Contributor glotz

I want to see Open Office files in web browser without downloading it to my desktop or other folders.

Is it so we can have incredibly unnecessary apps like Tomboy that have non-mono alternatives anyway?

Is it because we don't fear appearing like a windows clone? Then what's up with ubuntu not including WINE for that very reason?

Is it because we don't fear software patent threats? Then what's up with media codecs not coming by default?

Is it because we don't mind the space required to provide people with programming stuff? Then where the heck is build-essentials in the default setup?

So, how about we didn't include Mono, or how about we included those other things? But why take this mid instance that is so convenient to Microsoft/Novell and basically no one else? Why is it Mono is basically immune to so many BS that prevents us from having the much more useful packages I have mentioned?

I use Kaffeine quite a lot, mainly to watch TV since my TV card seems to like it. Anyway, when I first started using and playing about with its settings I found that help wouldn't work - the message "Could not launch the KDE Help Center: Could not find service 'khelpcenter'." was displayed instead of a nice help menu.

This kind of thing shouldn't happen - it's very offputting to any new user to find that they can't access help from the program they're trying to use.

Hence I propose that the necessary packages to run KDE help are installed whenever a KDE app is installed in Gnome.

I know that images are added to ODF files which are zipped. I think .doc works pretty most the same, only binary.

I am curious if it is possible to add .odt files to your .doc, just like an image.

My little sister uses OpenOffice.org and she has to exchange documents with others. But she does not/does not want to know she has another file format than others.
I know there is an option in Openoffice.org that all files are saved in .doc. But when you've created a formula, the formula is exported to an image. So when you open your .doc another time, you can not edit your formula.

Openoffice.org saves a .odt file in the .doc. When you open your .doc, Openoffice.org must look for an .odt file and open the .odt file, so you have your original ODF file.

When you send the .doc to one of your friends, who doesn't have OOo yet, can open it as always, but when you open the .doc file with openoffice, the .odt will be opened.

When I press the screenshot key to grab a screenshot, then I get the mouse cursor on the screenshot too.

I don't want the mouse pointer on the screenshot.

When you take a screenshot, don't capture the mouse cursor.

Traditionally, Screenshots have been "flat" and are composed of only one layer (the visible layer). If a window is below another, you cannot see it, or parts of it, because all the layers are flattened into what you see.

I'd like a way to have a multi-layer image file, where a photo is taken of every window and placed on different layers, so you can see see the content of every window open simply by hiding/moving layers around in the photo (more of a 3D screenshot).

For graphics artists, journalists and reviewers, it means they can make small edits to the screenshots (moving windows around even after the photo is taken before it is finalised). Just like it was a real desktop!

The good:
- Screenshots can be rearranged and edited after taking them (great for editors and reviewers)
- Other on the internet get a 3D view of your desktop, so can see EVERYTHING and exactly what linux is like.
- Should be just a matter of grabbing every window and their position, adding the same effects to the picture. Shouldn't be too hard to grab a list of windows and snapshot every one.
- Very unique. Never seen it on other operating systems
- Great for developers. Users get a better idea of the software.
- Great for business and tutorials. Users get more context as to how they are brought to the screen they are at.
- Allows a "3D VNC" mode. Some connections such as satellite are very fast, but have a high large lag. This means they are capable of sending snapshots of all open windows quickly, but there is a delay. Using this concept, window switches would be a lot faster, and VNC might be less annoying.
- Linux screenshot sites where users can hide or show different windows in the screenshot, that would be great. Its like popping the bonnet of your car so others can see inside (if you want them to).

Other considerations:
- Multi-layer screenshots are bigger because there is obviously more image (however, single layer screenshots would still be available).

[....]

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

If common extentions like "Actions" etc are included by default, it will be great.

Sometimes, the end users search help pages, posts on the forum, on the IRC, on the launchpad answers section, but still, he is unable to find an answer to his problem, and is left all alone, what adds a lot of frustration. (has happened to me lots of times)

The cheaper support plan for Ubuntu costs $250/year. My suggestions is to offer an email-only support plan, that allows the user to open like 5 tickets/month, for a very low price, say, $5/month.

I would like to see that "Joe" has a complete freedom about choosing soft to install:
- Joe does not use Evolution
- Joe uses VLC instead of Totem
- Joe doesn't like Dictionary and Tomboy notes
- he wont use a KDE programs so are the KDE libraries necessary?
- and so on an so on
let him to check it out of the installation list. One more step during installation process should does the work

Being a new user I suggest somehow creating a animation showing the diffrences between Windows and ubuntu.

This would ideally be implemented by having 2 animations side by side. One showing the Windows procedure and the other showing Ubuntu.

The following areas need to be addressed

control panel
starting programs
Open office

Priority: Low
Realisation: hard
------------------
I was reading the openBSD site and what surprised me is that they accuse Linux developers of non-cooperation.
So Ubuntu should be the firs to "lend an helping hand".
If Ubuntu made debian user friendly it can make BSD also.
This could get the exchanging of ideas between this two on higher level and could lead to better not only BSD but also Linux. I mean they are both Unix based OS, how hard could it be??

(even I think this idea is a bit weird but it could get the proverbial ball rolling)

Right now GRUB shows some alphanumeric messages during booting process. Something about stages and more. On a fast machine it's difficult to see exactly what it is but it takes away from aesthetics of a graphical boot. I also have a feeling that for _most_ people it's a completely useless info. There is the 'silent' option in GRUB but it deals with other aspects of interface. As far as i understand it's should be quite easy to make those 'staging' messages appear only when someone explicitly expects them and needs them for some boot debugging. The verbosity can be disabled by default but would show if you press a hot key (F1,Esc or something else) or if something goes wrong during boot

When you take a screenshot of an application/window and save it as a PNG file, it should include any eventual transparency used in the window decoration, drop shadow or widgets, etc.

The PNG have an alpha channel for transparency support.

Check this screenshot for a demonstration, and notice how the transparency of the window decorations are captured in the screenshot. The checkboard pattern indicates transparency, click on the image and see how it disappears (also from the window decorations).

This is a great feature which takes advantage of the alpha channel capabilities of the PNG file format, and we should have this feature too!

With regard to the Slashdot-ed ( http://is.gd/5BfK ) launchpad bug #59695 ( https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/acpi-support/+bug/59695 ) "High frequency of load/unload cycles on some hard disks may shorten lifetime", there seems to be a lot of doubt/controversy about the background of the bug and whether or not it has actually been fixed, even as it has been marked as 'Implemented' on its brainstorm page ( http://is.gd/5CX5 ) . It is crucial that the core team working on the bug, along with Canonical and Dell (since Dell has a partnership with Canonical and many Dell laptops seem to be affected) issues an official statement to clear up the confusion, if Linux stands any chance at popular adoption.

It is also important for different distributions to work together on this issue, since they each suggest different fixes (workarounds?) to the problem.

This bug is a very strong deterrent against Linux for users who would very much like to have it on their laptops but see it as potentially harmful to their hardware.

Many laptops affected by this bug are listed at http://is.gd/4a9d & http://is.gd/3Stu even as some of them are Canonical certified (such as the Dell Inspiron 1525 http://is.gd/5CWr ) !

Finally, please Digg this idea at http://digg.com/linux_unix/Canonical_Dell_Should_Issue_Statement_On_Hard_Drive_ Killer

[This idea is not a duplicate of idea #288. Although the subject is the same, it is concerned with a possible official statement on the issue rather than a fix per se.]

EDIT: Ongoing discussions on bug #59695 occur mainly at http://is.gd/5fgw . As of 21 November 2008 1239 UTC, the status of this bug has been changed to "In Progress" on its tracker at Launchpad. Another related brainstorm idea is #15192 http://is.gd/6roB (Throttle Drive sync-rates based on load count rate, to fix cycling issues).

[....]

since early versions of MacOS-Classic, desktop icons location can be snapped in a grid, as option, for having these icons better organized in the desktop, if people wants this - would be interesting seeing this on Gnome as well.

The word "Nuubuntu" is a joke, the rest is serious. The strength of Ubuntu and most other Linuxes is that they are highly configurable, flexible, powerful etc. Because of that it's often found too complex and geeky by the unwashed masses - those that need it just to do simple things and are not interested in tweaking, hacking, command line, scripts etc etc etc.
I am talking about a distro that does just 5 or 6 things but does it well. Browsing, chatting, emailing, managing and viewing pictures and personal videos, listening to the music and maybe a couple of other things.
Gnome (Ubuntu) is almost ready for this but there are still some underlying wizardy en technology artifacts that can and must be hidden from normal people. For instance hide the root "/" folder completely and have only "My Files" (alias for "user/home") visible. There are other things that can be done...

On launch day the installation took way more time than usual, because when the installer tried to connect to the servers nothing happened for like 30 minutes. There should be a button to skip tis step. Maybe it should be hidden for 5 minutes, so that newbies do not click on it when there is a good connection. There should also be a warning that "you have to install these packages after install manually for localization if you skip this step"

GIMP is already included, but it's too advanced for beginners like Photoshop is for Windoze users. Ubuntu should come with something similar to Windoze's Paint. It's practical and easy to use!

When right clicking at the top bar of a window,
an option should be to take a photo of that window.

If the option is clicked then a photo of that window should immediately appear on the desktop.