Ubuntu brainstorm

[100] Empty directories should have a different icon from those with files

Tue, 14-Oct-2008 00:00:00 UTC

Hovering over a directory and looking at the status bar for "0 items" is slow. It would be nice if we could see at a glance that a directory contains nothing, or contains only other directories.

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[19] add print option to right click dialog in nautilus

Tue, 14-Oct-2008 00:00:00 UTC

when, i want to print something, but i must launch OO for .odt files, it's terrible

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[49] Ability to display tabs side by side in Nautilus

Tue, 14-Oct-2008 00:00:00 UTC

The ability to display 2 tabs "side by side" in Nautilus would be nice. Like in Total Commander for Windows. This makes copying multiple files in between folders very convenient and easy.

Here is a screenshot of Total Commander:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Total_Commander.gif

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[43] Right click - lock icon on Gnome desktop

Tue, 14-Oct-2008 00:00:00 UTC

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.

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[82] Smooth Expanding/Contracting of file trees

Tue, 14-Oct-2008 00:00:00 UTC

Ubuntu feels really great to use with activated "Extra Visual Effects" (System > Preferences > Appearance > Visual Effects).

Everything is smooth, wobbly, fancy. In contrast, browsing files in Nautilus File Browser feels awkward. It is rough, almost brutal if you compare it to a soft pop up of a menu.

Expanding a file tree should look similar to the effect on this website: http://moofx.mad4milk.net/ (Click on the headings to see what I mean.)

Expanding should be smooooth (as shown). The root element (=the element you want to expend) should also be scrolled to the top to have as much space as possible to show the children elements.

If you do not like the particular effect but would like to have smooth expanding of file trees, please still vote up this idea.

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[40] Centralized update management for multiple computers

Tue, 14-Oct-2008 00:00:00 UTC

I have two computers running Ubuntu at the moment at home and I know many people might have even more. One of my computers is a normal basic workstation and the other one is a server without keyboard or monitor.

As I keep getting reminders about security updates for my workstation, I never get them for my server.

So, I was wondering would it be possible to build a system where one (or more) computers is managing the updates for all the other computers? Where you could select individual computers to be updated or just one at a time or just some of them. This would certainly help me and possibly others too.

There might be a tool to do the job, but I wasn't able to find one googling it.

I'm suggesting tool to do just updates, nothing more.

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[19] private / public network toggle

Tue, 14-Oct-2008 00:00:00 UTC

a toggle to turn on/off all deamons that you want on a home network but not on a public one. e.g:

samba (not only do you not want to share your files with joe blogs but it also has several security vulnerabilities)
nfsd (again you probably don't want to be sharing your file)
zeroconfd (this is security through obscurity, but useful for all those little applets that publish to it which haven't been added to the list of programs to stop, YET)

initially this could be done by a script combined with a simple system tray applet
-====-
Later versions could include
*auto toggling based on the network id
*integration into nm-applet GUI
*option for ftp deamons
*gui configuration
*mark all networks unsecure by default, so a default ubuntu computer that hasnt said its on a home network isnt vulnerable to smba or nfs exploits.
*toggling firewall settings as suggested in http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/10314/

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[87] F-Spot should not imports photos already downloaded

Tue, 14-Oct-2008 00:00:00 UTC

I do not always clear off my SD card when I download images. The next time I download images I need to make sure I start at the correct image or else I end up with duplicates named file-1.jpg. F-Spot should detect files with the same name and offer to skip, overwrite or rename the files.

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[19] Create a "meta-deb" wrapper, allowing installation of multiple .deb files at onc

Tue, 14-Oct-2008 00:00:00 UTC

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.

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[51] provide usage statistic for Ubuntu, software used by Ubuntu users, etc

Tue, 14-Oct-2008 00:00:00 UTC

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.

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[15] image resizer when open copy/paste for email and other applications

Tue, 14-Oct-2008 00:00:00 UTC

Allow some sort of image resizer to pop up that easily downsizes the image. I am thinking primarily about making it more convenient to downsize images for email attachments, but this feature should be generic and not application-specific.

It will be aware of different image formats and options for resizing (e.g. JPEG compression, image dimensions, etc.). It will have a simple/"smart" mode that selects appropriate parameters for you and just "does it", as well as a more flexible option that lets you adjust compression, image size, etc. Future versions may become smarter, able to target specific images sizes, or via image analysis select settings that provide maximal compression with minimal visual artifacts, so images with more complex details may not compress as much as simpler images.

If possible, this feature may be aware of a set of user-definable categories. The user can configure different desired compression settings for various categories. For example, they may want to compress images more liberally when sending to their phone via bluetooth than with email, or perhaps the user may wish to compress images in email attachements less for some recipients or cases. This categories feature should not be distracting and confuse the basic function, however.

I would like this to work with all the common email programs: evolution. thunderbird, claws, etc. In addition, I would like to see it work with other apps such as Gnome, Thunar, Brasero and other CD burners, so you can easily downsize images when copying them around (e.g. to USB thumb drive, burn to CD, to email attachment, send to bluetooth, etc.).

I am not a GUI programming expert, but I guess this would probably be implemented in GTK/Qt dialogs and clipboard copy/paste functions.

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[12] Add fun effects to audio on the volume mixer

Tue, 14-Oct-2008 00:00:00 UTC

Normally, when you go into the volume control of Ubuntu, all you can control is the sensitivity of microphones and other capturing devices. You can also control how loud the audio comes from output devices. But wouldn't it be great if you could do fun effects to the audio in the mixer,too, like make all sounds made produce echo as though it was in a cave? Acer already does this with some of their computers with Windows Vista. That is my idea. This would make Ubuntu more entertaining.

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[19] Reboot images in "Hardware Drivers" should be able to click.

Tue, 14-Oct-2008 00:00:00 UTC

When you install a proprietary driver through "Hardware drivers" like the nVidia driver, you are required to reboot for changes to take effect. This is shown by a little blue reboot icon.
What I suggest is make it like the one that sometimes appear at the top menubar. When you click it, it gives you a choice to reboot the computer.

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[30] Gnome deskbar-applet should also index Tomboy notes

Tue, 14-Oct-2008 00:00:00 UTC

What I would like:

1. I hit + and deskbar-applet fires up the search field.

2. I enter the name of one of my Tomboy-notes

3. I open the note

This is currently not supported - I guess it's a matter of adding Tomboy notes (EXCELLENT application) to the deskbar-applet index.

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[4216] Easy mounting of Images like ISO and CUE

Tue, 14-Oct-2008 00:00:00 UTC

Hi!

I'm a big fan of Images like .iso.
But it is not very easy to mount this Images.
I think there must be a Tool in Nautilus and Dolphin wich alows mounting Images with a double Click. (This feature exists int MacOS). Or with a right click on the file and then there must be a poit "Mount Image". I thick that would be a very use full Tool for every one.
A good example for this is CDemu.

I know there are some ohter good programs, but I think that would be the easyest way and very confortible.

Nanotron

Attachments:
Bug #197317 : [Information on this bug will be retrieved soon]
Ubuntuforums.org thread #87369

[124] Sound volume - sample sound

Tue, 14-Oct-2008 00:00:00 UTC

This is a simple one. When changing the volume slider there's no indication of the volume. This is a good thing IMO as you don't always want a loud *dong* when changing the volume. However, it would be handy to have a small button below the slider which plays a quick sample sound to test volume.

This would be handy when setting up a presentation and want to quickly test output volume. Or when playing with an external amp and need a quick test.

A similar button in the volume controls could be useful also.

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[98] Renaming multiple files

Tue, 14-Oct-2008 00:00:00 UTC

In Windows, you can rename multiple files by choosing them all and rename one. This gives all the files the same name, with a "(#)" behind. Great for renaming i.e. pictures from the holiday

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[67] Add Brother Drivers

Tue, 14-Oct-2008 00:00:00 UTC

Brother has printer drivers available on their Linux page in Debian form (http://solutions.brother.com/linux/en_us/index.html). I recommend adding these Debian packages to the repos. Not all of them work flawlessly so not all of them should be added. I believe they are proprietary so I think they should be placed in the restricted repository. Either way, it's more drivers in the repos.

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[208] software updates in update manager must be organized in a tree

Tue, 14-Oct-2008 00:00:00 UTC

in a tree becouse we'll know what to update:

for example:

>compiz
---compiz-core
---compiz-plugin
---compiz-gnome
>evolution
---evolution-data-center
---evolution-webcal
---evolution-plugin
>firefox
---firefox-3.0
---firefox-3.0-gnome-support

etc, update manager should be more intelligent in general!

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[110] Fade the cursor when inputting text instead of disappearing it

Tue, 14-Oct-2008 00:00:00 UTC

It's good to have the cursor out of the way when putting in text sometimes, it's a good option to have so users don't have to frustratedly shove their mouse out of the way really quick.

I'm sure the human brain is quite capable of picking up on where the invisible cursor is when they move the mouse again, but I'm sure it's not necessary to completely disappear the cursor for text entry.

Instead, it could be made mostly transparent but still opaque enough to know where it is. Perhaps when the mouse is moved again, some effect could be used to make it's location more obvious, like a halo or brief flash.

This may provide a minor improvement in accessibility for some users without drastically effecting the great many users.

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