Contributor eliaspoveda

Make a form that users can like select options and tell what they think about Ubuntu.

How long have you been using Ubuntu?
*1 year
*2 years
*3 years
*4 years or more

Where do you use Ubuntu?
* Home
* Business
* School
* Government

What do you use Ubuntu for?
* Gaming
* Multimedia
* Internet
* Graphics
* Audio production
* Programming
* Office

How did you hear about Ubuntu?
* Forum
* News website
* Friend
* Advertisement

More questions. To get feedback and know who use Ubuntu, how long, and what they use it for, what need, etc...

[....]

I don't think Num Lock should be on by default for all computers, but it should be easier to set up than having to install numlockx and sudo gedit /etc/gdm/Init/Default. That is going to scare a lot of new people. A simple option under System->Preferences->Keyboard would be much easier for people. Having that option install numlockx for you would be even better. This checkbox could also be used during the installation set-up on the keyboard settings screen (unchecked by default). This is a very useful feature for most desktop users, and it shouldn't be this difficult to enable it.

When you plug a USB Flash Drive in, Ubuntu cleverly detects and mounts it for you. Lovely. However, when you disconnect it, Ubuntu can't unmount it. It stays displayed on your desktop as a mounted drive, but can't be accessed. If you reinsert the same drive, Ubuntu mounts it under a different name.

The prevention is simple - manually unmount the drive before you physically disconnect it.

The cure is also simple - use Terminal to do a 'sudo umount' to force an unmount of the 'rogue' drive.

However, this doesn't seem particularly intuitive to me. It would be vastly preferable for Ubuntu to recognise when the drive has been disconnected, and to force the unmount itself.

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 the user is from Argentina, then the links should lead to the Argentina Lo-Co Team.

I think that would enhance the comunity.

There should be a way to duplicate settings from one installation to another. Mac can do this, so basically, you can plug a firewire cable into the old computer, and put the other end into your new one while installing Ubuntu. This would take settings like desktop settings, wallpaper, list of programs installed (to be installed/downloaded after Ubuntu is set up), calendars, address book contacts- that sort of thing.

The System Monitor application is great - except that the Resources tab is a real pig. It uses a lot of CPU to do its thing - I have a quad xeon system and it uses up to 40% of one of the cores just for graphing!

That's not such a big deal for this system, but on a single core older system it could really bog things down when you're trying to see what's going on with performance.

Also, we sort of have a quantum effect where the observation affects what you are trying to observe. Not so great.

I propose trimming out whatever fancy stuff is making it slow, be it spline interpolation for the graphs, or whatever. Just scale back to drawing some plain old lines until the smooth graphing stuff is working as fast. I'd rather see plain lines than have the performance monitor be inaccurate.

I know that it's probably easier to work on some ideas rather than others, but I believe at least the top 5 most popular ideas should start to be worked upon, after all those are the improvements most requested by the users!
Congrats on the team on Hardy by the way, it's great!

This is an attempt at a unification of:

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/7081/
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/7390/
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/7649/
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/7725/

I can't think, nor have I heard, of any showstopper reason for why BitTorrent shouldn't be used as the primary download method of Ubuntu respository packages. Although the specifics of the implementation of this idea will be different for ISOs and repositories, I feel they should be unified in the brainstorm because the goal is to allow the rapid, efficient, reliable, and available download of Ubuntu software.

Implementation Benefits

1) Speed. All Ubuntu downloads (ISO downloads, dist upgrades, regular system updates, and new application installs) will as a whole be faster. Generally torrent download speeds benefit from higher numbers of downloaders that seed, which Ubuntu users have demonstrated they are prone to do. BitTorrent is better able to absorb (and eventually use as an asset) large numbers of users attempting to download data at the same time, such as with the recent mad rush of Hardy downloaders/upgraders.

2) Efficiency. The BitTorrent protocol has proven to be one of the most efficient methods of distributing data amongst a large number of clients. It will harness the collective upstream of tens of thousands of Ubuntu users, from DSL and cable connections to the fastest of corporate connections.

3) Reliability. Checksums guarantee the integrity of BitTorrent downloads, so data corruption is much less likely to occur. Only the pieces that fail checksum are redownloaded, contributing to points 1 and 2.


[....]

Ubuntu has this wonderful UbuFox integration that prompts you to install missing plugins via the package manager when you visit a webpage that requires Flash.

But YouTube (and some other sites) will tell you you're missing Flash and then link you to the Adobe Flash download webpage, which has a .tar.gz and an .rpm but no .deb download.

Since we already have .deb files for flashplugin-nonfree in the repositories, would it be difficult for Ubuntu/Canonical to convince Adobe to host it alongside the other download options?

There have been many problems with some of the Atheros chipsets released in the past year or 2, with HAL not recognizing it. Modified Madwifi drivers or ndiswrapper hacks have been needed in order to get the wireless cards supported. This of course, means that wireless cards cant go into monitor mode, which is a HUGE problem for many people.

Perhaps finding a solution to this HAL problem in one way or another could bring better solutions to this problem, and others.

Ubuntu should have better native support for the Atheros wifi chipsets, which give huge problems in Ubuntu at the moment.

For example, MadWifi does not work properly/stable with the popular AR5418-chipset.

Without having to download, install, select anything. Make it just work right out of the box. Because your average joe isn't interested in the technical differences between gnash, libswfdec and flashplayer. He just wants his movie to play.

(Which works on both major other desktop OSes btw.)

Seriously. It's getting silly now.

Bill Gates went on The Daily Show to promote Vista. Mark should go on to promote Ubuntu Hardy.

Please don't demote if you just think this isn't possible. Demote if you don't want to see this happen at all.

We may not have the power to "Send" him there but I think if we get enough votes, we might just get on their radar.

I got this idea more as a joke but kind of grown on me and I think
it's so strange it could actually work...
First of all, what I mean with "lifestyle" magazines.
Lifestyle magazines are everything from Playboy through Cosmopolitan to The Economist.
So idea is that Cannonical pairs with one or more of this magazines and creates a "special" Ubuntu theme based on these magazine. So let's say there would be Ubuntu Playboy theme with desktop picture of playboy bunnies, an rss feed preinstaled for news from their site and so on... The same for Cosmopolitan or the Economist... It doesn't really matters which it is. The point is that the CD with this "special" edition would be sold with this magazine. So Ubuntu would get a lot of new users...
So why not anything else rather lifestyle magazines. Well this magazines are sold globally and are usually printed in local language. Well Economist isn't but I put it there to prove my point.
And don't forget National Geographic I can already see a good "special" edition of Ubuntu for it.
I think that almost in all cases Kubuntu would better because all of this editions would be built on eye candy plus KDE looks more like Windows than Gnome.
Please write why you don't or do like this idea which magazines (with global coverage) would you recomend.
Which would use Gnome / KDE / Xfc desktop...

I'm totally aware that this is a bit weird idea, but its one way how to get those that never even herd of anything else then Windows

I've been trying to find a stuffed penguin for some time now, and they're hard to come by. I want Tux sitting on my desktop. next to my monitor! I am in need of his wise counsel. I think the Canonical Store should sell Tux. If I'm going to buy a stuffed penguin, it may as well help to support ubuntu!

You may offer an ubuntu-branded Tux if you must, but I WANT MY TUX!!!

ADD BITTORRENT OPTION ON THE MAIN DOWNLOAD PAGE!

The Novell guys took the lead already: http://software.opensuse.org/

When Hardy Heron was released, the Ubuntu servers became overloaded with thousands of people trying to download it. Downloading rates of repositories and updates were so slow that some people had to leave the computer on at night only to find connection errors the next morning.

However, if Canonical had promoted the BitTorrent downloads, this wouldn't have happened. Everyone would have got a copy of Ubuntu without slowing the repository servers and producing a Denial-of-Service effect.

Moreover, BitTorrent has many advantages over direct downloads. For instance, the more people downloading at the same time, the more sources and lesser the wait. In addition, it ensures file integrity because it uses hash functions, that is, files cannot be corrupted (modified). Not to mention that transfers can be resumed if the connection is broken.

Therefore, BitTorrent downloading should be included in the Get Ubuntu page ( http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download ) with a succinct but clear explanation on how to use them.

The fact that this idea hasn't been implemented --despite all the votes in favour-- clearly shows a neglect and reluctance from Canonical decision-makers to do what is best for the community. The worst thing is that they aren't giving an explanation. I hope good ideas in this site don't come to die here in a puzzle of bureaucracy :(

The reason Ubuntu is the most popular Linux distribution is because developers listen to people. Let's keep that "humanity towards others" alive.

Download Desktop CD: http://releases.ubuntu.com/8.04/ubuntu-8.04.1-desktop-i386.iso.torrent

[....]

Now there is a great a digital entertainment content (songs, photos, movies, videos, etc.), and managing it from a desktop computer is like working afterhours. It would be great to have a computer at the living room, like a console, but for much a better price and much more posibilities. This version of Ubuntu should offer the following capabilities:

-Able to run with low hardware requirements (a great way to recycle an old computer, take it to the living room!)

-Minimum boot up time (when someone wants to hear song, he wants to hear it now!)

-Control without keyboard & mouse (the ideal way would be a remote control and the possibility of using a Wiimote!)

This version of Ubuntu should be able to play StartUp disks, this is, you enter a disk with applications and they would run automatically with no installation time. This would be a great way to build content and this format could be quite popular.

The first application would be, obviously, games. For instance, you enter the CD-rom and in no time you can be playing with your Wiimote (PlayStation pads would also be nice) to a Mame emulation or a new developped game.

However, there are many other applications: for instance, language courses (with multimedia elements), fitness programs (fully customizable), cooking recipes (you enter the ingredients and it shows the available recipes, etc.).

Well, to be brief, the idea would be to create an Ubuntu version for the living room: quick boot up & easy control.




[....]

I have the Hardy Heron countdown on my website and I'm thinking that when this countdown will be ended, there will be an empty place on my page that I really want to fill with an other Ubuntu countdown right now !

So, webmaster friends, what are you thinking about this ?

(Please excuse my english I'm French !)