Contributor cornbread

Daylight Savings Time time changes happen automatically on Ubuntu - which is a pleasant addition, but it would be even more pleasant to have a popup notification of this for two reasons:
1) We get positive, explicit acknowledgement of DST by the system. This adhere's to the ideal of keeping the computer's operations completely transparent to the user.
2) We get a reminder about DST so that we can change any analog clocks.

The dialog should say why (which package that required it).

When I copy a newer version of a file, nautilus asks whether to skip or replace this file. But it does not provide any info other than the file name. It would be nice if it would at least provide the file sizes too. More info maybe accessible from a drop down button. Like modified time, owner, permissions etc. But these can be hidden and be accessible from a drop down button (like the button which shows progress of individual files during software installation). This will help the user to compare both the files and make an informed decision there itself. Instead of canceling the operation and then comparing both the files and then redoing the same operation.

Extended desktop is 2 or more monitors displaying as a single computer desktop.

Right now Ubuntu works just with cloning the first display onto other monitors.

Please improve the support for this, as once you live with it on Windows, it's extremely hard to go without. People are starting more and more to use multiple LCD monitors so I think this should become a priority.

The Ubuntu installation process could use more idiot-proofing with respect to checking that the Minimum System Requirements are being met BEFORE the end user gets into a frustrating situation that completely "turns them off" from Ubuntu (before they can even install it).

Namely: what if a novice user gets an Ubuntu Desktop install CD, but the Live CD grinds to a painful, eternal stall because there is not enough RAM, or the CPU is too slow?

These users wouldn't know what to do next if their computer froze on them: is their computer broken? Who is to be blamed? Themselves (making a wrong choice)? Their hardware? Ubuntu? Who? Most users haven't got any sort of troubleshooting skills or experience to narrow this down, and could very likely just give up, which would be a shame.

They should be warned about any basic hardware inadequacy BEFORE X windows starts, and they should be gracefully pointed towards doing the right thing if necessary: locating (on the internet), and downloading, and booting from the Alternate Installation CD instead.

A timely, simple script on the Live CD (run at boot time) that checks the current hardware, then prints a helpful text message on the console if necessary (halting further booting) would go a long way to saving these users a lot of frustration!

This relatively simple fix would go a long way towards making Ubuntu more "humane."

Most users installing Ubuntu will by default attempt to install from the Live CD (Desktop version). But for people with older computers that do not meet the Minimum System Requirements, they are currently expected to be technically knowledgeable enough to intelligently choose the right kind of installation CD first: Desktop Version or Alternate Installation CD.

This could be a huge stumbling block to A HUGE NUMBER of potentially new Ubuntu users, who are such novices that:

-they never RTFM, (namely https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/SystemRequirements ) and know that they should instead install from the "Alternate Installer." Moreover, these novice users don't even know what RTFM means. It would be prudent to assume that must users DO NOT READ ANY DOCUMENTATION WHATSOEVER before they attempt to use the Live CD.

[....]

Even after all the work done to make wireless great on Ibex (which I hear has largely been done in terms of hardware support), Network Manager has yet to been given the feature to "re-detect" wireless networks. For instance, after I put my computer into suspend and bring it back, it no longer detects my home network (or any others). For the network to be re-detected, I have to either restart my computer, or go through the hassle of killing the network manager process and manually restarting it (which *many* target ubuntu users would not know how to do). Because of the quirkiness of wireless connectivity in general, Network Manager needs to have as many features as possible that allow you to revive the connection if it is stagnated. For instance, telling the manager to restart the hardware and redetect. This is a basic need.

The computer administrator should be able to customize the look and feel for the guest session. These changes would be permanent and available to all guest users.
Examples:
a. On my account, I have disabled all system and login sounds. At work, a colleague starting a guest session, will get a rather loud welcoming sound. It would be nice to be able to disable system sounds for the guest session as well (or have it start with the sound muted).
b. I am Greek, so I and my friends need both an English and a Greek keyboard layout installed, even for simple tasks like checking email.
c. I would also want a firefox icon on the desktop, along with a couple of other application launchers.

If the screen is locked, the Panel clock is not visible. If you want to know the time and someone else is logged into the computer, you'll have to find a clock somewhere else in your house.

So there should be a clock on the locked screen dialog, too, probably under the login name.

This was in xscreensaver, but is not in the gnome-screensaver, which is supposed to be a replacement.

Here is someone else's mock-up, though I think it could look better than this, and probably include the date, too, depending on your preferences.

Don't show quick unmount button in Nautilus when the user doesn't have the rights to unmount the partition/disc.
Right know I don't know why the button is visible if I can't use it?

Wouldn't it be better if for example, when u highlight a folder in nautilus, the total size of the whole folder is shown on the bottom bar of nautilus also and not just the number of files in it?

Nautilus shows the file size when u highlight a single file but not for a folder and i think it may be useful if it showed the size for folders too.

edit: this should be an option for users who need it and people who are using laptops or slower machines may disable it to save processing power and battery power

Please tell me what you think.

Thank you.

"I'm Human" could be a slogan of Ubuntu marketing campaign.

If a friend is over and my session has been locked (due to screensaver, etc) there should be a "Guest session" button for them to open the Guest session, so they can check their email or whatever without knowing anything about Gnome or Linux or user accounts.

Currently the locked screen has:

Password: [_______________]
[Leave Message] [Switch User] [Cancel] [Unlock]

I'd say change it to:

Password: [_______________]
[Leave Message] [Guest Session] [Switch User] [Cancel] [Unlock]

I shouldn't need to log in just so that someone else can launch a Guest session.

It will be great to have an image preview in Nautilus similar to audio preview, i.e. on mouseover. Now if thumbnails are enabled, it is impossible to make a file list look compact, and it is difficult to see anything on such a small picture. Similar behavior is already realized for audio, and it looks like nobody is against it, so why not use this idea for pictures (and maybe video) as well? Another way of doing this is to place the preview of the selected file on the side pane.

It would be nice to have a program that wraps around printer drivers that were written for Windows to be used in Ubuntu, much like ndiswrapper for wireless network cards.

I have tried following instructions for setting up a mesh network but failed. it would be nice if it could be automated as much as possible or supported natively like other wifi network types.

The Gnome Font Viewer has been removed from the repositories of Intrepid Ibex. Due to an unresolveable library conflict (libdb3) the program can't be installed manually from existing .deb files. The only program left to preview uninstalled True Type fonts is the font editor Fontforge.

There is no thumbnail preview of fonts in Nautilus any more and the standard reaction of Gnome after doubleclicking a font file reads

Missing "application/x-font-ttf"

Looks as if I had to stick with IrfanView/Wine for some time, still...

For be able to install the server edition, the user need to know a lot of things about ubuntu.

The REAL world is full of "Server Administrators" who know nothing about administration. Ubuntu for Humans must me done for all possible users or administrators, neither the only people who know use the console.

I think if the desktop tools and administration tools for servers could be installed as as optional but by default, there will be more possible Ubuntu servers running all over de world.

Hi.
I was just thinking recently when trying to copy stuff into different folders, and I was always loosing track of where i was up to.

My idea is to create different icons - a empty folder icon (without that white piece of paper) and a full folder icon (possibily even incremental) to determine how many files the folder contains.

Intrepid Ibex included a new functionality for encrypted private directories.

I propose to add an emblem for encrypted private directories.

Crappy mockup;
* http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/5443/emblemky7.png

It would be pretty convenient to have an simple option which would package up all user files and settings to be transferred to, say, a new computer or as a backup.