Contributor javaiscoolmike

I think more Windows users would try out Ubuntu if they could just double click an .exe file instead of going into a command prompt, browsing to the folder and then typing "wine *.exe" to install the program.

I like how Ubuntu adds shortcuts on the desktop and the "start menu" after you install the program making it easy to run but installing Windows software needs to be easier.

Give extra feature to an existing idea. Instead of makeing a new idea.

Example: Somebody wants to add a idea but there is somebody else that already got that idea but your idea goes a bit furtur with extra features.

The ability to assign different priorities to different processes is great, but because of the hassle of micromanaging processes and keeping the System Monitor or a terminal open just for renice-ing processes, it's currently not very practical to use it much.

Perhaps, the system could use clues from the Window Manager to handle this automatically?

When you are running multiple applications in a GUI, such as running Update Manager in the background while browsing the web in Firefox, the application in front of the user should not become unresponsive to user input. Even if you are doing something intensive in the background which you want to complete quickly, giving priority to the web browser would only minimally slow down the background process.

It's always possible to change the priority/renice processes as appropriate, but I think it would be OK if the system assumed that certain processes should have higher or lower priorities based on the position of the window in the GUI. Maximized windows should be given the highest priority, a window in the foreground should have a higher priority than a window in the background, and minimized windows should be given a lower priority, automatically. Also, a way to override this feature from the File menu would be practical.

From a user's prospective, this would cause their computer to feel slow less often, enhancing the user experience in general.

Ubuntu is the name chosen for a global project and a distro based on Gnome. Kubuntu is another distro based on kde from the very same project.
I believe they deserve the same support from the project since Gnome and Kde are the most popular desktop manager out there.
It seems quite obvious to me, the project is very much focused on one and only distro, its first baby : ubuntu.
And it shows. Kubuntu web site looks quite poor and unprofessional compared to ubuntu. Most graphic choices like the kdm default theme (even if it's supposed to be a matter of taste) look, again, unprofessional. And finally the whole distro doesn't seem to have the same amount of attention when it comes to details (one example among others: the little thing on ubuntu warning the user about the existence of proprietary drivers for display which does not exist on kubuntu).
I've been told once, like a year ago, by an ubuntu dev that the situation is such because the project doesn't feel like fragmenting its market share.
Whatever is the official position of the project, I don't think you should do things half way.
The Kde project is itself in full evolution with Kde 4. It does deserve full support from ubuntu.

Thank you for reading.

Having Daily/Weekly Pop-Up Tips with screenshots (images very important) will be helpful for Windows users to explore Ubuntu faster, and will help them get stuck to Ubuntu once they see a neat feature that amazes them.

In my opinion, Windows users aren't very familiar with the concept of forums when they change to Ubuntu, because of which they may not be well informed about Ubuntu features like Compiz.

A kind of 'package me' webpage from the launchpad.net database, would be very useful.

Would be a page where a packager, which may not know what about to package next, would pick from this database result list, and helping starting the packaging process, whatever he is MOTU, Debian, or whatever.

I think this would also help on reducing the pressure of noise from the Debian packaging mailing lists.

This is the idea: Press a key, and a small window comes up in the upper-right listing all your contacts. Click one, and it comes up with a text box. Type in some text, click send and they get your message.

So you know which version you where using prior to updating, and if there is any problems you would know which version was causing it when filing a bug report. Something like "Update version x.x.x, you have y.y.y."

Ok, it's a VERY small point, but when Update Manager is launched, it says 'Your system is up to date.'

Then you click 'check' and find that it *isn't.*

This makes about as much sense as clicking 'Start' in Windows when you want to shut down, and it would be nice if Update Manager didn't tell you that you were up to date until AFTER you click 'check'.

It is very frustrating when you get caught out after 30 boots and the system does a full check. Especially if you are about to give a presentation or you just need to read one bit of information. The Ubuntu team have done a great job of speeding up the boot time but this irritation undoes all the good work.

Possible solutions and further explanation:
http://micrux.net/?p=52

I am thinking something like this: http://blog.chip.de/chip-linux-blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/mintdesktop.png

Why?

It will ease for new users to configure some desktop settings (and others) that should be as easy as possible to configure

It should be possible to select objects (icons in a file manager, for instance), by drawing a free-form lasso around them instead of drawing a rectangle. Rectangles are fine for some things, but only if the things you want to select happen to be in a rectangle shape already, which is not very common.

So currently, selecting objects that are in a non-rectangular shape requires many operations, like holding down the Ctrl key and making multiple rectangular selections. On the Desktop, you could also drag the objects into a pile and then drag a rectangle around them. Neither is a great solution.

Why not just let the user draw a curve around the objects they want? This is more intuitive, doesn't require two hands, and is already a common feature of graphics editors.

It's kind of hard to describe what I'm imagining without visuals. I have a more detailed description with mock-up images on my website.

Visual mockup here.

As shown, a line would be drawn back to the starting point to complete the selection, so you don’t have to draw the entire outline. The line that you draw should be simplified as you draw it, on the order of the size of one icon, so as not to be messy, since we don’t need any more precision than a single icon anyway. It should also be possible to “backtrack”; if you draw backwards within a certain width of the line you already drew, it will erase it, so as to de-select something you accidentally went around.

I wish I knew enough about programming to create a mock-up app that people could play with.

It would be great to have a physics driven desktop so one icons pushes another and it would be great to organize your icons in stacks wich expand on mouse over or something. Desktop uses to end up very messy and unorganized.

"Add/Remove" brings back horrifying memories of the slow, useless "Add/Remove Programs" from windows.

While the "Add" would ordinarily suggest that the user can easily add programs, this was not the case in windows. In fact, I never used "Add/Remove Programs" to add a program in windows.

So I suggest something like "Get/Remove". Get is a much more accurate term because it actually downloads all the programs you tell it to.

during the boot process it would be cool if under the progress bar, there was a place to enter your login info and your password. Now I am _not_ saying to start logging in at this point. Just store the information until the system can really login. leave a message like "please wait while system is booting. your login info will authenticated shortly". then when all the services needed to really login are up, the system 'automatically' checks there id/password and logs in. In this way I can press power on my computer then _immediately_ enter my password/login info and go do some thing else while the system boots 100% to my desktop.

if the provided login info fails, then we show the normal please reenter you info screen

Now some people might not like this or think its confusing, so we could just make it an option that can be set by the user.

Pidgin is a good program to chat on all protocols, but a webcam plugin is still missing.
The developers aren't decided to code webcam support, but having this in Pidgin is very needed.

Or why not code this plugin for emesene? But you can only use the MSN protocol at the moment!

Adding a "Secure Delete" feature to shred files in the trash can beyond recovery.