Contributor daretoeatapeach

First of all: What is the difference between Preferences and Administration? For example: why do I see 'Encryption and Keyrings' in Preferences and 'Keyring Manager' in Administration? What is the difference between 'Default Printer' and 'Printing'? Why do I have to disable the Tracker under Sessions and not under Search and Indexing? And why are these menu's so large? I have 24 items in Preferences (they don't even fit on my screen!) and 18 items in Administration. To put all this stuff in a popup menu is bad interface design imho. Besides, the number of option should be much smaller. A few suggestions:

- Merge 'Screensaver', 'Screen Resolution' and 'Screens and Graphics'.
- Merge 'Network', 'Network Proxy' and 'Network Tools'.
- Merge 'Update Manager, Synaptic Package Manager, Software Sources'.
- Merge 'Encryption and Keyrings', 'Authorizations', 'Keyring Manager'.


Below are all settings I can visit via the System menu. This is just way too much.


-- Preferences --
Universal Access
About Me
Appearance
Bluetooth
Default Printer
Encryption and Keyrings
Keyboard
Keyboard Shortcuts
Main Menu
Mouse
Network Proxy
PalmOS Devices (I don't have one)
Power Management

[....]

All the packages in the software repository should include a URL hyperlink to the official website of the software.

So when you read about the software, you can click on the link to get to the official homepage, for more information.

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.

Sub-title #1: Leave default browser and apps as they are...

This is my first post on brainstorm, inspired by my attempt to comment on whether Firefox should be replaced by Epiphany (idea #229), which strangely enough mutated into this post.

I really don't understand why everybody flamed idea #229. Every OS has a browser default. In the case of Linux, it is not glued to the OS, so one can safely uninstall it (or just don't use it) in case he/she doesn't like it. I don't really care what _any_ default application any OS offers in its standard distribution, I will still find out and use the best there is, according to _my_ criteria and needs.

Things I consider:

1. Which browser (or application) has the largest developer base who fixes all the security, rendering and performance issues?
2. Which browser (or application) has the largest user base who identify bugs and inform the developers to remove them?

Regarding 1 & 2 the answers are obvious.

3. Do I want a fast browser (or application) or a secure one?
4. Do I want a fast inaccurate (in rendering) browser (or application) or a slow and accurate one?
5. Do I want a minimal feature fast browser (or application) or a full-featured slow one?

Regarding 3 to 5, the answers are NOT obvious to me. It's a matter of compromises that I have to make depending on my needs at the moment. That's why on Windows I find myself using 3 browsers: Firefox when I'm on unknown territory, Kmeleon when I want speed and Safari when I want colour corrected browsing (it's the only one supporting ICC profiles - thank god Firefox 3 will implement it).

To sum up: I refuse voting either for or against ideas proposing "the best" default application. However the defaults are making this world come round and much thinking should be attributed when deciding what to package in a distro.

[....]

I like to visit the Ubuntu.com homepage frequently, in order to know the number of days to next release, to get some news about the project, to learn more about the system, but it seems a photograph.

I imagine there are lots of resources on Internet with that information, but they are not linked from Ubuntu homepage. For example, Ubuntu Brainstorm is a great idea, but it is not linked neither!

I think, homepage should be a lively commonplace to Ubuntu users and potential new users. It should have:

* News about the operating system and the project, new features just implemented, programmers required for..., etc., etc.
* A complex search engine for documentation only related to Ubuntu. It could search into the docs (help.ubuntu.com), forums, wikis, tutorials...
* Link to related and useful projects: Brainstorm, cdimage, Ubuntu Rescue Remix, getdeb.net, Forums... It could resemble labs.google.com
* Resources: backgrounds, screen-savers, useful programs, hotows...

I think, people could give more recommendations. Ubuntu is a great project and the web face of it should reflect that ;)

There's no option in the Brainstorm profile settings to specify my gender, therefore why does it say "His ideas", "Ideas he promoted", etc. on the contributor page of everybody?

I suggest either swapping he for they and his for their, or rephrasing the text to remove the pronouns.

If I install a GUI app I almost always want to launch it through a GUI system. It is much easier to have as a default to add it to the menu. This is especially helpful if you can't remember exactly what the name of the program is that you are trying to install. It is also much easier to remove and item from the menu than to add an item. Currently I have to write the name of a new program i am testing out on a piece of paper since I know at least half the time that it will not be added to the menu.

While we are at it, white not have all the GUI programs installed on system build be added to the menu by default, even if it in a folder called 'other'. This is especially helpful when I need to use a program like displaygraphics-gtk but don't know the name of the program. New users will have no idea what is installed by default if they don't have a way to access these programs in an easy manner.

Have a tutorial obviously available from the command line that hits the highlights of things that you might want to do, especially as a new user. This is for the situation where a new user, familiar only with the GUI, ends up on the command line perhaps because something went wrong. I'd like to see something that users would stumble into, maybe something that comes up if you enter a few invalid commands. You shouldn't have to 'just know' some command to get this option.

The current 'help' command is not a tutorial, and is not very friendly. When you type help from the command line, many of the commands scroll off the top of the screen. Nor are man pages a tutorial - help and man are both references for people who already can get around a bit on the command line.

I don't know if this is more appropriately the job of the window manager, but I would like the sidebar of the window I am in to calculate the percentage of used space. I think along with "permissions" this is the most oft-used part of the Properties window. Properties can be a pain because you can't get to it from the folder you are in (ok, there's al+ enter but how many of us have memorized that? Besides, it only works if the item is already selected, which often it isn't.). When copy/pasting big files where there is a concern for running out of space (and isn't that often why we are moving big files?) it seems silly to go up a directory, right click to get to Properties to see how much space is left, go back to the directory you were just in to paste more. It would also be a good reminder to have that percentage there so we realize when we are getting close to filling up the disk. Better to see that you are at 98% usage when you are not in the middle of downloading a 10 gig file, no?

The only downside I can see to this is the calculation could tax older machines. This should be solved by giving it a low priority from the start.

...or at least include it standard in the installation.
It's just such a better player, possibly the best out there, open source or otherwise. I think it would earn us serious brownie points from people who have been using Itunes/WinMediaPlayer/Winamp.

(Please don't vote this down if you haven't used Amorak and you simply like the standard player.)