntu Linux' logo, it will do a load of good:
1. It will attract customers that have only Ubuntu to choose such products that carry these stickers. Obviously, other hardware vendors will see the stronger competition and will try to get these logos themselves too. To do this, obviously these vendors will be forced to use open standards and protocols and favor them.
2. Canonical could charge a small fee to test the hardware on their platform and provide the vendor the 'Compatible with Ubuntu Linux' logo. This is one other source of income for Canonical too.
3. Customers will become aware of Ubuntu Linux. Awareness will make Linux a popular alternative to other OSes. Right now, we are not able to cross the barrier because the general public is unaware of Linux.
4. If however a vendor still chooses to have a closed standard protocol for his device, the competition will force him to write his own Linux drivers and package them in apt, yum or rpm packages or all of them. In fact such vendors are encouraged to provide a CD that will work on Linux and install their product and their driver for the OS. Such vendors that provide their drivers through CDs should be given a different sticker - 'Can be installed on Ubuntu Linux'. The logo should be different to make it clear that these products do not in fact support standard protocols but do provide packages that will install in Linux and you can still use it in the mention distro of Linux.

This sort of campaign will really help Linux build a strong base for hardware compatibility. Hardware will either be automatically compatible with the OS or can be installed using the vendor's CD.

-1
votes

Solution #3: Generic Printer driver for Windows

Written by fernandoc1 the 5 Jun 09 at 22:24.

The way I thought to solve this problem is to implement a windows driver that could receive the jobs and send them to a specific printer attached on windows.
In another words, the idea is to have a driver in windows that is shared in the network and it can direct jobs to a real printer.
I thought that it could be implemented like a PDF converter, and the pdf file can be submitted to a real printer to print the pdf generated by the "generic printer driver".
It couldn't be so hard to implement, since that we already have a printer driver that prints in a PDF file and the only thing that is missing is an option to make windows get this PDF generated and print it with a printer attached on it in consequence of a command from a Linux machine.

9
votes

1
votes

Solution #5: Windows Drivers

Written by ct2193 the 30 Oct 09 at 20:12.

For many reasons, native drivers exist. Substituting a Windows driver is unlikely to be a final or long-term solution. As such, IF such support was enabled, there must be a way to reliably run the installers. WINE could be an answer to this portion.

I am more interested in having Linux "interpret" a Windows driver .INF file in order to "understand" how to use a device.

If you have ever used a decompiler, you may have observed the technical ability to then alter and recompile the modified code, though decompiled code is frequently very complex, undocumented, and much less human readable that the original source code that was used to compile the executable that you just decompiled. In short, I think it's a huge step in the right direction being able to drop a Windows driver into some sort of Linux Driver Assistant utility and have it automatically (or as automated as possible) decompile, rearrange, and recompile a Linux compatible driver. This scenario would let the end user have access to otherwise Windows only hardware, while a native driver remains absent. This would also let companies perform the same steps, but then debug the driver as to package an "official" Linux driver more swiftly.

It would be the hardware / driver equivalent of WINE, but recompiled into something that wouldn't have the overhead of JIT compiling every time.

1
votes

Solution #6: Create a Wrapper for Windows device drivers

Written by cando the 6 Feb 10 at 16:43.

Why reinvent the wheel twice? And - looking at the othe proposed solutions - there is one issue not mentioned yet: Legal stuff! Before using any provided software, one have to agree to NOT reverse engeneer or hack or change the software provided.

So there is only one "legal" solution: use the de-facto industrial standard set by Micro$oft for devie drivers.

What does this mean to linux? A device driver wrapper needs to be built to allow machine code from a device manufacturer to comunicate to the OS kernel and vice versa.

Using that approach there will be immediate support for any hardware out there for all intel / amd based linux hardware.

I mean a kind of "wine" emulator for windows hardware drivers - so linux coud be enabled not just to run native windows code on the user layer - but support any hardware supported by windows with linux software on the user level.

Fortunately the Windows device driver model is well defined and specified / published so every manufacturer can develop device drivers for all kind of hardware to a standard interface definiton.

So why not build a plug to consume data of this interface and wrap this in a generic linux kernel driver. If there is a genuine linux kernel module - fine, than lets use it directly - if not - the wrapper can do 99% of the work.

[...]

And the quality of the drivers is almost guaranteed due to the "MS Certification Programm" for free!

2
votes

See the 12 comments or propose a solution (latest comment the 30 Nov 11 at 22:52) >>

OpenOffice could read Abiword docs

Written by Xan the 9 May 08 at 14:56. Related project: OpenOffice.org Word Processor. Not an idea

Now OpenOffice could NOT read abiword documents. It's an annoying fact because we have to install abiword (having two write processors).

Please, improve OO for at least could read abiword docs.

Thanks,

198
votes

See the 10 comments or propose a solution (latest comment the 30 Nov 11 at 14:37) >>

Magic number file recognition

Ubuntu

In :
Priority :	Undefined
Definition :	New (Needs guidance)
Implementation :	Unknown
Assignee :

Written by GortiZ the 28 Feb 08 at 16:40. Global category: System. Won't implement

Nowadays ubuntu recognize jpeg and some other formats without check their extensions just using magic numbers.
I suggest to improve this way including OpenOffice.org files.
I've found a lot of files without the extension or with a fake extension on internet; improving this kind of file recognition we won't have this kind of problem with a larger number of file type.

187
votes

See the 3 comments or propose a solution (latest comment the 25 Nov 11 at 19:56) >>

Trash folder on diskette, USB, hard disk

Written by cybermanolin the 28 Feb 08 at 15:56. Global category: System. Not an idea

I dislike a lot that the system makes a hidden folder "/trash" in the USB, floppy and others ... The erasure should be direct in these elements because it is very confusing to have this hidden folder storing it erases not even know it

949
votes

3
votes

12
votes

139
votes

-35
votes

Solution #5: Automatically clean older trash items when needed

Written by th3pr0ph3t the 2 Jun 11 at 15:00.

I remember on Windows you could choose how big your recycle bin may be: It only occupies a percentage of the drive.
So, if the recycle bin gets bigger, it should 'recycle' disk space deleting stuff you are not likely to need anymore.

If you delete something, you expect to release space.
Today, you delete something and still no free space, 'wth?' you thought at least the first time...

26
votes

-16
votes

See the 18 comments or propose a solution (latest comment the 25 Nov 11 at 19:15) >>

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