Contributor jmmL

It would make ubuntu much less intimidating for windows server admins if there was a gui which allowed configuation of common network services such as:

web
ssh
mail
database
vpn
dhcp
ldap
dns

Some of these are easier than others but I have seen very little work on this front and I think it will help win over windows admins.

Provide this warning with possibility to solve the problem.

Currently it is very difficult to setup and control access to shared folders without editing conf files and reading detailed instructions on all the variables. I propose that sharing (specifically Samba) be given a well worked GUI and some real TLC to bring it up to standard with the experience on Windows or OS X.

For example, by default a share should be accessible as Read Only by anyone on the network without a username or password (guest access). While guest access should be turned on by default, it should also be easy to turn it off, and if desired to give guests read/write access to the folder.

You should also be able to specify local users who will have read/write access, and these local users should sync with smb users invisibly (ie: the user doesn't need to know that there are two password databases being used).

I propose the Properties window for a folder should contain a Sharing tab with all the options available to choose. I also propose a Shared Folders option in the Preferences menu should list the currently shared folders along with their settings, and provide a button to take you into the dialogue where you can set the options.

gnome-system-monitor provides a cleaner interface than Windows "Task Manager", and provides many useful features including list of processes running, memory and network usage, etc.

This functionality should be more accessible by key binding it by default to CTRL-ALT-DELETE as Windows does--as this is more familiar to users coming from Windows. The current key binding for CTRL-ALT-DELETE brings up the shutdown/logout options, which is already accessible as a desktop button, which is redundant for a relatively less used function.

gnome-system-monitor is an idle interface for monitoring the system and killing processes without using the terminal and provides an interface for doing this that most are already familiar with. Changing it's key binding would make it's functionality much more accessible.

You should be able to mark any of your own ideas that currently have a zero or negative score as 'revoked' to close voting on that idea, and remove it from consideration. Being able to revoke your ideas will have at least three distinct benefits:

1) It would give users less ideas to vote on. Currently there's thousands of ideas. If we allow users to recall some of their ideas it would be a form of self-regulation, reducing the number of ideas eligible for voting, thereby helping us focus on the good ideas.

2) It would keep a user's score from plummeting indefinitely due to (possibly just one) bad ideas being submitted. Why should your score continue to tumble over the course of weeks and possibly months with people voting your bad idea down? If you concede it is a bad idea, you should be able to 'undo' your mistake.

3) Given the 'protection' afforded users in item 2 (above), users would not be afraid of submitting 'wild' or 'unconventional' ideas which might otherwise damage their overall score. Conventional brainstorming requires that ideas be received in a non-judgemental manner. - the purpose of which is to give people free range to fly any idea that they think might be worth considering. The community might benefit from some of these wilder, riskier ideas.

Maybe their should also be conditions on which ideas can be revoked. Maybe an idea can only be revoked within the first week of it's issue. Maybe only until it reaches a certain number of views or votes. Perhaps if an idea receives a certain number of up votes it cannot be revoked. Etc.

Revoked ideas can remain in the main listing, just with a special icon (similar to the lock icon for closed ideas) indicated it's revoked status. In your dashboard, any up / down votes that idea received will be removed from your score. Also, a new category 'revoked ideas' will list the total number of revoked ideas you have. Your revoked ideas will also remain listed under the 'my ideas' tab, with the aforementioned special icon.

Perhaps the process of revoking an idea will also give the user an opportunity to revise their original idea based on other user's comments.

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When you visit http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download to download the latest Ubuntu release, you currently get a huge dropdown menu. Then you have to scroll down a huge list filled with continent names, and a lot of strange looking server names -- where is Mirrors.brianm.name located anyway? I don't need so see all that.

We can do better. How about a world map that lets you click on your current location - or relative location?

To paraphrase user-interface guru and recent mozilla hire, Aza Raskin, whenever you ask a user to make a choice they don't care about, you fail as an interface designer. Me and probably 99.9% or the people who visit the Ubuntu download page don't care which specific server we download from. We just want our download. Give us a map, ask us to click on the part of the continent we're on, and leave the rest up to you.


REVISION:

Following our discussion below,

* we can use the user's IP to narrow the possibilities of which servers will best handle the request.

* possibly add an algorithm which takes into account both geographic proximity to user's ISP, as well as real-time server availability.

* returning a short list (of possibly three) servers which might best handle the request.

* naming the servers by city, state/province, country, and not by their (sometimes arcane) server names ...
continued ....

[....]

Synaptic is awesome: type the program you want and it installs it. Yay.

Now what? (says the new user, like me) Where is my program? It didn't launch automatically. There isn't a desktop shortcut. Maybe if I look in the menus it will be there... maybe not. I might need to type some command in a terminal to start it up--I might need to do some initial configuration. Or maybe it is something that is already running and I don't need to worry about where it is or how to "launch it."

All of this is very confusing and traumatic!! Every time Synaptic installs something, it should give a little window that offers to launch the program automatically, gives info on where it is, how to launch it in the future, tells you whether it's in the menus (and where) or if it should be launched from the terminal--or maybe it tells you that this program doesn't need to be launched. The point is it should offer a little bit of info to give just a little bit of context and some help towards getting started.

There should be a more efficient format for apt-get (or the update manager) to download updates. Firstly, it should only need to download the files that have changed in a package (not the whole package), and secondly, it should download a DIFF of those files.

My latest update contains a 34.2 WHOPPING MB update to the linux restricted modules. Here's the changelog:

* Fix broadcom Makefile to get correct objects from split-module.

I'm downloading 34.2Mb just to get a *Makefile update*??? I don't even use any broadcom stuff. Even if I did, I probably wouldn't care enough about a Makefile to make it worthwhile downloading 34.2Mb!

KDE has this functionality. You can set that when you close the laptop lid, the screen automatically gets locked.
In GNOME you have to manually lock it and afterwards close you lid.
I think KDE's approach is faster and more secure and it wouldn't be too hard to make GNOME copy this behaviour.

In international Ubuntu installations, the 'Desktop' folder changes name to translated one, and in some cases, even contain space! (like 'Рабочий стол' for Russian).
While it is "normal" for Windows users which turn to Ubuntu, it has disadvantages:
- Navigation via terminal and keyboard to such folders is very hard and confusing.
- Navigation via ASCII terminal to such folders is impossible.
- Some programs, after installing, tries to create links in 'Desktop' folder, which not exist.
- When folder name contains space, it is hard or impossible to write scripts correctly.
- it looks like pulled from Windows.
To resolve it, I suggest never change 'Desktop' name, but create localized link to it.

Search "Totem" and "totem" tags and you get different results.

Or clicking "Tags" vs. "tags" gives different results (see below).

Please make tag searches case-insensitive. They are far less effective if there are two sets of results for each tag.

Hey,

Why do i need to restart my pc to get the nvidia driver working?

insmod nvidia and a X restart should be enough right!

So with that knowledge again: Why do i need a restart?
It's not modifying the base kernel which is about the only thing that requires a restart on linux and you can only get it that far if you install a new kernel or compile a new one.

My suggestion:
Kick out the restart demand and just restart X.

Edit//
If you vote this idea down tell me why because i can't think of a reason where a reboot would be better then my suggestion.

I recently switched to linux mint, I must say it is very nice and based on gutsy 7.10.

They use the red hat liberation fonts by default and OMG It looks amazing.


The default ubuntu fonts are painful to look at once you know how good it can look.


https://www.redhat.com/promo/fonts/

It's annoying when you've become in love with Ubuntu, but realize your Laptop functions don't all work properly.
Backlighting, Power Management, the Function Buttons, etc..

One of the serious problems in Ubuntu is that Gnome is a bit sluggish when it comes down to the graphics. Try to install AWN and you know that the icons literally look like shit (compared to OSX).
But the problem does not end there, the whole system should be vector graphics by now when it comes to rendering the windows, menus, icons and so on.

I know this is not a Ubuntu feature, but it should be pressed HARD upon so we also get the great crisp sharp user-interface OSX has. It does not make the system slower, just better. With vector graphics, CompizFusion could take a new leap forward since it is then not hold back by the limitations of bitmap images. Also new graphical applications would be easier to develop, see on the mac side where Quartz engine has helped make a sea out of new graphical applications. We need a Quarz engine for Gnome now!

It would be useful to create a graphical user interface for the new ufw (Uncomplicated Firewall) in Ubuntu. Would be useful to make every new release with an enabled firewall by default and with this graphical firewall utility also.

One of the things included in Hardy was ufw (Uncomplicated firewall wall), but everything has to be done via CLI. There is a very nice GUI frontend being developed for it and it would be nice if it is bundled as a default package.

Links to the project:
https://launchpad.net/gui-ufw
http://gufw.tuxfamily.org/index.html

Renew ip address
flush DNS
Etc

Enable Nautilus to use tabs.

Nautilus is Ubuntu's default file management software. There is no reason why you should need to open countless Nautilus windows to manage your files. It is time to bring tabs from your web browser to your file browser.

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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