Contributor gabtrat

Randomly I'm thinking about some Digg article about having hot girls associated with firefox and other software to make that software more appealing to use. Then I thought about another article one Digg talking about a lot of the girls on Digg are fake.

So I was thinking there should be a hottest ubuntu girl contest! With girls who are NOT fake and actually USE ubuntu! I guess that would be hard to figure out if they truly use ubuntu or not but just thought it'll be an interesting idea.

Perhaps associating ubuntu with a hot chick will attract a bit more people. Just thought it'd be an interesting idea. Plus I'm curious to see the results ;) ...Or frightened.

Ubuntu has the human theme throughout, but no skin. Why not put some actual human being selections to go with the human theme.

My idea is that there should be desktop wallpaper available with attractive models with some actual skin showing. Not nude or so far as porn, mind you... say, beach attire or lingerie: calendar girls/guys. I think these wallpapers should be easily available with a few clicks whether or not they are on the install CD.

Lets not be prudes... probably most of our computers are used at home, and it would be fun. It would distinguish Ubuntu from uptight stuffy corporate-only alternative operating systems.

I think it would be fun for some machines (probably not for work though).

[Addendum: wow, getting some pushback from the no-sexo's. What a shock]

In conjunction with idea #7953: Wine Windows program on Windows partition

During the install process if Ubuntu can successfully mount and control the Windows partition it should ask the user if they also want to install Wine as well.

If #7953 is also in place it would configure Wine to use the Windows partition as the default environment to run Windows programs from.

Sound-juicer and rhythmbox currently have largely duplicated cd ripping capability. Instead of the built-in rhythmbox ripper, it should just launch sound-juicer.

It would be an extra bonus if it could then automatically import the files which s-j created into the music library.

I wanted to start using Compiz for a while, but when I finally got a supported video card I was mostly disappointed. Nearly all effects are just an eye candy, they DO NOT increase my productivity.

Wobbly windows make no sense. Shadows under tooltips make no sense, Expose-clone is slow and not polished (need to double click), window resizing is WORSE than on a default non-accelerated desktop - it's not instant, you get this "blue rectangle" than you work on to discover later how the *actual* window will repaint itself. The list goes on and on. In the end the entire thing does not really do anything useful: after initial excitement wears out, you're left with a sluggish desktop (the speed is not caused by video card, most of the effects are intrusive).

I beliveve that the PURPOSE of Copmiz needs to be re-discovered. The following question needs to be asked: WHAT IS THE PROBLEM WE'RE TRYING TO SOLVE?

It needs to be a real user's problem, the kind we face every day. Non-wobbling windows is NOT a problem.

Firefox should automatically use the package manager to install Flash, like Rhythmbox does with codecs.

Suggestion from:
http://contentconsumer.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/is-ubuntu-useable-enough-for-my -girlfriend/

Change the african name “Ubuntu” to a different better name.
Give your proposition to a different, better, name to this system

List View shouldn't be affected by switching file previews on, or there should be an option for turning on/off thumbnails differently for each view.

So my idea is:
Make another View: Preview,
thus making 3 Views total: List, Icons, Preview.
Or so.

Many ideas posted here suggest that Ubuntu should look and|or feel like WindowsXP|Vista|OSX arguing that if so more Windows|OSX users would switch to Ubuntu. Often the suggested methods to achieve this are simplifying and|or even modifying Ubuntu in such a way that functionality, customization or adaptation get removed or limited. I don't think that this is the direction the Ubuntu development should follow. Because:

1. Creating a fool-proof system too often results in creating a systems for fools only. I personally think that Vista is the best example for this. By trying to make Vista more secure they made Vista more annoying. Starting to protect the system and the user's files from the user himself brought the system one step closer to foolproofness but also tends to be most irritating to the rest of us. Also by making everything as easy as possible alternatives, customization possibilities and adaptation are often eradicated.
2. By imitating Windows you most likely will attract Windows users. They will work with Ubuntu for a while then change back to Windows because you can't work on Ubuntu like on Windows and it also doesn't behave like Windows.

Windows and OSX might have some nice|useful features. And most of them are implemented into Gnome|KDE by now. So I think that we should stop with copying but start creating. Of course useful features should still be made available to Linux but the creation of new features should be more important. And by implementing new features, copied or created, functionality, customization and adaptation should never be limited. Also if it means that that particular feature might not be that "easy" to handle. e.g. providing a simpler GUI for apt is okay but replacing the package manager with a setup.exe like system would limit functionality.

Ubuntu should attract users with innovation, stability and possibility and not by providing "just an alternative". Constantly coping from Windows|OSX also demonstrates a certain inferiority. And Linux|Ubuntu are no more inferior. We slowly but surely caught up by now, so now we should start to overtake.

I don't want Ubuntu to be like Windows or OSX!
I want Windows and OSX to be like Ubuntu!

[....]

I would like to see an edition of Ubuntu that was specifically designed with a non-technical user in mind by:
- Providing a web-centric interface similar to gOS;
- Providing a tabbed desktop that groups similar applications like the eee PC. Photo on this link: http://eeepc.asus.com/global/product.htm
- Providing a mechanism to switch between a simple to use interface and a more technical interface similar to the Linpus Lite OS ( Although I never got it going I like the concept )

Many people just want to use their PC to communicate( e-mail, chat, skype), socialize( facebook ), write documents, upload and manage their documents, photos and videos, search the web, play games, watch movies, listen to music, e-shopping, e-banking, etc... They don't need a lot more than that.

Many people just want their computer to liberate them immediately without having to call the "Geek" squad, or their relatives in order for them to do what should be naturally intuitive.

Therefore I would really like to see the ubuntu team develop a new web-centric, tabbed, swappable interface that is EZ to use,intuitive,and intelligent.

How hard could it be ;-)

I love Ubuntu. I think it's a superior, reliable, efficient operating system.

But the biggest reason I don't run it all that often? Software availability - there are too many packages that I depend upon in winXP that I can't (reasonably easily) run in Ubuntu. Photoshop. Some games. Etc. I know there are analogs of many of these in Linux, but we may need the real thing. I don't see too many photo tutorials for the GIMP vs. Photoshop, for example.

If we want Ubuntu to gain wide acceptance we need better commercial software availability. I see two possible answers; I'm not sure whether either of them are specifically about the *core OS*:

- Work with major SW manufacturers to make Ubuntu/Linux versions. Games, photoshop, etc. Now that Dell sells Ubuntu, we need to get the SW end mobilized to gain OS acceptance.
- A better emulator than WINE. Sorry, it's too hard to use and I should be able to install a Windows SW package in Ubuntu in some virtual layer just like its running XP - but without an XP license.

The OS is pretty damn good as it is. Get the SW availability up and you've got major momentum for its adoption.

Archives are opening in applications like File Roller. Why? When you thing about you realize that archive is nothing less than special type of folder (and folder is special type of file with defined structure dependent on filesystem). But archives can be presented as compressed folders and opens in same windows as regular folders. Why do we need to confuse user with different windows?

Working with archives will be easy as in Midnight Commander or in Total Commander or in Windows XP. And if it will be implemented like VFS (zip://path/archive.zip/subdirectory/file) or as kernel driver it will be easier due to be transparent to any application.

Update: If gvfs is not possible, mounting the archive could be another possible way to implement this.

Archive managers should be used only for creating archives with non common attributes, e.g. encrypted, splitted to multiple volumes (to fit DVD, CD, ZIP drive, Floppy)...

Note: When you try to drag big file out from the archive from File Roller you need to wait to fully uncompress file before releasing mouse button (once it started to uncompress it). It's bad and very annoying.

(Idea copied from: http://chabada.sk/better-desktop/)

Ubuntu already has a "Send To" dialog when you right click an item, but its only to send it to things like e-mail, it would be cool if you could put all of our "bookmarked locations" in that menu, so we can move files from our desktop or other folders quickly into our Documents, Music, Pictures, etc...

Pleeeeeease make an Ubuntu Media Center. I'd love to move my server over to Ubuntu but there are no good Media Center for it, so I'm stuck on Windows. :(

Audio/Video/Pictures support would be the bare minimum needed, but TV Tuner support/Web Browser/RSS Reader/whatever else you guys want would be excellent as well.

I know theres already an Ubuntu MC project (which is dead I think?), but it was going off in more of a FrontRow direction, where as I was kinda hoping Ubuntu could implement a proper MC like MCE or MediaPortal.

Ubuntu's bootloader is a stark black and white screen, filled with confusing options. It gives newbies a moment of indecision, as they try to figure out if they are supposed to choose something, and wonder why there are three or four Ubuntus listed. Then the timer finishes counting down (starting from 10), and the newb begins to feel like he's getting in over his head as his PC boots into Ubuntu.

Too much information up front, stark text-only display, painfully long countdown timer. What would be the alternative? Well, when a Fedora PC is booted up, the first thing the user sees is a graphical splash screen, and "Booting into Fedora (kernel version) in 4 seconds ... " The user can press a key to interrupt and select from kernel versions or alternative operating systems, or just let it boot into Fedora.

Can't we create our own attractive bootloader? Or, failing that, copy-and-paste Fedora's?