Ubuntu brainstorm

[443] Allocate Programming resources towards Grub2 for rapid completion

Sat, 22-Nov-2008 00:00:00 UTC

It has become obvious that Grub2 needs some extra programming help, as Grub-legacy will no longer be adding new features and the end of Grub2 is nowhere in sight. Canonical should allocate 1 or 2 programmers for a few months to help complete grub2 quickly, so that X86 support might be complete in time for Interpid Ipex.

One could argue that the boot loader is the most important part of the operating system, because if it doesn't work properly (which it hasn't been for some of us), it can prevent every OS from working on the computer. We should treat it with respect, and help them. Despite grubs importance, programmers generally enjoy working on more exciting projects like Gnome or KDE, which is one reason why development is slow.

Grub2 fixes a lot of previous brainstorm ideas including many booting issues (like mine), so completion would close a lot of bugs, whilst also making Ubuntu more user friendly because Grub2 deals with booting issues better.

Voting for this ensures that Canonical allocates some developers to the Grub2 project, which would be a big win for both Ubuntu and linux in general!

Planned Features for Grub 2
* Rescue mode saves unbootable cases. Stage 1.5 was eliminated.
* Dynamic loading of modules in order to extend itself at the run time rather than at the build time.
* Graphical interface.
* Fix design mistakes in GRUB Legacy, which could not be solved for backward-compatibility, such as the way of numbering partitions.
* Scripting support, such as conditionals, loops, variables and functions.
* Cross-platform installation which allows for installing GRUB from a different architecture.
* Internationalization. This includes support for non-ASCII character code, message catalogs like gettext, fonts, graphics console, and so on.
* Portability for various architectures.
* Modular, hierarchical, object-oriented framework for file systems, files, devices, drives, terminals, commands, partition tables and OS loaders.
* Real memory management, to make GNU GRUB more extensible.

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[10] Desktop Workspace Files (Save and Restore Groups of Desktop Apps)

Sat, 22-Nov-2008 00:00:00 UTC

Ubuntu should support something that has not been implemented on any operating system. Workspace files.

By this I mean that you could choose to save applications that are currently running into a file. By double clicking on the .workspace file, the applications would be opened all at the same time, saving lots of energy in setting up a common set of apps, documents and arranging all windows accordingly.

This would include storing:
- workspace to open to (or instructions to use current)
- apps open
- for each app: window placement, sizing, optionally context for the app (eg. working document)

It could be stored in a simple xml format such as:




   http://yahoo.com http://google.com




   http://apple.com/





   /home/lu/myDoc.odf

  .....

This would add advanced desktop functionality to an already great desktop.

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[20] Nepomuk for Semantic Desktop

Sat, 22-Nov-2008 00:00:00 UTC

Mark Shuttleworth made a call for the Semantic Desktop in his latest blog post.

http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/223

Great idea that is the way to go but:

Why reinvent the wheel?

Use Nepomuk as a backend and we'll have a cross KDE/GNOME solution that can use the same meta data.

http://nepomuk.semanticdesktop.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main1/

+1 for Nepomuk - then we'll build the semantic desktop on top of that.

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[666] Make gnome-system-monitor more accessible via CTRL-ALT-DELETE

Sat, 22-Nov-2008 00:00:00 UTC

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.

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[72] Central way to manage icons per file-type

Sat, 22-Nov-2008 00:00:00 UTC

I think it would be nice if there was a central way to manage icons, based on file-type.

Maybe there could be an "advanced" option in the icon tab in the themes manager, that would display all icons for different file-types and allow for changing them...

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[290] Improve Startup by implementing Fedora's Plymouth

Sat, 22-Nov-2008 00:00:00 UTC

Fedora is currently working on improving the startup experience by implementing Plymouth:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/FeatureBetterStartup

By doing this, transition from Grub to GDM (or KDM or whatever) would be done almost instantly. Plymouth will use a graphical boot mode with a fallback method to text for those computers that don't have hardware support.

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[-9] HTML Support in Rythmbox/Amarok

Sat, 22-Nov-2008 00:00:00 UTC

I would suggest that we look into the possibility adding a light web browsing interface to rythmbox/amarok that would allow users to browse music stores such as amazon and possibly integrate the downloading process so that we would have built in music store functionality to compete with iTunes, and I know about Jamendo and Magnatune but they have a very limited selection and would not win over the average user

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[239] Improve webcal, ical, gcal integration into gnome

Sat, 22-Nov-2008 00:00:00 UTC

I use evolution, however when i need to look at a calendar i have to use sunbird. This is because evolution is basically stagnent, and does not support modifying web calendars hosted outside of the local server. i know there are a few work arounds for getting it to work, but i would really love to have a simple calendar program built into gnome/ubuntu(default) which links between the desktop clock (evolution calendar display) and a web based calendar, which supports bi-direction changes and updates.

I don't like having to open sunbird each time i need to change an alarm.

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[-3] FIX Brainstorm

Sat, 22-Nov-2008 00:00:00 UTC

Currently brainstorm has a usability issue which is when you tab through the fields it skips the catcha question and goes straight onto the login button.

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[264] Push Dell to use coreboot instead of proprietary BIOS

Sat, 22-Nov-2008 00:00:00 UTC

Dell seems to be ignoring this in Ideastorm.
http://www.ideastorm.com/article/show/62549/coreboot_formerly_LinuxBIOS_instead_of_proprietary_BIOS

Maybe Canonical could bring it up at their next meeting or something.

Benefits:
# 100% Free Software (GPL), no royalties, no license fees!
# Fast boot times (3 seconds from power-on to Linux console)
# Runs in 32-Bit protected mode almost from the start

Coreboot link:
http://www.coreboot.org/Welcome_to_coreboot

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