Contributor mrooney

The idea is simple: There are some folders that represent comics, others music albums, picture albums, tv-shows, etc.
I think that it would be a great improvement to make the folders look like the thing they represent.

Some screenshots, music albums:
http://img209.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pantallazo10ax2.jpg
Comics:
http://img163.imageshack.us/my.php?image=comicavatarsbk3.jpg
Pictures:
http://img230.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pantallazohu0.jpg

File thumbnailers doesn't work for all files. The file extension is used to select the right thumbnailer.
The extension is a part of the URI or path.
This is the faster way and I think the same way should be used to select the right thumbnailer for the right folder.

For example: Lets say that I want to add a thumbnailer for music albums. Instead of using the extension I could use "/home/user/Music" (a part of the URI or path) Then the thumbnailer will work for folders inside that folder. Leaving all other folders without thumbnailers and not slowing down navigation on them.

In the same way I could add another thumbnailer for comics tv-shows pictures etc...


[....]

The emblems on icons give hints to the user about files and folders, however these mainly have to be added manually. Examples of more dynamic emblems are the read-only and symbolic link emblems.

I propose that more icon emblems be made which are dynamically allocated. These could even be animated and programmatically updated. Emblems could indicate things like:

* this file is being downloaded (with progress bar)
* this file has an unsaved version open
* this file is being accessed by another user
* this device is unsafe to remove
* this device is safe to remove
* a device's free space (as a progress bar)
* this version controlled folder can be updated
and so on

Applications could even add and update emblems on their own icons. For example:

* email programs could show an unread message count
* news programs could show an unread story count
* messaging programs could show a status icon
* messaging programs could show an unread message counter
* networked applications could show when they're disconnected
* editing programs could show if there are documents to be recovered
* downloading/transferring programs (like BitTorrent) could show a progress bar (or bars)

I would not go as far as allowing interactive elements (like play/next/etc. buttons on a music player) since these would interfere with the icon's main function, plus such things are more like full-blown applets/widgets/screenlets.

A nice benefit of this approach would be the ability to display a large amount of information completely in context (ie. only the information relevant to the displayed icons will be shown)

[....]

Nautilus could detect if a folder contains a majority of a certain type of files and adapt the type and number of columns to provide more useful details.

I think of pictures folders, where it could show exif informations about pictures like the resolution of the picture and its capture date (in addition to the modification date)

I also think of music folders, where it could show the bitrate,the length and the (ID3) tags of the music files.
I think this would be very useful.

In addition, the ability to add/remove columns should be available by the right click on the listview header.

Please see the comments for further ideas

From #6245 (merged):

Having an extra column in the list showing something like "23x456" would be ideal, because you could see the info for all the files in the folder at once.

Have the info in the status-bar would be better than what we've got currently (right-click->properties->image shows the info in Nautilus, but it's not very efficient)

gnome-system-monitor provides a cleaner interface than Windows "Task Manager", and provides many useful features including list of processes running, memory and network usage, etc.

This functionality should be more accessible by key binding it by default to CTRL-ALT-DELETE as Windows does--as this is more familiar to users coming from Windows. The current key binding for CTRL-ALT-DELETE brings up the shutdown/logout options, which is already accessible as a desktop button, which is redundant for a relatively less used function.

gnome-system-monitor is an idle interface for monitoring the system and killing processes without using the terminal and provides an interface for doing this that most are already familiar with. Changing it's key binding would make it's functionality much more accessible.

There has been a lot of positive talk in the past about replacing Pidgin with a better client that uses Telepathy but now there's one that looks like it's almost ready to do that! Empathy ( http://live.gnome.org/Empathy ) has much more potential than Pidgin since Empathy uses Telepathy ( http://telepathy.freedesktop.org ). Although i don't think Empathy is quite ready for this in Intrepid, it certainly will be for the next release.

(If you'd like to give it a try, don't use the old version in the Hardy repos, look here: http://cass.no-ip.com/~cassidy/blog/index.php/post/2008/04/14/Voice-and-video-c alls-with-Empathy )

The fact that Empathy uses Telepathy to manage all the different protocols it supports is what makes it so great. Why is it that Pidgin supports file transfers on AIM but not Jabber? Why can't i use VoIP to talk to my Google Talk friends in Pidgin?

Empathy will enable more desktop integration, better support for multiple protocols, and a happier user :)

The bottom line is that Empathy has been making much more progress and improving much faster than Pidgin thanks to Telepathy and including it in Ubuntu will only help the process along!

Major Update! Empathy is now part of Gnome-- http://blog.ibeentoubuntu.com/2008/08/gnome-has-empathy-for-you.html

I'm a big fan of Images like .iso. However it is not very easy to mount these Images.

I feel there should be a Tool in Nautilus and Dolphin which allows mounting Images by double Click or something similar. (This feature exists int MacOS). Or with a right click on the I think that would be a very useful Tool for every one.
A good example for this is CDemu.

I know there are some other good programs, but I think that would be the easiest way

When someone wants to unmount a volume and the mount point is used, he gets a message telling him that the volume can't be unmounted because an application uses it. The user has no idea which application is actually using it and can't remove the device.

I propose that the popup tells him which application(s) is(are) using the device and propose to terminate them (that list should be kept up to date when the app. dies).

I'm bored with dual-screen on GNU/Linux, it really has to have a graphic configuration, and better features.
I would like to move windows from a screen to another, but when I maximize I need it to be in a single screen.

Update: Xrandr GUI blog post by Bryce Harrington

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.

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."

At the moment it's possible to manage traditional wired and WiFi connections using Network Manager. To connect via a modem, a 3G/GPRS card, over bluetooth to a cell phone or via USB to another device requires that the user installs extra packages, and does a fair amount of configuration that isn't found in Network Manager.

A single unified tool should be provided which allows the user to connect to a network (or internet) via any supported method. It would also be useful to provide an extension to this tool to manage firewall rules and network connection sharing.

Suspend and hibernate still seems to be a big issue based on forum posts. Really focus on fixing it, even with proprietary drivers.

Gnome will not let you delete all of its panels.

For those who wish to use a dock utility such as avant-window-navigator or kiba-dock, it should be possible to delete all the gnome panels.

Hi,

my idea simple but functional :)

Sample:

Applications Menu > Internet > Liferea Feed Reader (Right Click) and open popup menu : -Add to Panel, - Add to Desktop, **Add to Startup**

yeah, too easy..

Remember the bad ol' days of EasyUbuntu and Automatix? How many of you (and how many times) ran them on fresh Ubuntu installs as a first step? The "ubuntu-restricted-extras" metapackage made them obsolete for good.

But what about now? Have you tried to play your legal DVDs with menus(!) in Hardy, even with libdvdcss2 enabled, and it failed miserably? So - as everybody knows for sure - it's time to install VLC. Easy, done with no effort. Now, set it up to pop-up automagically when you insert your disc. What?! No bloody way?! So, the solution is pretty simple and obvious: google out these instructions: http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Hardy#How_to_make_VLC_open_when_you_insert_a _DVD and follow them step-by-step. Got it? Voila! It works! Hip-hip-hurray!

But this can be done MUCH better. Simply provide one "vlc-dvd-support" (sort-of-meta)package with reasonable description and decent ./postinst and ./prerm scripts, which will do EVERYTHING of above for you. And yes, put it in the medibuntu repository if none of official repositories cant't bear it.

And make it the same way with as many other common post-install tasks and workarounds as possible.

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PS: If you vote this idea down (as somebody just did), explain WHY by adding a comment, please.