Contributor mcwest

Originally, i was really against the idea of a dark theme, and maybe i'd still prefer it if Ubuntu would lighten up a little. I understand the organic theme completely, but please...this is an operating system. Anyways, all the dark themes i had seen really turned me off and even the best ones seemed to be loved by some and hated by others. If we're going to have a dark theme, lets have one that we can all agree on. When i saw the Intrepid alpha screenshot, like many others, i gagged a little.

How people interact with their computer is really essential to their satisfaction. This is why aside from features, the software's stability (minimizing annoying bugs), speed (clean code and making everything as efficient and responsive as possible), and interface (look and feel) are the three most important things that should be our focus and be kept at a high priority.
We should really work to increase usability: http://mpt.net.nz/archive/2008/08/01/free-software-usability

I have looked through all the artwork submissions for Intrepid, and of all of them, this is the one dark theme that i would actually like to use: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Intrepid/Wall-light

I first saw it on this Digg submission: http://digg.com/linux_unix/Intrepid_Ibex_Mockup_Designs

Of course, i'm sure everyone will have input to make it even better. This isn't a final design, but vote for the concept so far!

P.S. Please Digg :) Thanks http://digg.com/linux_unix/Vote_for_a_beautiful_usable_Ubuntu

Imagine you have many files in different folders. You can search for this files using the graphical search tool under "Places". And if you find them all you cannot move them!
You can only move them to trash and then move them where you want to. In my opinion a graphical search tool must have this features.

I have installed Ubuntu on a number of friends' computers. I have also had an often complaint along the lines of "my sister clicked something and lost the 'buttons at the top.'"

It would be easy to show them how to click on an easy "reset to default" option on the right-click menu for the panel.

NetworkManager 0.7 offers many, many feature that are urgently needed in hardy/networking.
I think it will be included in Intrepid Ibex, but since hardy is a LTS release it would be fine to have it at least in the backports repo.

Many people want to contribute to Ubuntu, but don't really know how. Some are developers, others just want to help testing things, translating, etc.

How about a site where you can sign up as want-to-be-contributor, and specifying your main abilities/interests, i.e programming(language), ui-tester, translator, etc. The site could then make suggestions on what you could be interested in helping. People already helping could also use it for finding contributors to their own projects.

Usplash looks very ugly in Hardy (always with very low resolution). It would be nice if it could start always with the highest resolution available (getting the info from xorg, ex.)

When burning a mp3-cd (cd with filesystem containing mp3's) for my car stereo i can't use nautilus-cdburner because it burns an incompatible fs-format.
I'd like to see a switch somewhere in the burn dialog where i can change the filesystem type. (windows-compatible/linux-compatible/car-stereo/etc)

Why is the current default desktop background of Hardy the png version of an image whose svg version is smaller? We should be trying to use vector graphics instead of raster as much as possible.

It is quite uncomfortable to configure the synaptic touchpad.

First you have to install gsynaptics (or a similar program like qsynaptics), which is quite easy.

But after you have done that, you have to configure the xorg.conf (SHMConfig true).

If you have a look in the new xorg.conf provided by hardy, there are no entries for the touchpad anymore. So the full touchpad configuration has to be inserted manually.

I suggest that the configuration of the touchpad should be more easy.

It would be more comfortable for new users, if they do not need to configure the xorg.conf.

I have been thinking about how to improve package management in Ubuntu (and other distros) last months. I have developed in my mind quite clear conception of how the package management should ideally look like. I will summarize some of my ideas briefly in several points, I won't go into much detail. You will probably find some of them very hard to realize/implement (e.g. the first one), but I have also ideas how to do that, so don't bother to ask me in the comments. I will maybe start to work on these ideas in the future, so your opinions are welcomed!

Here is the summary of the ideas:

1) Create universal package management system and convince other distributions to switch to it - present system, when people have to create several different packages of one program is really ineffective, a lot of the contributors' time could be spent better. This is also the cause why many applications have to be installed in the unuserfriendly configure/make/make install way (impossible to install for normal users).

2) Possibility to install packages directly from web pages via one click

3) Possibility to install packages for not-privileged users

4) Possibility to compile packages from source code

5) Possibility to have several version of a package installed (e.g. Firefox 2 and Fx 3 beta)

6) When downloading updates, download only diffs of necessary files

7) Possibility to download special version of a package (containing dependencies which are not normally installed on standard system), which can be later installed on another PC which is not connected to net

8) Faster package installation


[....]

Integrate Wikipedia and Wiktionary into Dictionary, so if I lookup "Car", then I can goto Car article on Wikipedia.

We have dual-core, and quad-core processors now, how much are we taking advantage of this additional power. Also we could provide better development tools to take advantage of multi-core processors.

OSS should lead the way in parallel processing, not just playing catch-up. We still don't even take advantage of the fact that most modern processors are now 32/64 hybrid. OS X can run 32/64/PPC(Rosetta) architecture all on the same box. Yes it is difficult, but a discussion should be started on what kind of work could be done in this area.


http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20080318corp.htm?iid=pr1_releas epri_20080318r (Cred: jespdj)

When an external NTFS hard disk is not cleanly unmounted because you unplugged it wildly on Windows, or because of a Windows crash, there is an error when you try to plug it on ubuntu, explaining what to do on the command line.

There should be an easy way to mount the volume anyway, by giving the choice to the user to mount it anyway, or not to mount it. A clear dialog box should do the trick.

There is a wide community of online artists capable of creating brilliant, unique artwork.

heading: Get your artwork on 10 million desktops

Ubuntu, the world's most popular Linux distribution, needs a new theme. The winner will appear in the default desktop of Ubuntu 8.10.

We're looking for original wallpapers, that match Ubuntu's color palette. You entry should also include a suggested combination of application, icon, and window themes. These can be existing themes, or your own original works - you only need to submit a wallpaper to win.

Work must be CC licensed, and be openable in either Inkscape or Gimp (rest of criteria continues)

Submit your works to DeviantArt and include the words [Ubuntu810].


Good luck!

People around the globe that are using/concidering using Ubuntu are afraid that some of their hardware won't work for them. And some are frustrated to buy additional add-on cards to work around unsupportad onboard chips. All this could be avoided with a lookup in an ubuntu Hardware Database Website.

Some problematic hardware can be used with more or less work if helping information is available together with the hardware compatabillity data.

The hardware database can be found at http://hwdb.ubuntu.com/

From idea #47: The data should then be available in a format that is simple for users to browse on-line when considering new hardware.

As a user I want to be able to listen to audio or watch videos with the least amount of setup. I would like to have a single interface (Codec Manager) that lists all of the most common audio and video formats and shows me if I am missing the necessary codec for playback.

Use Case: Enable MP3 playback.
Precondition: MP3s are not currently playable.
1. User logs into the system.
2. User opens the Codec Manager.
3. System displays a list of common audio/video formats.
4. User selects MP3s.
5. System displays some info about MP3s.
6. System displays a list of available codecs.
7. User selects a codec and clicks Apply.
8. System downloads and installs the selected codec.
9. System informs the user when completed.

Other possible features:
- Display a list of audio/video types that are missing codecs.
- An auto-setup function, that grabs the recommended codec for all formats.

Audio and Video formats that should be supported:

Audio:
- MP3
- OGG
- AAC
- FLAC
- Real Audio

Video:
- MP4

[....]

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.

The restricted driver manager is a quite good utility, especially for new users. But often the automatic driver installation process gets useless if the used video card is not supported by the old driver in the ubuntu repository. The User has to download the new driver from the vendor's website and install it manually. This causes several problems, most irritating might be the required reinstall on kernel updates, not to speak of the lack of comfort for the average user.
And it's not only the support of new hardware, also new features are introduced with newer driver versions (e.g. AIGLX in the fglrx one).
So I think, these drivers should be updated by the update manager, too.

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

In many cases, I can't configure my webcam or I have problems with the microphone. Now I can use my webcam but only with V4L2 and only 3 programas detect my webcam. It's a good idea can use my webcam in all programs as camorama.