Contributor jrusinek

I must say tvtime is king in tv software in linux for what I have seen in past. I installed almost all kinds of Tv softwares till date like kdetv,zapping,xawtv some odd players that have least features like xine,vlc.none of the software that official are tv viewing softwares have been updated in years and most of windows users keep waiting to get there video card getting automatically detected and will be able to have nice and shiny new features that can beat commercial apps but hey they never come to linux.In windows there are I should say around 150 applications even free wares to play tv,companies which manufacture the tv cards also supply additional software like wintv from Hauppauge they don’t support linux but there isn’t a good solution to even one software like Christv,windvr.
Tvtime is light years behind all the hype and functionality, I think the development of tvtime,xawtv,kdetv(kde only) have gone into dust and no development news in years(that’s worst).Particularly I want to appeal for new software rather than making tvtime better, if its isn’t possible carry on with tvtime and make new release.
Features I expect in new release or in New Tv viewing software
1) Enable more GUI features and wizards for configuration that can be changed even after installation.
2) Searching for channels for more regions other than European countries,I need searching feature for india,asia etc,Search using frequency table,channel mode bg etc,region based,frequency based like between 27 hz to 800 hz.
3) Allow saving channels as a list of channel in a file that can be imported/exported so that it allows me to save time when I reinstall application. using some file format such as .channels,.chl etc
4) Allow me to edit name, position of channel, swap two channels, delete a channel, add a channel using frequency, and skip a channel. Fine-tune a channel (tvtime has this but little better) using keyboard shortcut like plus and minus.
5) Take screenshot from TV channel,grab a video, record video from TV on to harddisk and save it in formats such as avi,mpeg.
6) Schedule a TV program so that I can view on that date and time.titan TV like support that allows grabbing TV Schedule from web that’s country based.
7) Allow more configuration through gui,setting picture quality,image compression,

[....]

Simple, would be nice to have an option to add notifications, i don't personally like a mute system, and i hate system bell. Would be nice to have a plugin that allows the user to have sound for important notifications like errors and stuff.

Beagle is the better tracker.
Ubuntu changed to tracker because beagle was slow and bloated, but that's not the case any more.
http://www.cywhale.de/2007/07/12/beagle-vs-tracker-beagle/


If you like this idea, also look at my other ideas

First of all: What is the difference between Preferences and Administration? For example: why do I see 'Encryption and Keyrings' in Preferences and 'Keyring Manager' in Administration? What is the difference between 'Default Printer' and 'Printing'? Why do I have to disable the Tracker under Sessions and not under Search and Indexing? And why are these menu's so large? I have 24 items in Preferences (they don't even fit on my screen!) and 18 items in Administration. To put all this stuff in a popup menu is bad interface design imho. Besides, the number of option should be much smaller. A few suggestions:

- Merge 'Screensaver', 'Screen Resolution' and 'Screens and Graphics'.
- Merge 'Network', 'Network Proxy' and 'Network Tools'.
- Merge 'Update Manager, Synaptic Package Manager, Software Sources'.
- Merge 'Encryption and Keyrings', 'Authorizations', 'Keyring Manager'.


Below are all settings I can visit via the System menu. This is just way too much.


-- Preferences --
Universal Access
About Me
Appearance
Bluetooth
Default Printer
Encryption and Keyrings
Keyboard
Keyboard Shortcuts
Main Menu
Mouse
Network Proxy
PalmOS Devices (I don't have one)
Power Management

[....]

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.

Ubuntu's bootloader is a stark black and white screen, filled with confusing options. It gives newbies a moment of indecision, as they try to figure out if they are supposed to choose something, and wonder why there are three or four Ubuntus listed. Then the timer finishes counting down (starting from 10), and the newb begins to feel like he's getting in over his head as his PC boots into Ubuntu.

Too much information up front, stark text-only display, painfully long countdown timer. What would be the alternative? Well, when a Fedora PC is booted up, the first thing the user sees is a graphical splash screen, and "Booting into Fedora (kernel version) in 4 seconds ... " The user can press a key to interrupt and select from kernel versions or alternative operating systems, or just let it boot into Fedora.

Can't we create our own attractive bootloader? Or, failing that, copy-and-paste Fedora's?

I guess everybody has experienced the rather long boot up times in Ubuntu (particularly with laptops). I know they are already working on it, but the change from feisty to gutsy was a pain in the ass in terms of boot up speed.
A default WinXP installation beats Ubuntu's boot up time by far!! That shouldn't be allowed fellas!!

I therefore propose to the development team (both Ubuntu and by extension Gnome)to work on the improvement of boot up times in Ubuntu systems.

It really needs one. :)

When you minimize an application window to the taskbar in Gnome there is a frame-like animation. The animation is very choppy and makes the maximize/minimize action feel unresponsive.

Please add an option to disable it. (I know there is one in gconf but it also disables drawing of windows while moving - which is a bit too much)

Right now we have three package managers: gnome-app-install, Synaptic, and the .deb installer.

Why can't these be one application?

give gnome-app-install a backend to handle .deb files, or give it an administrative mode where it has all the power tools that synaptic has. Start somewhere. But end with one spot to manage every application installed on my system, no matter how it got there.

As a side note, another idea was automated install of tarballs. I know this will never be a perfect system because not all tarballs use the generic install method. But maybe push for some way to seperate and deal with those who do use the generic method.

There should be absolutely no reason for anyone to say that its easier to install, manage, and update apps on any other platform than Linux!

firefox 3 theme for linux sucks compared to mac os x and vista's. Mac OS X's "Proto" Theme makes our theme look very amateur. Maybe someone could create an "Ubuntu" Theme that looks good, unlike the one now.

It's pointless to kwin4 using compositing capabilities to compete with compiz project, why not work together? making Kwin4 support Compiz plugins and vice-versa. Trying to port Compiz' functionality to Kwin is a waste of time/effort, instead both project should work along to make things better, maybe kwin's stability and compiz eye-candy, who knows... But what is sure is that fusion makes powerful things.

At around one thousand four hundred people in it 24/7, #ubuntu may be the most populous irc channel in the history of mankind. It's so noisy I don't see how anyone ever gets help. Most of the time people just get scared and go to #ubuntu-offtopic or something (guilty)... Without extraneous join/part hiding in pidgin, I'd never even bother with it.

More problems come when you go to try to figure out how it should be split.
I propose #ubuntu and #ubuntu-x64 for a start, and all of you probably have better ideas. Put 'em here. Also, I'd like to know if others observe this to be as much of a problem as I do.

Ubuntu has the largest support community on earth, and as it continues to grow, it's going to need to adapt its community structure to that growth. The longer we wait, the more people in need of help we scare off.

It would be nice to have an "Eject Device" Button in Nautilus, in the top toolbar, by:

[Back] [Forward] [Up] [Stop] [Reload] | [Home] [Computer] | [Search] [TimeVault] | [Eject Device]

That way, I wouldn't have to navigate to the Desktop to eject a device. In order to avoid confusion, I would hide the button if the user is not browsing a mounted device.

Having login sound is nice, but sometimes we boot our laptop during the lecture or a meeting and we want it to be absolutely quiet.

There should be a volume control or just a "mute" button in GDM Login window.

When i change some hardware pieces i need to configure them manually, ubuntu should recognize there has been a hardware change and configure it.

A lot of polish needed during shutdown / log out.

Very likely event during ubuntu usage:
- You click the button in the top of the screen. Then you do restart/power off/log out. But one of your apps has a document open.

What should happen:
- The app creates a notify dialog, the app's taskbar button appears in the taskbar and begins to flash, you click the button, the application goes visible and you can click "No, I don't want to save the file that's the reason I pressed power off without handling this file first", shutdown continues.

What happens now:

- After the app creates the dialog,

Problem A:
The app's button flashes. You try to click the button, but it doesn't respond. gnome-panel has gotten unresponsive after you started the shutdown procedure. You need to guess that ALT+TAB is your only way to exit. If you do nothing, it will never shut down and gnome-panel will remain unresponsive, which will probably make your life harder.

Problem B.
The app is in another desktop. So, this time the button does not even appear in the taskbar. Good luck finding out you got an app in another desktop blocking the shutdown process . If you find out, you cannot switch to the other desktop, because... gnome-panel doesn't respond anymore. My solution to this is CTROL+ALT+BACKSPACE, I wish a new user good luck finding that out.

Conclusions:
- gnome-panel should be the last app to die during a shutdown sequence, it should wait for all other apps to be closedm then quit. It should also stay responsive. I think the gnome panel currently waits for all applications to be closed, but it doesn't allow another thread to take care of clicks passed to the panel, this is bad.

[....]

As a seasoned user of the terminal, the issue of an application having an icon embedded into it is something that I didn't even notice until I started converting others to Ubuntu. I propose adding a non-obtrusive section to ELF applications that provides this functionality and can be accessed through GNOME's thumbnail capability. This idea is meant to compliment the icons provided through the package manager and take advantage of the extensibility of the ELF specification.

Many users expect applications that they've downloaded to have recognizable icons, this icon is usually something familiar from visiting the website for the program. A good example of an application that's not already included in the Ubuntu repo is "songbird", which has a large egg right next to the download link and for its Windows icon.

In addition, provided that this technology is adopted by different segments of the development community (GNOME, automake, and developers) then icon handling will no-longer require any action for packagers. GNOME could easily check the ELF binary for an icon, so no configuration file would be necessary for the appropriate icon to appear. By storing a GUID in the binary it would also be possible to theme icons for all system applications (over-riding the icon stored in the binary) by using the GUID as a unique id for matching the application with an icon stored in a theme.

For a technology demo and screenshots visit
http://www.compholio.com/elficon/

(NOTE: Modified 03/27/08 to clarify and better explain impact)

When you're represented with a yes / no / cancel buttons in KDE, it's presented as:

Yes, no, cancel.

In windows these buttons are displayed in the same order as KDE.

In gnome, the placement is no, cancel, yes.

Now this is *quite* confusing for those who're used to diffrent placement, not to mention the times they'll press the wrong buttons by old habit. I suggest to offer a choice to the users of which placement they'd rather have.

Don't you hate when you by mistake press crtl + alt + backspace at the same time? And everything you are working on just disappear you don't even have to save.

Now why don't do like fedora, make taping crtl + alt + backspace once make a sound so you know that you have pressed it and if you press crtl + alt + backspace twice you restart X11.