Contributor clonedagain

Ubuntu could provide useful configuration for people in various places, in the form of specific packages.

For example a package called "ubuntu-l10n-france" could
- add bookmarks to the default firefox profile for official administrations (taxes, employment etc) and maybe major newspapers
- depend on additional packages (ex : you need java and libnss-dev to declare your income to the administration)
- maybe add major net radios to Rythmebox default configuration
- etc

The installer could propose such package to be installed as an option

I think Ubuntu could be better known and could help associations which recycle and rebuild old hardware and computers in order to give them then to poor people (I think to "les restos du coeur" in France as an example, but there are many other associations)
Thus, Ubuntu would be really human!

ps : Maybe xubuntu should be more useful for old computers.

I know that the Ubuntu volunteers don't have any power over this, but I think that the parent company Canonical maybe could get some pull here. Maybe they could leverage the Dell partnership to force AMD's hands.

ATI Video card drivers are very poor. The thing just plain doesn't work, and I don't see this changing any time soon. This is probably the #1 thing holding Ubuntu back to the mass population where their laptops and desktops came with ATI motherboard chipsets and absolutely NO support for video, compiz, etc from AMD.

While I am not praising nvidia's effort (closed source only) at least their drivers work.

I propose that Canonical use their leverage in any way they feel possible to convince AMD to deliver high quality (and preferably open source) drivers for Ubuntu. They are not only holding back gaming on linux, but also adoption for every day users.

I have a Logitech LX-710 keyboard with a bunch of extra function keys, most of which I cannot program. I had a different keyboard before this one and the same was true. I can program the audio keys (which work by default) and the calculator key, but most others do not work. It would be great if Linux would generate scan codes for those extra keys so I could assign commands to them. The same is true of special mouse buttons.

One program I tried works with non-USB keyboards but claimed that kernel support was required for USB keyboards. Strangely, Enlightment recognizes quite a few more of the extra keys than Gnome does.

Ubuntu should include a way to add/remove fonts from a repository just like the add/remove program panel. When a user needs a new font, they could open up the window, and the program would download the latest repository fonts. The user could look through the fonts and choose which ones to install by simply checking a box and clicking "apply." A user could search for font keywords to find certain styles of fonts. For example, someone could search for keywords words "serif","sans serif","cursive", and the GUI would display fonts that match the search. This would be a killer tool for designers.

Furthermore, the GUI could be very helpful. When a user browses a font, a sample image of it could be automatically loaded so that the user can quickly find fonts that are appealing to them. A rating system or popularity gauge could be used so that the best fonts can be highlighted.

A tool like this would create inscentive for font designers to make their designs free/public. Credits could be given to designers in the font descriptions.

Create and include a 'Speakers and sound' graphical configuration tool that would be able to configure the system soundcards and speaker settings (from simple stereo to surround 5.1, 7.1)

I've 2 distros installed on my laptop: Ubuntu Gutsy and Arch Linux! The feel with arch is that it's whippy. From the other side ubuntu is sluggish. Sure I know that my system is not so up to date (a 1.5 Ghz centrino 512 M Ram) but Arch work very well on it with the same services loaded as in ubuntu.

So I think Ubuntu can do something to improve performance.

If I install Windows after Ubuntu, it's impossible to boot Ubuntu until I install again GRUB following several instructions.
My idea is adding the option "Restore bootloader" in the list which appears when Ubuntu installation CD start. The aim is to offer a simple way to restore GRUB without loading a live distribution, opening a terminal and following a long series of instructions

[Edit 06/03/2008]
In my opinion, the user SHOULDN'T boot the Ubuntu Live Distro. It would be an unuseful waste of time.
Instead, it should be possible to select a new option among those ones of the startup menu of the CD.

A separate partition for /home has been proposed for a long time in the forums. It implies some risks, though, so based on disk size Ubiquity should estimate the amount of space that should be left for / or whether a separate partition should be made at all. Then...

-The first time an user installs Ubuntu, he is given the option to set a separate /home. This option is selected by default, with a size for each partition based on a sane guess:

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/7958/firstinstallaro2.png

-Of course, he can just choose not to set a separate /home. This option will be selected by default if the results of the system test suggest that's the best thing to do.

http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/6498/firstinstallbfs6.png

-Manual install is also possible. Selecting it greys out everything related to separate /home, since it's implied that the user doesn't want to be guided.

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/7976/firstinstallcvc2.png

-If the user set a separate /home, the next time he installs Ubuntu a new option appears and is selected by default, prompting to use the existing /home partition. All other options are still available, though.

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/9034/secondinstalliq1.png

[....]

Updating packages via update-notifier should not require the desktop user to enter password.

Updating installed packages from a predefined trusted APT source should not be considered a risky operation.

Asking for password too often will actually decrease security since users will start entering password automatically without thinking.

And if users doesn't apply available security updates since they are scared about the password question, it will also decrease security.

(This is only relevant for Ubuntu desktop, not for servers.)

Just an idea. But, it might be a litle more intuitive to seperate the places menu into virtual places and physical places.

One menu for hardware like cameras, drives, USB sticks.

another for folders like music, movies, etc.

I'd like to explain the emblems I got in use right now, mostly thanks to the tango generator icon theme, and how this method should be the gnome standard and really a default for the human theme.

What emblems to include
-----------------------------

It's simple, when you click the applications menu, you'd see icons like "office", "development", "sound and video" (aka multimedia) , the first good thing about the emblems made by tango generator is that it uses those icons as emblems. So, for folders you can really categorize them correctly.

Another great emblem is the "star" tango emblem, firefox, gmail all are starting to use these stars to mark the more special things , a little star emblem helps me determine what things are priority, much better than such clock emblem.

So, the list of emblems to include would be:
special (the star icon)
trash/dump (This uses a mini trash icon)
multimedia (icon currently in use by sound and video category in applications)
development (The menu one, for example in tango it is a construction helmet)

art (The one used by "graphics" category in the menu)
office (idem)

system/gear (Again, from the menu, optional, but I found it useful)

download/web (I guess the one from the menu works)
fun (A smiley)
danger (A bomb icon probably)
urgent (I guess some people would want to use this instead of starred)
money (A human themed $$ sign could work)


[....]

VoIP is becoming a very important tool for business and not only. From my point of view (even if Ekiga made good progress) VoIP support on linux still lacks the quality needed for really use it for business.

I'm talking about SIP and using it with services to replace the normal phone line.. I've tried almost every SIP client for linux (kde / gnome) also some closed source like gizmo and nothing is 100% functionally or stable yet, easy to use and well performing if compared to SIP software for windows (like for example express talk).

So, imho, efforts should be made in order to test and increase performance of software like ekiga in next versions of ubuntu to make sure that it works easily and with good performance..

A better compilation of the hardware inside your computer/laptop. The current hardware manager is quite complicated looking and doesn't list details in a readable manner. Instead of listing generic names, it should list brand names, hardware versions, etc. On a Mac there is a very nice "About this MAC" that list specific details about the hardware in a computer with easy to understand details and actively updated changes. It also included build information that could list Ubuntu core files, version numbers, dependencies etc.

Simply said, a one stop shop, for a user to see what is in their computer and details of core software. A GUI could show a schematic diagram on how the various part of the computer are connected and work together.

This could be tied to the "hardware compatibility" idea and any incompatibility could be listed in here.

http://www.os2world.com/os2files/images/xf86cfg_gui_main.gif
http://www.linux-user.de/ausgabe/2002/08/068-answergirl/xf86cfg-1.png
http://www.zejack.com/article/barebone/shuttle/ss51g/651.gif

if we must have screensavers give us some useful ones. Educational and Informational.

-- Clock and Weather Screensaver.
-- Alarm Clock and Weather Screensaver.
-- World Clock Screensaver.
-- Local Weather with Weather Around the World Screensaver.
-- Count Down to Specific Date Screensaver.
-- World Atlas Map (Countries and Bodies of Water) Screensaver.
-- Human Body (Muscles and Bones) Screensaver.
-- System and Network Status Screensaver.
-- User Photos Slideshow Screensaver.
-- Panoramic view of landscapes screensaver.
-- Destination Photos from Around the World Sceensaver.
-- Icon which shows up when new Mail or Instant Message Arrives.
-- RSS Screensaver.
---- World News screensaver.
---- Word of the day screensaver.
---- Today in History screensaver.
---- Nutritional Health Tip Screensaver.
---- Screensaver with Collection of Jokes.
---- Various Dictionary Screensavers (Programming Terms, Linux, Mathematics, Science, Legal, Tech...)

It is quite uncomfortable to configure Synaptics touchpads.

First you have to install gsynaptics (or a similar program like qsynaptics), which is quite easy.

But after you have done that, you have to configure the xorg.conf (SHMConfig true).

If you have a look in the new xorg.conf provided by hardy, there are no entries for the touchpad anymore. So the full touchpad configuration has to be inserted manually.

I suggest that the configuration of the touchpad should be more easy.

It would be more comfortable for new users, if they do not need to configure the xorg.conf.

We switched to Daylight Savings time last night; when I started my computer this afternoon I noticed that the clock had switched to DST as well - but it would be nice if there was a small notification dropdown that reminded the user of the switch to/from DST and confirmed that the system time was still right.

That little distro from Redmond does this, and when I was still using Billware it was a useful reminder to switch the *rest* of the clocks in the house.

Integrate Wikipedia and Wiktionary into Dictionary, so if I lookup "Car", then I can goto Car article on Wikipedia.

We have dual-core, and quad-core processors now, how much are we taking advantage of this additional power. Also we could provide better development tools to take advantage of multi-core processors.

OSS should lead the way in parallel processing, not just playing catch-up. We still don't even take advantage of the fact that most modern processors are now 32/64 hybrid. OS X can run 32/64/PPC(Rosetta) architecture all on the same box. Yes it is difficult, but a discussion should be started on what kind of work could be done in this area.


http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20080318corp.htm?iid=pr1_releas epri_20080318r (Cred: jespdj)

This is what's being used in the OLPC's, which allow small villages to essentially build their own wireless mesh networking infrastructure that works and shares traffic overhead (IEEE 802.11s). You could imagine having a little utility on your Ubuntu PC that would scan for such wireless mesh networks, allow you to connect, act as a server/client node, share files, chat, and the sky is pretty much the limit from there. People could begin hosting their own webpages from their PC for free, using nothing but radio waves.

If you utilize the bandwidth and full-duplex potential of 802.11n wireless networking, you could create large decentralized mesh networks that could be very fast, much faster than cable Internet access.