Contributor maco

Terminator terminal emulator:

Some of the features -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminator_(terminal_emulator)

It's in hardy and intrepid, with the main feature being able to split the window into multiple terminals.

Package information:
http://packages.ubuntu.com/hardy/terminator

We should prompt the user as part of the Ubiquity installer and ask him/her whether they wish to enable automatic security updates or not.

Currently, Ubuntu, and Linux in general, have few real viruses in the wild.

This will change with time, as all systems, no matter how well designed, cannot be made perfect.

When problems are found and fixed in Ubuntu's security, they are signed and released into the repositories.

Currently, the default is to not update automatically. This makes sense, as we shouldn't do such things without a user's permission. However, many users are not aware of security updates, and do not know that the update process can be automated, as the option is hidden away in Sys>Admin>SoftwareSources.

Prompting would allow the user to better protect himself, and the user would be able to choose from
* No automatic
* Download and notify
* Download and install

The system will not reboot without the users permission, no matter what the user chooses.

Non-security updates should _never_ be automated, and should require user intervention (this is the current behavior).

Human Murine And CLearlooks Theme were removed from Hardy Beta in latest update.

The new themes were considered a improvement over the old human engine based theme but in my point of view it is difficult to compare because the difference between them is more then just color palette they use different engine .

Human theme in my point of view was a good compromise but now we have better alternative.Even if these theme can not be made default due to some political or technical reason ( still waiting for the question to be answered ) .It can still be made optional it is far better then the other theme included which are the reminiscent of the old days of gnome without cario.

Currently Ubuntu uses the "Ubuntulooks" GTK engine to draw widgets, which was forked from Clearlooks some time ago, but this engine appears to be no longer maintained

For more detail about the theme go to
http://tombuntu.com/index.php/2008/03/02/two-new-themes-arrive-in-ubuntu-804/
It provides nice overview of the new themes in hardy but murrine image is outdated it does not use striped menu bar and has same clean interface as clearlooks based theme.

For changes in the clearlooks based engine go to
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/gnome-2-22-review.ars/3
it gives a nice summary of the changes in clearlooks engine which will help u to know small subtle improvements which are also present in human clearlooks theme

Ubuntu question relating to this
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/human-theme/+question/28643

[....]

If a user tries to open a .txt file created in Windows, it will always ask them whether to open or run it.

I understand why, and I know it's just a setting in Nautilus Preferences (under Behavior), but it's enough to annoy new users and make the user experience less smooth and intuitive.

Maybe only unknown (or commonly executable) file extensions should prompt - and just open/view files with extensions like TXT and RTF.

Well I would like see better description of bundled software on Ubuntu.com. Why? Well that is where an average user would go, now if I would like to learn a bit more on lets say Safari web browser, well Apple has a good webpage for that, also on Apple's site they have it where I can search for software such as Firefox and link to downloading it.

When the power button is pressed, it would be good if Ubuntu could first ask what to do, but then automatically power down after a delay if no response is given. The delay length could be configurable, and the automatic shutdown should probably be optional. I think a delay of 60s would be a good default delay length

This would guard against accidental (user accidentally bumped the power button) or malicious (someone walked by and pressed the power button to be mean) power button pushes by allowing the user to cancel, yet still allow the user to press the button and walk away.

OS X and Fedora both do this and it works very well.

This is based on the similar idea #1324, suggesting that Ubuntu shutdown when the power button is pressed rather than asking what to do.

Disable the IPV6 when installing, or at least give the choice to the user:
some Java applets don't deal very much with ipv6, causing the applet not to start / to crash.
To disable ipv6, the module ipv6 has to be blacklisted. And a reboot is necessary. Very bad experience!

The Gnome panel needs the ability to lock the entire panel like objects on the panel can be locked to the panel.
This would prevent accidentally deleting or moving the panel.


Launchpad bugs:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/gnome-panel/+bug/73343
https://bugs.launchpad.net/gnome-panel/+bug/83286

Gnome bugzilla bugs:
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=309721
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=114160

when i install vim in windows i get "edit with vim" entry in right click menu, very useful for files of "unknown" type when you expect them to be text files, or just want to verify. So i think it would be a good idea to add such entry in right click menu, should look something like "edit with ". I asume it can be done very simply by editing some gnome config file, but it would be good to have this right after installation.

The only way to vote on Electric Sheep screensavers is to use a hacked version of xscreensaver which won't even compile on Hardy.

Since I don't think many people would be scared of an extra button to configure their selected screensaver, it would be really nice if it could be included (like it is in xscreensaver-settings).

Include Compiz Fusion Manager by default

At the moment the live CD allows you to manage the creation of partitions yourself before you install, or choose "everything in one partition". The alternate CD also has similar features, but also has the option of using LVM (Logical Volume Manager) to make post-install partition management easier, and MD (Multi-Disk) to do software RAID based installs.

These (LVM & MD) should be incorporated into the live installer (Ubiquity) and further there should be an easy option for having a separate root (/) and home (/home) partition on installation.

There are a few significant benefits to this, not least of which is the ability to easily reinstall the OS (or install a different derivative or even different distro) without losing the valuable data in /home.

Other benefits include resilience (from MD), easy partition resizing (from LVM), and better space management, making it so that a full /home partition does not affect the system as a whole (as / would not be full).

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

[....]

Replace initscripts with upstart events. Our boot sequence is currently slow, full of race conditions and poor interactions, especially with competition between the series of tasks run by sysv-rc, udev and sometimes just with the kernel. We developed upstart so that we could have a truly event driven boot sequence that would be fast, reliable and flexible; we should take advantage of it.

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?