Contributor mridkash

In Mac OS X when you try to copy/move a file in a protected folder appears a pop-up that asks you to insert admin password.

In Ubuntu the same thing become very difficult, especilly copying multiple files: you have to access to the terminal and write a command. This could be really stressing for a new user.

Could you implement the same function seen on Mac?

I've wasted many hours of my life clicking "Skip" more than 15.000 times while doing full backups of my home-directory.

Nautilus simply HAS TO offer more buttons than "Skip", "Abort" and "Retry". A simple "Skip All" in the fashion of "Overwrite All" would have saved my hands, arms and mousebuttons severe strain!

Secondly, a "Skip this folder" should also be introduced. For example, Nautilus could offer this functionality after 3 files of the same folder could not be copied successfully (Just an idea).

These functions are really easy to implement & they would help so much! Please fix this!

P.S.: Alternatively, make Nautilus simply copy everything without trouble. I really do not understand why it always complains over 15.000 times when copying my home-directory... even when I'm root. This is bad. But offering Skip-functionality might be the easier choice!

The default gnome games for solitaire, minesweeper, etc are really the best out there, but I hate that if I remove one game through "Add/Remove Programs" it removes all of them! Why?

This will not only confuse, but also really annoy most users. A reason should at least be given. I know there are easy ways around this, but most average users are going to want to use the easy package manager... I mean, that's what it's there for right?

I dislike a lot that the system makes a hidden folder "/trash" in the USB, floppy and others ... The erasure should be direct in these elements because it is very confusing to have this hidden folder storing it erases not even know it

When a user currently boots into the 'recovery mode' from GRUB, they are presented with a command-line interface with complete root privileges and no introduction. This is just not user-friendly by any definition.

With the introduction of bullet-proof X in 8.04, it should be possible to launch some sort of gui no matter what, so how about creating a guided recovery app (in the style of 'ubiquity-only') that goes something like this:

Welcome to the Ubuntu Recovery Helper.
-If you booted into this mode because booting Ubuntu normally doesn't work, press continue.
-If you have booted into this mode by accident, you can reboot your computer and choose the option to load Ubuntu normally.
-If you are an advanced user and would like to go straight to the command-line, press Advanced.
[REBOOT] [ADVANCED] [CONTINUE]

If they press continue:
-If you know approximately what is wrong with your PC, select it below and press Continue.
-If you don't know what is wrong, press I Don't Know.
[]Graphics Card or Monitor
[]Hard Disk
[]Sound
[]etc.
[BACK] [I DON'T KNOW] [CONTINUE]

Selecting Graphics Card or Monitor would launch the X.org configuration utility, with the additional option to 'Autodetect any display hardware changes' (runs "sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xorg-server" or whatever the exact code is). Selecting I Don't Know would launch the same prompt that the hardware database thingie uses, and when an error is reported would go to the appropriate item from the list above.

I'm not going to go through the entire thing, but I'm sure you get the idea. At the moment, Windows recovery mode is just an admin desktop, and Ubuntu is command-line. We're currently behind, but implementing something like this would put us years ahead. It would also make a great 'important feature' for 8.10 (like compiz-fusion was for 7.10).

[....]

I'd like a way to backup my entire system with all the settings and packages to a bootable ISO file. So that I can re-install or install on other computers.

This issue is something I face regularly and thats why I'm posting it here.

I want a right click option on the updates in Update Manager which allows me to lock the version of a software and not update it. I know this functionality exists somewhere in Synaptic Package Manager, but still it would be convenient.

Example:
I have nvidia card on desktop and there was an intel video driver update recently, so it came up in Update Manager. I didn't want to install it obviously, so I unchecked it. But still every time I boot up, it shows new updates are available, and I see only that intel driver. If I get a 'do not update option' it would be handy.

Thanks

Usually what keeps me from updating is just the bandwidth. I don't like to update if I'm not going to be nearby to address any issues that arise, and I don't like to have all my bandwidth (which isn't so great) taken up by a 200MB set of updates.

I would like to see the ability to throttle how much bandwidth the update process takes. Also, having the ability to do this in Synaptic would make it much nicer for when you wish to download some of the bigger games.

Document viewers like Evince, Okular, KPDF (...) should have a reading mode which views one or more than one document in columns next to each other. Using a link inside the document should update the neighbouring column.

Reading documents with a computer gives you many benefits (search, links, review). However it is not possible to view content from different parts of the document (e.g. from page 5 and 12) at the same time, which can be very handy, especially when reading research papers.

The result could look like this:
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/7852/pdftwocolumned0.png

This was done using firefox with acroread plugin and split browser extension, but an option to follow a reference which then displays in the other column is missing here too.

for the people with slow connections it would be very useful to have a resume-function for the: synaptic, update-manager and add/remove. So it would be possible to start a bigger download, then pause it to surf or whatever and then resume it again.
It should also work after shutting down the machine completely and rebooting, starting synaptic or whatever and resume at exactly the point where you paused.

Cya

Include a thumbnail of how the application looks in the Add/Remove Program in the description pane.

This visual reminder will help users to recognise the program desired quickly.

I have found that the icons for the programs, that are available in Add/Remove, are sometimes not enough to identify the application

The GNOME Panel does not know how to save the positioning of its objects between states.

If I move a panel to the left or right side of the screen and back, it won't remember the previous alignment of panel applets.

If I go to a lower or higher resolution and back (which pretty much automatically happens when switching monitors), it won't remember the previous alignment of panel applets.

This has been bothering me for a long time, and I'm surprised I haven't found any brainstorm ideas on it (and one should be available to mark its precedence or lack of precedence as an issue), although I wouldn't be surprised if there were a bug report.

When you press ctrl alt f1 ect you get a terminal indepenant of X and is wonderfull if you know what your doing, but say my mum accadentally presses ctrl alt f1. Not knowing really what she is doing or the cat lands on the keyboard and puts it into a terminal. She would think the computer is broken and be very confused on how to fix it I think we should put a discription as to what it is and how to get back to X

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

[....]

Ubuntu needs to go green. Powertop, Lesswatts and other tools have finally hit the Linux scene to pave the way for better power management. It needs to be said, "if you want your battery to last longest, or have your energy bill be the lowest, you better use Ubuntu Linux."

I think the shutdown window can use an update. It seems very big and clumsy - there's just too much space. I've done a mockup example of the shutdown window with some small changes.

http://ubuntuforums.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=62917&d=1205796942

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

[....]

Calculator need more functionality particularly for conversions (weight, currency, distance, graphing etc..) Possibly even integrate with commercial calculators (TI-xx, Casio).

It would be nice to have a one stop place to look for the many available education books available. I think lack of awareness that free books exist is slowing their advance and it would nice for Ubuntu too.