Currently update-manager is only able to automatically install security updates, but for most users it may be handy to get everything updated for there stable release without interrupting them. It would save me some calls from people asking me what that icon is doing in there system tray.

Laptop compatibility is increasingly becoming vital for every OS that aims to be competitive nowadays. I never had great troubles with Ubuntu but we don't live in a perfect world; there is still some uncertainty when somebody comes to decide to buy a new PC.
Yes, there are online databases like www.ubuntuhcl.org , but users have to manually and purposely register there and write down reviews; I think that process could be automated, at least partially.

When triing to access bad-burned CD or an FTP site, connected by a weak link, Nautilus temporarily hangs. You cannot click icons and even the contents of the Nautilus' windows not refreshed, so they display garbage. It would be much nicier if such operations were performed in a separate tread than the user interface-related stuff. The contents of the window can display "Please wait, operation is being performed" or show a clock image instead of garbage that is displayed now.

The Windows Explorer show the same problematic behavior, but even worse in that it also incorporates the taskbar in the same tread, so when stuck with file operations, even the taskbar is not responsive.

Solaris has two nifty multiplatform utilities called "Sun Device Detection Tool" ( http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl/hcts/device_detect.jsp ) and "Install Check Tool" ( http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl/hcts/install_check.jsp ) . A reincarnation of the former is also implemented in OpenSolaris and is called "Device Driver Utility" ( http://dlc.sun.com/osol/docs/content/IPS/devdriver.html ).

These utilities basically check to see if your hardware can run to its full potential on Sun's operating systems and the names of specific drivers for that hardware. This way users have full confidence about what to expect from their systems before they install the OS, with zero fuss. It would be great if these utilities could be ported to Ubuntu or if similar utilities could be implemented in the near future. Hardware manufacturers and buyers can see for themselves how compatible any given system is, with a couple of clicks of a mouse!

Detailed descriptions follow:-

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Sun's Device Detection Tool:

Sun Device Detection Tool helps you to detect whether the Solaris Operating System (OS) can be installed on your x86 or x64 system. This tool indicates in a couple of minutes whether the Solaris OS supports the devices that are detected in your x86 or x64 system. It generates a table that shows whether a Solaris driver exists for each device that the tool detects. The table also indicates whether the driver is built-in with the Solaris OS or available in OpenSolaris community web site or whether a third-party driver is available.
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Installation Check Tool:

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Not enough options are provided in the mouse GUI for the current crop of mice.

I know it's not really the issue of CANNONICAL or ubuntu, but still.
I'm using kubuntu, but i save all of my files in doc, because
odt isn't supported everywhere, i listen music in wma format
(don't really know why not rather in mp3) because no mp3 palyer or anything like that supports ogg format. I have to write my seminar work in times new roman, because my faculty demands that all the documents to be written in this font.
The idea of free software is lost when the society demands that you use non-free formats...

Totem should have better looking icons, better buttons and appearance and less clutter, I mean smaller size buttons are good, I see huge width of navigation panel when viewing a movie and it doesn’t auto hide when left alone, there should be a way to auto hiding controls and bring back when a cursor I over it or a key is pressed. Allow resizing movie with keyboard plus and minus keys. Arrow keys to move volume and skip forward and back. Make it possible (option) for video to fit in whole window And equalizer and context menu support to add to play list, enqueue in totem play list. I really want to see more than one color for totem and more plug ins and skins if possible.“ turn off and turn on” subtitles in video’s. Integrate into brasero for burning videos and
Sync functionality to portable devices and lastly better management of library like exaile although mp3/video tag editing is worst in exaile. Change the way volume is controlled rather put volume control as a old telephone dialer. Better integration into nautilus and show me better navigation inside totem to open file,
or atleast refresh the theme or icons for totem like kde.

More and more notebooks have hybrid graphic cards now. It would be very nice to see this battery saving technology supported under linux.

Allowing the guest to only log in from another user's account is, for lack of a better term, stupid. It means that if the owner is not going to be around when the guest uses the computer, he has to give the guest his username and password just so they can log and then switch to another account. This is an incredibly large security hole, that could be easily fixed. Please, if someone types 'guest' when logging in, take them straight to the guest account.

- To cut the sound,
- To extract CD
- To reduce the screen luminosity
- To suspend your laptop ?
- ...