Contributor climatewarrior

Everyone by now has seen the world famous mockups of what Ubuntu apparently should look like. The problem is that what is shown in those mockups is not yet possible with the current way gnome works.

I worry with everyone clambering for this mythical theme and with time running out before 8.10 ships, what will end up happening is Ubuntu will ship with the same old problematic brown and orange theme that is so hated by a lot of people.

There is a solution though...

The Dust theme
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Intrepid/DustTheme

The Dust theme has gotten a lot of praises on Digg and is easily as sexy as anything I've personally seen for Linux (and I'm not usually a fan of dark themes), bust most promising of all... is actually possible with the current technology we have at our disposal.

It's time to be bold! Stop defaulting to the same brown and orange and make a big bold change. Embrace Dust.

Yes you will get a few idiots who will say it's too like Vista just because it's black, but ignore them people. The wider tech community will praise Ubuntu for finally ditching its dorky themes and becoming sophisticated and sexy. New users will be eager to try out this Ubuntu thing they have heard so much about.

Right now, the most likely successful migrations to Ubuntu happen for *nix experts and total novices who have someone install Ubuntu for them, but the most likely people to try Ubuntu are Windows power users--those who like a lot of configuration options but who are also used to using the GUI for tweaking options and not manually editing a text configuration file.

The most popular requests for editing the /boot/grub/menu.lst file involve changing the default boot option (to Windows instead of Ubuntu) and changing the timeout before a boot option is selected. The other less popular ones would be just bonus features, I guess.

I use now wicd and it's , ,much better than NetworkManager.. More work is needed for NetworkManager

(See multiples duplicates and comments about more requested improvement)

Documentation is often minimal, difficult to understead and outdated.
So nobody reads it and googling became the unique tool to find out how to fix a problem.
Please don't install it by default

Today automatix was reborn,less than 6 month ubuntu sighed when they thought automatix died,the real problem is that there isnt a very nice way to install bunch of programs which are most popular and most used even in linux,ubuntu should make a meta package either through synaptic or add/remove to make it easier for installing those programs and especially "codecs Meta package" long told and requested by many linux users community and new users asking "dead-easy-for-installing codecs/oneclick installation of codecs".
there are reasons why people want to use automatix(ultamatix now on)
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Ultamatix-The-New-Automatix-90801.shtml
make a survey or simple make those programs installation
very very easy like making a Package like
Multimedia codecs meta package(all audio/video codecs and libdvdcss2)
Games metapackage( check this list
• Return to the Castle of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
• America's Army
• Alien Arena 2007
• Amoebax
• AssaultCube
• ATanks
• Nexuiz
• Glest
• Tremulous
• The Battle for Wesnoth
• Open Arena
• Warsow
• Vdrift
• BzFlag
• Orbital Sniper
• Neverball
• Urban Terror

[....]

The Ubuntu startup and shutdown splashscreens with the Ubuntu logo and a progress bar underneath it really looks like something from the 90ies (Windows 95 anyone?)

I don't know if there are any hindrances to using images or animations of higher resolutions than what is currently used (for machines that supports it), but I really think Ubuntu can do better here.

This may be an unimportant improvement compared to many other ideas here, but it should be a very quick and easy fix, and it will really help when you try to convince regular folks to make the switch (a graphically stunning desktop is _so_ important when you show it to occasional users!).

In Windows, the control box (little icon in the top left hand corner of the window on the title bar) has an exit function if you double-click it. This is a tieover from Windows 3.1 when you didn't have the X button in the top right hand corner.

Old habits die hard - I always close a window by double-clicking on the control box rather than clicking the X button. Unfortunately, Ubuntu doesn't actually close the window - it just opens the control menu. It would be very useful for legacy Windows users such as myself if some of the commands were brought across to Ubuntu. It would also mean that future Windows users would find it easier to migrate.

Another example is Alt+F4, which is not fully implemented in Ubuntu - it closes down apps, but not Ubuntu itself.

How often you use memtest+ ? nor more than one or two time in whole year. So why not remove the link in grub and make a link in the system menu like "Check my memory at next boot "

With that the boot menu will be more clear.

I thinks 90% of non-geek user never use this tool.

Canonical Ltd. should start offering their own built systems just like DELL is doing. DELL is making lots of money by selling computers pre-loaded with Ubuntu Linux while Canonical Ltd. could do the same and use the revenues to further support the Ubuntu project. It's a win/win deal.

Mark Shuttleworth could make an investment with motherboard, graphic/audio card, printer, etc. makers (VIA, Intel, ATI, etc) so they build one robust system with open-source native Linux drivers (along with all the bells and whistles of native support) once and for all. Then Canonical Ltd. could market that system that would be flawless since it would have native drivers and it would have been tested.

Not only would this make Ubuntu profitable for Canonical Ltd., but also it would promote Ubuntu as the best end-user deal while encouraging a healthy competitive race with DELL and others. It would push other hardware makers to release drivers for GNU/Linux systems. The Ubuntu promise would remain intact since it states that Ubuntu (the software) will always be free of charge. I hope you read this, Mr. Shuttleworth.

Let's add Google ads to Ubuntu websites so that we can get some additional money for marketing of Ubuntu. Advertising is not bad, it is everywhere and if these ads are unobtrusive usability and user experience will not suffer. But some additional money will definetly help the cause. Imagine free ubuntu stickers, T-shirts for the community or LoCo teams or profesional advertisments in TV. First we earn the money and then let the community decide how to spend it best.

Change the african name “Ubuntu” to a different better name.
Give your proposition to a different, better, name to this system

Google Desktop is by far faster, easier to use, and faster indexing than tracker. It also looks much nicer and is updated faster.

I know some of you will just say download Google Desktop and get rid of tracker. I did the first part, but I think Google Desktop's searching engine should be integrated tightly within Ubuntu, meaning when you search for options in the Gnome Control Center, when you search for applications in the Add/Remove Window or in Synaptics, or when you search ANYTHING else in Ubuntu, it should use Google Desktop.

Another idea would be to allow switching between Google Desktop and Tracker or Beagle or whatever and allow that switch to include all of the searches in Ubuntu, including searching for packages in Synaptic, Control Center options, etc.

I have successfully installed Ubuntu 7.10 in my second PC and I am very pleased with the operating system and the applications provided with it. I wish to promote it in our local community for those who cannot afford to have expensive products installed in their home PCs. However, my main concern is about Anti Virus and Anti Spyware software availability for Ubuntu users.
I will be delighted to hear of any Anti Virus software availability for Ubuntu.

This is the one thing that has held back the progress of Linux on the desktop for all these years. It is high time that we investigate alternate ways of implementing GTK on top of a windowing system that runs at Ring 0 so that desktop responsiveness does not suck so badly as it does now.

Add a "send Mark Shuttleworth on another trip to outer space" button to the ubuntu desktop. All this button will then do is open a paypal page in mozilla so you can donate your hard earned cash to send marky on another trip to space. At least this could be included in universe!

This complaint is about the compiz-by-default choice.
Compiz is great (like a lot other stuff) but it should not be installed by default (like a lot other stuff).

Before Compiz-by-default choice, Ubuntu - like GNOME - aimed at being simple to use.
Then Compiz was activated by default : users had to learn a lot of keyboard shortcuts to generate a lot of visual effects without regard to their utility but with regard to their bling bling side. And simplicity was only a souvenir.

Therefore i suggest to update Ubuntu hardware minimum requirements :
- Needs super brain with a lot of memory to remember Compiz' shortcuts
- Require at less 3 hands (or 2 hands with 12 fingers per hand) to be able to easily key Compiz' shortcuts

OR :
Maybe we could concentrate on giving only a bit of polish (thanks to transparency & dropped shadows) and especially on bringing useful functionnalities like preview on alt+tab and that Exposé thing ?

What about coming back to the rock-solid Metacity (which has composite in 2.22 version through XRender) and help to improve it (see for instance bugzilla Bug 502491 – New feature for the Compositor, Exposè-Like http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=502491 ) to keep the desktop as simple as it should be ?

Compiz would stay available through Synaptic for people who'd like to have more effects.

Linux and opensource has a long history of giving names to applications that make no sense to new users and are difficult to remember. Examples range from Synaptic whose name bares little to no connection to how is functions as an application downloader". Grub, compiz fusion, K"whatever", Gimp, etc. are all examples of poorly named and branded programs that do more to confuse humans than inform them.

Similarly Linux uses terms such as "Root" (compared to "Admin") represent a new vocabulary that users must learn in order to feel comfortable with the system. Similarly the folder structure uses abbreviated forms of words that while make it faster to type when in the command prompt confuse users who can't understand their meaning. Examples are plentiful here: /bin, /sbin, /etc, /root, /dev, /mnt, /lib, /boot, /tmp

Obviously this is a "hard" problem with the structure of the OS, Renaming folders isn't an easy thing to do. But the fact that these folders and many programs don't use "natural language" makes the OS and experience inhumane and provides another learning curve.

My proposal would be to give natural language names to all parts of the OS and to also support abbreviated forms when in the command line.

I would also propose changing application names that are ambiguous and confusing in favor of sexier natural language versions (preferably single words). Applications that have their names changed could have a footnote stating the original name in an About/Info dialogue box.

I think ubuntu should look more like a big slice of cheese.
cheese makes me feel good and all thoses holes would be perfect for storing things like ... you know ... cheese.

It would be nice to have an option to download a desired package along with it dependencies on packages.ubuntu.com (I mean using browser, not a package manager)

Sure, aptitude, synaptic or whaterever else is a better way to manage mackages, but with no internet connection this way could be faster.

Obviously choosing all dependencies without any filtering would cause to download a big part of dependency tree, so this option could accept some kind of list of packages which user already has installed on his system as input.

How about allowing the community by "stock" in applications. Allow ubuntu core to stay free, while allow those interested in particular apps. Purchase certificates of ownership which allow the holders to vote on the direction of the development. They would also get first try to beta test. Giving those who care about the application a chance to go through a UAT process.

In my opinion this would:

Give Ubuntu applications to multiply under their own support and die due to the lack of support. Darwinism at its best.

It would ensure Ubuntu lives beyond Mr. Shuttleworth.

If I were to invest in Streamtuner, I would have a vested interest to make it popular ( I would have in effect paid for it.)

Again I am not suggesting that this model be applied to anything other than applications like word processors, media players and such.