Contributor kelvan

Mark /dev, /etc, /lib, /proc, and /var as non-executable.

So that it will not be able to execute a file that resides in those directories, since those directories should never contain any executable files.

Also ~/.config should be non-executable.

This can increase security.

Today I find myself in this position:
My Kubuntu System was roaring and terrible slow. I was wondering: “Did something go wrong during the upgrade?” One look in “top” thought me it was a daemon a “pinot” daemon. An other Search tool.... I just deinstalled “Strigi”! Many people will not look up what is using their resources they just will say: “ubuntu is slow”. People who want to use a Search Tool are able to activate it! So:

Please do not activate Data Crawlers per default!

For example APM, My system not support APM but ACPI and still in dmesg i see APM not supported.
Why i cannot turn off this from "Service manager" only manualy in rc2.d dir ?

The same is with PostgeSQL, i dont see possible method to turn off this with "Service manager".

The same is with nvidia. I use intel X3100 but script for nvidia start automaticaly - but for what?

I think that "Service manager" is too simple or not complete for using.

Live Help/support is now commonly available in many websites and does improve the user experience.

in this online review Ubuntu got bashed:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=4848160

it's clear that with just 2 or 3 answers from a live human person from the chat rooms, that reviewer would have a different opinion.

right now to get to the chat rooms is not a so easy process.

You have to download and configure the irc clients.

I propose a 1 click install and launch of x-chat (or the easier one the devs find appropriate)

also, "Need Live Human Help?" should be highly visible for a new user or else it will not have any effect.

here are example videos of test of how difficult Ubuntu can be even to a tech user:
http://ubunite.com/content/view/66/1/

he could had gotten another person in the IRC support chat rooms to guide him... if this idea was implemented of course

In the "Edit > Preferences" menu of Sound Juicer, you can select how you want it to set up the file hierarchy. This is a really neat function, but it needs a "Custom..." option. I'm imagining something like Audacious or lltag, where you can input a string like

$AlbumArtist - $Album/$TrackNum - $TrackArtist - $Title

and it would output something like

Grass Roots Record Co - Family Album/07 - Casual Fog - Weighted Day.flac

or

$AlbumArtist/$Album/$TrackNum $Title

would give

Grass Roots Record Co/Family Album/07 Weighted Day.flac

I don't think this would be very difficult to implement, and it would improve functionality for me greatly.

Its not entirely uncommon, that there are serious bugs in the included packages on the install DVD, which are only discovered a week after it has been released.

The problem is, sometimes these bugs prevent the users computer from booting. Since its not possible to easily upgrade installed packages from the install DVD via the internet after they have been installed, some users need to wait 6 months for the next release just to be able to boot into their installation. Even if the bug is fixed in the repos 3 days after official release (because there is no easy way for them to upgrade their packages). The liveCD's don't get upgraded, so even though the repos get updated, the liveCD's dont!


And those who say "who cares, this isn't a problem", should remember I am in this situation. I need to manually edit grub to be able to boot at all. Newbies wont bother with that, they will just use the CD as a coaster. And grub still doesn't appear it will be fixed for me in time for hardy, so that means anyone in the same position as me (but who don't know how to use grub command line), wont be able to use ubuntu at all. Yet, the bug may be fixed in 2 weeks, which is too late for me

when you right click on the desktop the last choice you get is change desktop background, and it takes you to the background tab in appearance preferences. not sure if this is intentional but i think people are smart enough to notice the background tab when they click on appearance preferences

When the mouse is set as default (right-handed mouse), the mouse pointer points to the left, like a right arm aiming.

So, when the mouse is set as Left-handed, the pointer should point to the right, like a left arm aiming.

It feels strange to have the pointer in the 'wrong direction' when using the mouse with the left hand!

Installing a software by double clicking on a .deb is now really simple thanks to gdebi. But a a software installed by this method will not be able to auto update. So I propose that a .deb will be able to propose to the user to add a repository in order to stay up to date.

I think it is very confusing that during installation, the screen suddenly becomes black. It would be much better if there would be at least a simple image, so that the screen does not look like the computer just crashed.

When setting up (Myth)buntu on a ALiveNF7G-HDready connected to a TV (only capable of 60Hz), the video card is not detected, X does not start correctly. The only way is to use basic video settings and then get the restricted NVidia driver package. This is not an obvious choice, because I have spent numerous hours trying to use the first option, by configuring the existing driver.

The suboptimal video detection deficiency has been in Linux since 1993, it's about time it gets made foolproof.

Additionally, the test video mode seems not to return to the previous setting if the monitor does not cope with the new video timings. This means starting all over again.

It would be nice to let users create "recovery points".. Sure if something bad happens you can always reinstall all from the beginning and use other backups (if u'v made any) but wouldn't it be nice if there was a possibility for users to make "recovery points" to be able to get there systems back fast. Settings and a list of all packages that ware installed which automatically gets downloaded again when the user recovers the system.. Option to burn the recovery on a CD at once or save an image somewhere.

top is old and well.... old

I can't use my cdrom for something else if i'm using ubuntu live cd. Please enable this option so i can boot live cd to ram, and then take out ubuntu live cd to free my cdrom for some other cd.

sry about bad english :)

- show free space in a progressbar
- show size of each individual package for the easier decision (remaining free space and download time are important)

(sorry for my bad english)

This seems pretty obvious. We need to have something that comes up that's lightweight (system resource wise) that will highlight the improvements of 8.04 over 7.10. Why not?

It's sometimes handy to see in synaptic from which repository a package was (will be) downloaded, so you can tell other people who want to install the same package/program which repository he/she has to add to be able to install the same program.

Synaptic does already has a similar feature, by clicking the "origin" button, you can select only specific repositories and then see which one "has" a certain program, but often the repositories listed are not the same one that are in Settings > Repositories, and it's not a foolproof or easy way to find this information.

It should be easy to get this information, it should be under a new tab in the Properties window of the package.

Upgrading a tainted system (with packages from outside the ubuntu repositories) can seriously cripple your system right now. It is recommended to uninstall the foreign programs before upgrading, but how many people know that? Here’s my idea for making upgrade never fail, and upgrade predictably.

- check the installed packages against the ubuntu repositories
- present the user with a list of apps / libs that couldn’t be found in the repos and propose to remove them beforehand (and try to install them back after the upgrade)
- remove the programs, and keep the list for after the upgrade (leave the configuration files on disk)
- upgrade the system
- try to install all programs on the list back from the new repositories (typically the new repositories have more programs and newer versions, so chances are some programs can be installed from the ubuntu repositories this time)
- in the end, present the list of programs that couldn’t be installed back to the user, so they know what happened (they have installed them from a different repo before, so they can do it again)

There’s probably much more to an upgrade than I make it seem, but I think this could make the upgrade problem free and more transparent to the user.

Ask for installing restricted drivers (like nvidia or ati) at install time

There should be an option to install newer packages rather than the outdated ones on disc during system installation. Doesn't Debian already have this?