Why can't all Linux distributions work together and add the features and good parts of one another so they are all awesome? Why can't they share code, exchange it, improve it, pass it on, and continue?

I've heard OpenSUSE has a good installer, Linux Mint has nailed the "polish" factor of the theme, Fedora has this or that, DSL is light as a feather, etc.

Why can't all the code be shared among distributions? I know there are different window managers and different languages, but for distributions that share the same language in an aspect, why can't the two be combined into something awesome and implemented in both? Even if a different language or system is used, why can't certain features be implemented in the distro's own way?

The advancement of Linux would reach a speed untouchable by proprietary software if this happened; it's already faster but why can't we make all of this as good and fast as possible?

I know different distributions have different goals and philosophies and all, so I'm not saying copy everyone by everyone else. I'm saying if a feature or system would fit in well with another distribution than the original, then why is it not implemented immediately and re-fitted to work perfectly with the original distro?

I know I'm being very general but plenty of people have talked about distro A having this while distro B should share it- it would work well, etc.

New users coming from Windows are often disoriented and don't really know the real advantages of Ubuntu or even how to use some of its basic functions (Add/Remove instead of setup.exe). An orientation would help them.

A couple of ideas for how to help them have come up, including an idea about having pop-ups for every new application that's open. The pop-up idea has a few downsides, of course, not the least of which being that pop-ups are annoying to many users, both new and experienced.

One relatively unobtrusive way to introduce new users to the basic functions of Ubuntu is to show a slideshow during the installation process. New users would probably watch the slideshow (they're waiting for the installation to finish--what else are they going to do?), while experienced users might have the option to turn off the slideshow... or they may just get up and leave, knowing that the installation won't take more than fifteen minutes.

When keeping the same /home/ for years, it quickly becomes an unmaintainable mess of hidden folders.

You can't even delete them without being sure because it might contain important data.

Freedesktop has issued a recommandation to solve this problem :
http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/latest/ar01s03.html

Implementing this would allow to easily reset your configuration to the default one without loosing any data. For Ubuntu beta testers or people that care about having the default config, it would be a big advantage. It would also solve a lot of upgrade problems that some people have and that cannot be reproduced because it's a particular preference migration bug.

The problem and its solution is described here for the GNOME desktop but it applies for any application : http://ploum.frimouvy.org/?184-cleaning-user-preferences-keeping-user-data


My suggestion is to make the FD.o recommandation an official Ubuntu recommandation, trying to lobby so applications in Ubuntu follow this spec, at least the one in main.

A suggestion for the GNOME desktop has also been issued :
http://live.gnome.org/GnomeGoals/XDGConfigFolders

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.

Expansion of Add Remove Programs - show user-provided descriptions, feature lists, screenshots, comments, ratings, integration with launchpad. Initial page should be top-rated apps, or newest apps. Managed by a webapp?

Or... leave it as it is, but create a website displaying all the great software available for ubuntu including all the features mentioned above with apturl links to install.

From #4613 (merged):

It should be indicated how much I'll have to download to install something.

We have download limits here and well... quite often I exceed them. It would be useful to indicate how big the download is going to be.

It would be great if users could attach money to Brainstorm ideas. Its all good and well to post hundreds of ideas, but as things go, ideas which are posted first may not be the best ideas, but will climb to the top fastest (and will stay there, because people will vote for them on most popular).

Lets make it possible for people to donate $5 or so to their own ideas. Sure nobody may implement it, or the patch may not be accepted but it opens things up a lot more. Nobody loses either.

For those who think that this will turn linux coders into people who only code for money are wrong. There have been many bounties in the past, and they have not wiped out the many developers (me inclusive) who code as a hobby. Even with the gnome bounties in place, I still continued coding my application at the time for instance.


Anyway, at the end of the day, its not hard to implement, and it will do nothing but speed up development for highly wanted features (and maybe even organisations like gnome could use the money on spreading word about linux, or improving their hardware support).

On the Brainstorm site a lot of text is set to the default system colour, but the backgrounds are coded to be light colours like white. For people who have light text by default (eg. white-on-black themes) this can make the site unreadable without selecting all of the text.

Here is an example of what Brainstorm looks like using my theme http://www.freewebs.com/chriswarbo/Temporary/Pictures/brainstorm%2Dunreadable.j pg [take away the space near the end,Brainstorm is mutilating my URLs :( ] (but this theme is has dark text compared to others)

Please fix this by specifically coding the site to use black text, rather than assuming everyone uses black as default.

Thanks :)

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.

Drag&Drop is such a intuitive and simple action - it must be promoted.
There are many things that already work in Ubuntu/GNOME/KDE with Drag&Drop, but there is much that can be improved:

- DnD an image from Firefox to the Desktop should place that image there, not a textfile with the link to the homepage.
- DnD from the icon on the left side of the URL in the Firefox address bar to the desktop should create a .desktop file with a link to that URL.
- DnD of devices onto the Pastebin should unmount them (like OSX)
- DnD of a Desktop file into a mainmenu/submenu of GNOME should create a menu item.
- fix the Nautilus-in-list-view-doesn't-accept-DnD-files issue: Launchpad bug #61237
- DnD file from anywhere (e.g. Desktop) to a folder in the "file open" "file save" dialogs.
- DnD a file into an edit box should insert a file:// link - KDE has this; Idea #3027
from Idea #4105:
- DnD Attachement from Thunderbird to Nautilus
- DnD Files From File-Roller to Nautilus
- DnD Picture from Nautilus to OOo

...and many more, please submit your ideas, I'll put them into the description!


If you like this idea, also look at my other ideas

Advanced power management currently cycles the hard drive once every few seconds even during activity on most laptops. This severely shortens the life of hard drives.