Contributor nevermind85

On Xubuntu Hardy, when using the default font size for the desktop, the text for the wastebasket is split onto two lines like this:

Wastebaske
t

This, imoho, looks sloppy. Perhaps there is a way to extend the length of a "line" by one char ? If not maybe it could be renamed to "dustbin" "trashcan" "wastebin" or one of any number of possible shorter names. This could be one of those little tiny seemingly unimportant things that make a good system great. Comments ? If you vote please comment so I can get an idea of what you think. Thanks.

Most basic issues that most of the users get frustrated with are
1) /media should only show Device icons rather than devices as folders
2) Search should allow searching more than one drive
3) Disable scrambling of icons, refresh f5 should realign icons same effect as arrange icons by name. Disable overlapping of icons “on desktop, in nautilus”
4) Dynamic arrangement of icons is the key, every time a device is connected or removed, there should be visual notification, sound notification, desktop icon arrangement of device(s) should be dynamic, rearrange on mounting and unmounting automatically. Make “keep aligned” actually work
5) Add to playlist is missing, when I want to play songs in player and make a playlist am not offered a choice
6) Recover deleted files from recycle bin(well I also made another idea but still it doesn’t get priority) Kde's dolphin does recover deleted files.
7) By default install a Offline dictionary client, basic paint like application which allows simple editing of screenshots and allows hand made drawings, basic video editor
8) Install Network support i.e. by default support sharing of folders and devices like sharing folders over network, sharing devices like printer, scanner over network. I am least concerned about installing samba and its configurations make it seamless and transparent like Win98, Xp, Vista, yes windows 98 can by default allow users to share drives with installing excess drivers or software packages.
9) Explain and help with file system, getting to know linux, ubuntu file system what to expect and what is still missing like highlight features and tell users about what are future goals and road map.
10) Install Clipboard manager and download manager which can handle by default the directory to downloaded files maybe user's home directory/downloads folder. I agree Firefox 3 does all the downloading of files but what if I want to use Firefox 2 or opera or midori, some other browser or over FTP.Clip board manager like gclipper can handle multiple clips of texts or remember paths of folders, search strings etc.
 Right click on desktop>>open terminal in context menu, nautilus should show paste, cut, copy buttons in nautilus.fonts, cursors can be installed using context menu>>install.
 Right click on folder or drive and search this folder or search this drive

[....]

When I select a music file, video file or picture in Nautilus I would like to get some basic information about them in the status bar:

- For video and music: Length and quality.
- For pictures: Size (in pixels)

I think it's annoying that I have to open a movie just to find out how long it is.

I created a new user account on my Ubuntu system called 'admin'. I soon realised that after a reboot I could not sudo or access Synaptic or unlock users-groups.

I traced this back to the new 'admin' user having a group 'admin' created which was written over the default system 'admin' group (for system administration). I had to do a recovery boot and delete the admin user (which deleted the group also). Then I had to recreate the group and add my user account to it and all was well again!

With this in mind, my suggestion is that users-groups should not allow a user to create a username that could cause problems with the system. There are several reserved names that should generate a warning before allowing the user to continue. These should include:

admin
root
users
syslog
klog
crontab
gdm

I was not sure if this was a bug or a suggestion, but since the users-groups program does not have this functionality built-in already I am submitting this as a suggestion.

Make a JavaScript command-line interface interpreter that you can invoke via a shell script.

#!/usr/bin/javascript

Then you can use JavaScript (which is becoming increasingly popular) in shell scripts.

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Problem:
A user who wants to convert entire partitions to one file system to another currently needs to move any data that they wish to save to another partition, and manually replace the partition with the desired one.
This effectively makes changing a file system in one pass require an extra amount of storage space equal to the size of the files that the user wishes to save.
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Example:
Bob is a new Linux user. He has been dual booting Linux and Windows XP for the past three months and has decided that after giving Ubuntu a try, he feels it suits his needs more than Windows does. But there is a problem. Bob has a 50 Gigabyte external hard-drive that has a single NTFS partition filled with 45 gigabytes of music.
Bob feels that because Ubuntu suits his purposes better than Windows, it would be in his best interest to have his music be on an EXT3 file system, instead of an NTFS. But there is a problem. Bob only has a few gigabytes free on his hard drives, and doesn't have the money to buy a new hard drive.
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Solution:
If you take a look at the G-Parted partition manager, You'll notice that there are a few limitations to which file systems we can manipulate to our heart's content. But that doesn't mean that that's how things will stay.
Consider a stand alone application, or perhaps additional functionality added to existing partition managers, that instead of having to
1) Copy files and folders from the unwanted partition to the wanted one to free up space
2) Shrink the unwanted partition, and grow the wanted one
3) repeat
we could just simply say "convert this file system to X file system"
even if the way that it ends up happening is just an automated process of the above, I think that an application like this would save countless hours.
But I dont see why it would need to be as hackish as that. We know the specs of EXT3, RiserFS, and so on, there must be a way that we can mutate a file system from one type, to a comparable / compatible replacement without having to manually copy and paste files.

[....]

Work with Google to receive an advanced Linux version of Google Chrome so you can package it and put it in the repositories at the same time of the release.

This might be a stroke of genius or an utter idiocy, you judge.

I seem to understand that the major shortcomings of wine are with the dlls because not all the libraries are emulated and not all are emulated seamlessly (no guilt whatsoever, I realize that the wine guys are doing their best).

So here is the idea.
When installing wine, or from the libraries configuration menu at a later time, there could be an "import original libraries" option, I choose it and I supply an original Windows cd/dvd that I have lying around (we probably all have a couple, even if we just use them as glass coasters).
Then wine runs trough the cd, borrows what it needs to run smooth with direcx and everything else and configures itself.
Final step, playing that damn brand new game or that damn cad application we need so desperately.

It would not exactly be the ideal solution to bug #1 but for somebody it would be way better than dual-booting.

Like it?

P.S. I do not even know if this would be completely legal, if not perhaps it could be implemented as a separate script.

I think that rather than having any number of separate workspaces, you should be able to have one really wide workspace. You could then just move a little to the right or a little to the left. Desktop wallpaper, icons, and gnome panels would remain fixed while you go left or right to view windows.

For compiz users, this would be represented as a cylinder instead of a cube and you would be able to stop the cylinder anywhere, unlike the cube that restricts you to four preset locations.

Shutdown needs to be as seamless as the fade to screensaver effect. This is what should happen:
- You click on shut down

- If there is a unsaved file open, then

-Show a notice explaining this at the corner of the screen have a button on the notice to "Force Quit" the program. (Guifications esque) Use Compiz, if enabled, to focus that app, but have everything else darkened, sort of like the Alt-Tab effect. Then the users saves and closes, and the shutdown process continues. (Notice that no apps have actually started being turned off yet)

- If another user is logged in, and that user has unsaved files, then:

- Show a notice window stating what the problem is. The window should have two options: "Switch to the other account to save files" and "Force Quit the applications"

- If the first option is chosen, then present a password box, which will accept either an administrative password or the users password. Once the user has entered one of the correct passwords, fade to the other account, and do the same window focus effect described previously. After that, continue the shutdown process.

- If the second option is chosen, ask for either the user or administrative password, and then terminate the programs. Then continue.

- Show a black screen with a spinner. (like the firefox progress spinner) while processes are being shut down.

- use compiz, if enabled, (It hasn't been shut down yet) to fade the transition to the usplash. Shut down all remaining processes (The processes compiz needs to run) and finally shut down the computer.

As you can see, this proposition is clearly better than the current one. I'm not sure if this can be implemented, but Mac OSX can do it, so why can't we? I know about the similar ideas, but a search didn't turn up something that proposes what I do. The other ideas make up this more consolidated idea.

[....]

It is not enough that Ubuntu has the nicest tent in the entire linux village, if at the end of the day most computer user's won't even bother to make the trip out to the village.

Before humans broke the sound barrier in flight, the US Airforce created their "X project", which built some of the first prototype jet aircraft that would eventually reach this goal. Linux needs an "X-project".

If Mark Shuttleworth is really keen on surpassing Apple in the 'good looks' department, he'll have to do more than just talk the talk.

"Linux for humans" is a laudable goal, but ultimately a failed one. Hear me out: Most humans aren't interested in 'linux'. What people want is "You, happier" - the new Best Buy slogan. They want a rich internet and media experience. They want 'walk out with it working'. Anything that stands in the way, distracts, or makes them have to deal with side issues will not suffice.

Linux (as it now exists) tries to make people care about kernels and partitions and a host of other issues that are of great importance to the machine, but are of little or no interest to the user of that machine.

99% of linux systems are essentially the same (when working properly) to the end user. The end result is a familiar, uninspired attempt to ape an already 'tried and true' computing experience. Worse, as much as Ubuntu tries to hide the plumbing from the user, it always shows. It's like trying to put a dress on a chimpanzee. She might be pretty, but she'll never be girlfriend material.

What Ubuntu (and linux) needs is a fresh approach to what a linux system can be, based on the principles of appeal and usability. Look at Aza Raskin's work at Mozilla Labs for starters. Like Disney, Ubuntu needs 'imagineers' - people with the power to dream, and the knowhow to make it happen.

When a gecko-based browser opens a PNG which is too big for the window it can be shrunk to fit, with successive clicks on the image changing the size from normal to fitted.

It would be good to have this ability with SVGs, since an SVG is meant to be size and resolution independent anyway. SVGs with large default dimensions are currently annoying to view (for example http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Unix_history-simple.svg ). Implementation in a click-to-change-zoom way would be difficult for interactive SVGs, hence I think always rendering to fit in the browser window is best.

PS: I'd say the question of scaling up SVGs designed to be small is out of scope for this idea. I think SVGs with dimensions smaller than the browser window should rendered with those dimensions.

It is quite easy to trick the user into running a bad script in sudo by changing the gnome menu from "gksu /usr/sbin/synaptic" to "gksu /home/user/.roughescript.sh".

In a desktop environment using sudo you should need to enter your password in order to change the menu.

Sorry if i misspelt something; English is not my native language.

In the firefox theme out of the box, there is a lot of whitespace on each of the toolbars, as in the area above and below the text. The theme takes up too much viewing area. However, this is not the only problem, when you try to theme it (with most of the themes) the whitespace is still there. I have only found a couple of themes that get rid of it (compact classic is one for people looking for one).

When music player is working, preview on mouse-over of mp3 files should be disabled. Lets say, you open folder with mp3 files. Clicking on some of the files will open song and play it in Totem (or some player), but when you move your cursor over some other mp3 file is starts playing that song along with the first one. Then you get one annoying sound.

If you create search filters in synaptic, and then install/remove/etc. selected packages, it will delete the filters, rather than update them.

It would be nice if it didn't delete the filters, but refreshed them instead to indicate which packages were installed/removed etc.

The world clock in Ubuntu seems to be behind times little bit.
It shows the city Mumbai by the name of Bombay. Bombay got renamed in 1999. So as you can see the Clock isn't lagging by much!
Also many Indian cities haven't had their names updated. These names were changed even before Ubuntu began.
Tere are many other important world cities whose names havent been updated. Plz do it since it doesnt create a good impression about Ubuntu. It is throurghly unprofessional!

Lets forget that I really don't know what a (or "the") keyring is good for and look at the other people who cannot set their computer up by them self.

I don't remember on which occasions I was asked, but the question was something like: "Would you like to add this password to your keyring?"
Or different: "Enter a new password to the keyring."

"No, I don't want to enter a new password, I already have a password! Why do I have to create another one?"

I am sure that there is a good reason for keyring to exist but it wasn't explained to me. I know, I am supposed to look it up on the internet but here comes the idea:

It would be great if there was a short explanatory sentence about keyring - what it is good for and why I have to write another password - when I'm being asked for a keyring password.

As the title says theme support for transparent images for panel. right know is you use a image thats has parts of images transparent is just shows the defalt ubuntu panel in the part that's transparent

Hallo, this is my first entry, so I hope to make it right with my simple english...

My idea: set counting of lines and characters standardly on the bottom bar of the screen. Nowadays you must activate the line-counting every time you open a document and to count characters you must view the statistics and in the meantime you can not write.
This feature will be useful for writing newspapers or other official documents.