Contributor hackel

This is what I want:

I want to be able to mark applications "Not Compiz compatible" so that Compiz shuts down when I launch a game or some other 3D-heavy application. This is something I want to improve stability and performance for such applications.

I can't say that I have seen a way to donate money to Ubuntu's development, but there definitely should bee a way too do so..

My idea is to have a button under "About Ubuntu" where you navigate to a web page were donation is possible.
Many Ubuntu fans who don't have time or skills to contribute in other ways would like this option.

E.g. synaptic could provide a history of what has been installed when along with the possiblity to remove it again.
Fore the people who sometimes evaluate software and afterwards want to remove it again (alon with all installed dependencies)

e.g.

Installed yesterday:
at 5:21pm (_remove_)
Selected
OpenOffice.org
Selected dependencies
Java (1 package depends on Java, _see list_)

Installed two days ago:
at 12:12pm (_remove_)
Selected
GIMP

at 2:59pm (_remove_)
Selected
Gnucash
Selected dependencies
AQbanking (2 packages depends on AQbanking, _see list_)
libchipcard (1 package depends on libchipcard, _see list_)

Whenever users plan to buy new hardware for their ubuntu machines, they first have to search the web to find informations about kernel/driver support or incompatibility issues.

It would be really helpful if a sticker on the outside of the box of a scanner/printer/usb-dvb-tuner/mp3(ogg)-player/digicam/... simply said "works with ubuntu" or "designed for GNU/Linux" to guarantee that the product runs "out of the box" with Ubuntu or other Linux distributions.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/darkomen/155060941/
http://forum.ubuntuusers.de/topic/88743/next/

Edit (2008-03-04): This project seems to be on the road already: http://www.ubuntu.com/partners/hardwareprogramme

Convert the whole system to use secure techniques: PIE along with PaX, SSP, Grsecurity, frandom, fortify_source, heap consistency checking, mudflap, temporary file hardening.
Some of these techniques have been already incorporated upstream (PIE, SSP). PaX is better, than Execshield, while Grsecurity is more handy compared to SELinux. Ubuntu could outperform Fedora's security measures.
Two most important things are:
1.) guidelines applied on all packages to conform with security features (removing TEXTRELs, making X and multimedia applications PIE & SSP compliant, taking care of C++ code)
2.) developing a structured policy handling and configuration tool for Grsecurity's RBAC.
These two things could make Ubuntu more secure compared to other distros (like Fedora using Execshield and SELinux).
Already established improvements could be taken from HLFS and Gentoo Hardened.

Motto: every single desktop user needs protection even if they are not security experts.

Remove Mono and dependent applications from default Ubuntu Desktop CD. Mono occupies a significant amount of the valuable space on the live cd that could be used for translations and other things. Applications using mono use much more memory than their non-mono counterparts. Functionality can be provided by other applications that are just as good.

This will NOT remove Mono or any of the applications from the Ubuntu repositories, just the default Desktop CD. (Although removing them from the CD may mean they don't need to be in Main anymore)

This affects two applications included by default: tomboy and f-spot. Tomboy can be replaced by either sticky notes or zim and f-spot by gthumb.

A long time ago, the Ubuntu Calendar package featured beautiful monthly updated artwork. This was one of the most discussed features at that time. Please revive this package and give us new high quality wallpapers every month!

I think the 6 ttys available by default are an exageration for the common user who doesn´t use it, wasting memory resources.

A GUI for creating and using encrypted partitions. Should be for regular partitions and especially removable media partitions.

In many cases, I can't configure my webcam or I have problems with the microphone. Now I can use my webcam but only with V4L2 and only 3 programas detect my webcam. It's a good idea can use my webcam in all programs as camorama.

Too often I have to select images with cryptic file names from a file chooser. Because I can't see the images I typically have to open the folder I am browsing separately so I can find image I am looking for, remember the cryptic name, and return to the file dialogue to select the file I want.

This could be easier if their was an option to view thumbnails, or to at least preview the image.

Implement a "random submission"-button into the menue

Include a basic video editor/movie maker by default. Something with the functionality kdenlive or kino, but with an interface similar to pitivi or diva.

An Alarm to user remember about some important events.

Evolution have an alarm, but it is a big and fat program and many people don't like use it just to have a alarm.

I found these Alarm programs:
http://gnomefiles.org/app.php/Alarm+Clock
http://alarm-clock.54.pl/

Maybe other more simple Alarm can be included.

DVD support is still not so easy to get, due to
content scrambling. Scripts like automatix provide
this relatively easily, but it could not hurt to have
a straightforward path to get DVD playback support.
Stick in a DVD, and it plays. DVD players could also become
simpler. I use xine or mplayer but it would be nice to have
the simplicity of the DVD player in OS X.

Update__
Please add something like this (thanks to kliklik)

kliklik
___________
Here's a mockup I've done, based on the ideas from this thread and a couple of my own. Tell me what you think.

http://ultimate.co.yu/ubuntu/CopyQueue.png
http://ultimate.co.yu/ubuntu/CopyQueue_Expanded.png

The top progress bar shows the total progress, two buttons beside it pause/cancel the entire queue.

The cancel buttons may have confirmation they pause the queue/item, ask you if you're sure and than either stop or continue the process. For the brave crowd, they immidiately stop the process :)

Folder button opens the destination folder.

Only one process at a time unless forced to start.

Up/Down arrows reorder the items based on priority, the higher ones get processed first.

Clear button clears all the finished jobs.
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me, tloxscrew

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Since I don't think many people would be scared of an extra button to configure their selected screensaver, it would be really nice if it could be included (like it is in xscreensaver-settings).

I love the fact that I can plug into my already-existing scanner and start scanning. What I don't like is the lack of OCR capability to convert text images to text data. From the support forums I understand that there are OCR possibilities out there on the internet, but for someone who is not a programmer, they are not usable at all.
(Also, for whatever reason, the XSane program is no longer working since my upgrade to Feisty Fawn.)

There have been complaints that Ubuntu lacks a disk configuration utility, which forces newbies to manually edit fstab if they want to use a drive that was not present when they installed the system. Manually editing the file is difficult and frustrating to them, and not an ideal way to handle the issue on the long run.

An application exists by the name of Disk Manager, which keeps tracks and notifies of newly added units, and for extremely easy (automagical) configuration. That is the kind of stuff we want in Ubuntu.

-Disk Manager notifies about new drives:

http://flomertens.free.fr/disk-manager/images/notify.png

-Disk Manager allows the user to mount or unmount drives without any hassle, even by providing a simple name for them:

http://flomertens.free.fr/disk-manager/images/add.png

-Disk Manager allows to easily enable NTFS writing support:

http://flomertens.free.fr/disk-manager/images/main_general.png

-Disk Manager allows to keep track of mounted / unmounted partitions and free space on them:

http://flomertens.free.fr/disk-manager/images/main_advance.png

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When I first started using Ubuntu, the way I heard about it was several links down in a google search for "linux". This is exemplary of the poor exposure that Ubuntu has. We need to spread public awareness about the operating system, through media outlets, online campaigns, and possible tv/radio/billboard spots.

I think that the best place to start would be online campaigns, especially a series of official videos on youtube and other video sites. These should focus less on technical specs and the benefits of open-source, and more on the benefits of switching from Windows while retaining the ability to preform daily tasks. This will be targeting the main bulk of computer users: Microsoft customers who want to email, type, web browse, and don't like paying for an OS. Other facets of this campaign should include spreading the word about Ubuntu to non-tech oriented, high traffic website (myspace, yahoo), getting Ubuntu back as #1 on distrowatch.com, and creating guides in layman's terms so that non tech-savvy people can understand how to preform simple tasks. For example, don't tell people to open xorg.conf; tell them to type in the terminal 'sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf'.
Doing all of this will require a re-mobilization of the Ubuntu marketing team, several people to design a professional looking marketing video, and structure. Once more momentum is generated, the media will be apt to catch on to the trend. However, we want to make sure at all costs that this is positive exposure. Anything negative (eg. Ubuntu is for geeks only) could immensely hurt our image. Physical advertising is harder to get together, but if someone can find an investor, this could be very possible.
A final idea would be to push for Ubuntu in school systems. I know that where I live, the schools are forced to run Windows 2000 because of slow computers and no funds. Ubuntu could both free funds for education and implant knowledge about the system into children, our future consumer base.
Comment back with any ideas on how to improve this.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarketingTeam


edit: We are now #1 on Distrowatch! Also, here is a great example of a promotional video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLHjT5-XM9o

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