Contributor hunteke

If the user is connected to an unencrypted wireless network or the encryption is weak (WEP), display either a warning symbol on the network icon or display a warning message (popup/slidein).
Make this information available using dbus for other applications(online banking).Using this information they can stop the user from doing anything dangerous like banking over an unencrypted and open connection.

Linux and opensource has a long history of giving names to applications that make no sense to new users and are difficult to remember. Examples range from Synaptic whose name bares little to no connection to how is functions as an application downloader". Grub, compiz fusion, K"whatever", Gimp, etc. are all examples of poorly named and branded programs that do more to confuse humans than inform them.

Similarly Linux uses terms such as "Root" (compared to "Admin") represent a new vocabulary that users must learn in order to feel comfortable with the system. Similarly the folder structure uses abbreviated forms of words that while make it faster to type when in the command prompt confuse users who can't understand their meaning. Examples are plentiful here: /bin, /sbin, /etc, /root, /dev, /mnt, /lib, /boot, /tmp

Obviously this is a "hard" problem with the structure of the OS, Renaming folders isn't an easy thing to do. But the fact that these folders and many programs don't use "natural language" makes the OS and experience inhumane and provides another learning curve.

My proposal would be to give natural language names to all parts of the OS and to also support abbreviated forms when in the command line.

I would also propose changing application names that are ambiguous and confusing in favor of sexier natural language versions (preferably single words). Applications that have their names changed could have a footnote stating the original name in an About/Info dialogue box.

Keep Boot Data in RAM While Off; Fast Access When Started

What I want to know is if it is possible to store data in the RAM of a computer and keep it there while the computer is off. If this is possible in any way (preferably on most hardware today or on DDR2 RAM), then wouldn’t it be great if startup speed could be dramatically increased due to the faster read speeds of RAM compared to Hard Disk Drive read speeds?

I think this should be implemented; store boot up data in the RAM while the computer is off and default to check the RAM for this data first, and if there is something there, access it first. Some people may not have enough RAM to store all of their boot up data, but this can be solved by storing parts of it in the RAM (say, one section of loading instead of randomly scattering it between RAM and HDD, because that would completely defeat the purpose. At least part of the boot-up sequence would be much faster.

The easiest and fastest place to implement this would be in Linux, notably Ubuntu Linux. Because of the Freedom and open-source nature of the OS, it would be easy to put something that was well-coded to good use.

In a dual-boot setup (because there are plenty of people who have to have Windows and decide to dual-boot), the alternate OS can clear the RAM and continue with its normal startup process while that boot data is recopied to the RAM the next time Linux is started up and shut down.

I do not know if this is possible or if it is, has been implemented already, but I wanted to get it out there so at least I know the idea is floating around online.

Although this was copied from what is probably an april's fool joke, it directly made sense to me. The current directory structure is very confusing to new users and the one proposed below immediately makes sense to anyone:

/bin /system/executables
/boot /system/boot
/dev /system/devices
/etc /system/config
/lib /system/libraries
/home /users
/media /storage
/mnt /storage
/proc /system/processes
/root /users/Administrator
/sbin /system/executables/admin
/tmp /system/temporary
/usr /system/applications

(idea taken from http://blog.drinsama.de/erich/en/linux/debian/2008040101-renaming-directories.h tml)

I'm sure i am not against my idea! ;)

... and include it in Ubuntu as default, because I just don't see why the user should have to open up the enormous GIMP just to be able to do some simple cropping or resizing on an image...

There also needs to be a simple plugin for editing colors. Like changing the amount of color in the image, contrast, etc.

Add thundebird to the Ubuntu

This would in fact mean much more work to the DBMS, I know that. But if this cost is acceptable, would't that be an interesting feature? Some people here are posting really good thoughts, ideas as well as responses. I then often would love to see what else they have written.

Aside from that I am interested in how ideas I have commented on develop in the course of time. Otherwise you had to have a good memory or bookmark everything.

My Eclipse 3.11 with JBoss tools 2.0 crashed always on ubuntu 7.10, and I try use Eclipse 3.11 classic version alone, still crash, display memory not enough.

I modified Xms and Xmx arg in eclipse.ini file, still error.

but my memory is 2G RAM, I have to used Netbeans 6.01, but it not Hibernate support.

Shi Lei, from Beijing China.

Hi,

We have Selinux enabled by default, but no PaX. PaX could help to memory bugs. And so we will have more robust linux system.

I love the calculator that ships with Ubuntu. I think so many people use it all the time that it might be nice to have it preload many of its libraries into memory so that it loads faster. I want to click the Calculator icon and -bam- it opens with no wait.

How about creating a universal interface (together with some file format) for configuring applications?

The problem: when user needs to configure e-mail client, instant messenger, some other software, he always have to do it by hand. Reading manuals and setting values s/he can barely understand.

Here is how I see a solution. There should be some application that can "play" some configuration files (a-la .reg files in windows). So, for example, when I need to set up SIP client, I can just download configuration fragment from the service provider and run it with configurator. It will then set up only those parameters, which present in downloaded file and leave all others as they were.

It has a potential to become a security nightmare, but if implemented correctly can be a big win for linux usability.

I used to be philosophically opposed to Wine and it's ilk. But recently I had the epiphany: Linux is succeeding in the marketplace on it's own merits -- now we should embrace windows' binary api. When Linux really starts taking off and devs start porting all their apps to wine (from windows), we slowly evolve the wine api away from windows... So, goble up the windows applications, then slowly "upgrade" the api to alienate them from windows (just like windows does to the rest of the world). Eventually, Wine will become a deprecated appendage and devs will then start developing for Linux natively, thereby extinguishing Windows.

Include more recent version of IceWM package into Ubuntu-repository. Create tools for XDG specification menu support. Change IceWM default theme to more attractive.

On my openSuSE System the Emerald Settings Manager changes the Theme instantly, but on Ubuntu it requires an restart of X to apply the Theme.

Antiword makes it easy to transform Doc to raw txt. We need the same kind of text extraction tool for ODF and PDF files. As of PDF Evince "text cut" often does not work out as it should when bullet points are involved.

Change start page of Brainstorm to show latest ideas or something, else people will probably push for the already high-graded ideas and won't care of other newer ideas.

Maybe a page with random ideas?

And remove the grades if not specifically requested, since it will affect peoples voting.

Possibly a filter for ideas that would filter ideas based on score.

ie. If a idea drops below -10 then hide it.
this could be configured in the profile
or could use a slashdot-like system

It will be nice to see S-video configure right at the installation for PC's equip with one. In general, it will be great to be able to have a GUI that enables one to switch to dual monitors, S-video, VGA.

If you navigate to a folder

eg. /media/pics

Then do a search it doesn't search for items in the folder and sub-directories below, but it is just using tracker's indexed files.

Which is ridiculous if not stupid. Even Windows XP search is not this useless.

Is there a way to separate these two functions (tracker & nautilus) , if I navigate to a folder and then do a search all I want is results with in the folder.

With this Tracker search you can't expect us to index our root folder.

Also if you search for a general term like you .jpg you will get a zillion results. While with the old search it was specific to a folder.

I don't know if many of the developers have worked in a non IT work environment.
Because in these environments the Project folder and filenames are often used to differentiate files, not the contents as most companies use templates.

It would also be silly to expect one to index the data from all the company's projects, as the number of files is so vast.

The old Nautilus (6.10) used to do this beautifully.