Contributor sportman1280

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

It would be nice if the standard dictionary included with Ubuntu could be spruced up a bit. Here are some ideas:

* Keep a copy of the dictionary database on the computer, so that you can access it offline. As of right now, I can't look up a word if I'm out on the lawn typing. It could be updated when the computer has an internet connection. (Manually/Automatically?)
* Show results as you type. For example, if I typed "tre" in, I would get everything from 'treacherous' to 'trey' displayed in a list from which I could select the word I wanted. This would update as I continued typing.
* Have automatic hyperlinking from all the words in the definitions. If I look up "oxygen", and I don't know what a 'silicate' is, I should be able to double-click on that word and be taken to its definition (back and forward buttons would be useful here)
* Show the thesaurus by default.
* Have a more standard dictionary database. I'm not sure about licensing, but if we could access reference.com 's database, that would be great. Also, let the user select the databases they want to use.
* Tie in all other dictionaries (OpenOffice, Firefox) to one central database for spellchecking. Spellcheck should be a global feature, with every program using one database which would be editable through a GUI or the program you are using.
* Make an overall prettier GUI, but clean and simple. All I want is a search bar, a definition area, and maybe a menu or two where I can customize the above ideas.

Pressing CTRL+Z on Desktop and Nautilus undo the last action.
for example when moving a file, CTRL+Z move back that file.

Multi access for application to the soundcard.

Watching youtube movies in firefox and play music on xmms.
If your playing music on xmms and open the firefox with 3 tabs on youtube, ubuntu will crash and do a restart.

Thanks also for all the nice work on ubuntu.

I have a laptop that I have Kubuntu installed on. It works great when I'm using it as a laptop. But at the office, I have a docking station that hooks my laptop up to an external keyboard, monitor, power supply, network, speakers, and basically turns my laptop into a desktop computer. However, my external monitor is 4:3, while my laptop monitor is widescreen, so every time I plug in, I have to change my monitor settings (resolution and screen size), and then change them back when I switch back to laptop mode. It would be really nice if it could do this detection automatically, or be able to set up settings for a second monitor that I could switch back and forth.

I'm sure a similar problem occurs with projectors, but I haven't had a chance to confirm that.

ADD BITTORRENT OPTION ON THE MAIN DOWNLOAD PAGE!

The Novell guys took the lead already: http://software.opensuse.org/

When Hardy Heron was released, the Ubuntu servers became overloaded with thousands of people trying to download it. Downloading rates of repositories and updates were so slow that some people had to leave the computer on at night only to find connection errors the next morning.

However, if Canonical had promoted the BitTorrent downloads, this wouldn't have happened. Everyone would have got a copy of Ubuntu without slowing the repository servers and producing a Denial-of-Service effect.

Moreover, BitTorrent has many advantages over direct downloads. For instance, the more people downloading at the same time, the more sources and lesser the wait. In addition, it ensures file integrity because it uses hash functions, that is, files cannot be corrupted (modified). Not to mention that transfers can be resumed if the connection is broken.

Therefore, BitTorrent downloading should be included in the Get Ubuntu page ( http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download ) with a succinct but clear explanation on how to use them.

The fact that this idea hasn't been implemented --despite all the votes in favour-- clearly shows a neglect and reluctance from Canonical decision-makers to do what is best for the community. The worst thing is that they aren't giving an explanation. I hope good ideas in this site don't come to die here in a puzzle of bureaucracy :(

The reason Ubuntu is the most popular Linux distribution is because developers listen to people. Let's keep that "humanity towards others" alive.

Download Desktop CD: http://releases.ubuntu.com/8.04/ubuntu-8.04.1-desktop-i386.iso.torrent

[....]

I have a Logitech LX-710 keyboard with a bunch of extra function keys, most of which I cannot program. I had a different keyboard before this one and the same was true. I can program the audio keys (which work by default) and the calculator key, but most others do not work. It would be great if Linux would generate scan codes for those extra keys so I could assign commands to them. The same is true of special mouse buttons.

One program I tried works with non-USB keyboards but claimed that kernel support was required for USB keyboards. Strangely, Enlightment recognizes quite a few more of the extra keys than Gnome does.

It would be nice if include by adding a new tab for it.:
- temperature (cpu, hdd, chipsets),
- memory (with manufacture model?)
- graphics card (model, memory)
- chipsets (processor, cores, lan, wifi)
- ... others?

The Ubuntu startup and shutdown splashscreens with the Ubuntu logo and a progress bar underneath it really looks like something from the 90ies (Windows 95 anyone?)

I don't know if there are any hindrances to using images or animations of higher resolutions than what is currently used (for machines that supports it), but I really think Ubuntu can do better here.

This may be an unimportant improvement compared to many other ideas here, but it should be a very quick and easy fix, and it will really help when you try to convince regular folks to make the switch (a graphically stunning desktop is _so_ important when you show it to occasional users!).

Currently, the gnome-panel uses an insane amount of RAM. Some users have reported it using up to 110mb of RAM! We cannot let something so small be such a huge memory hog!

(Note: This idea is different to #368 - excessive ram usage as this is an idea for a specific issue)

When a USB stick (or some other kind of data storage) is pulled out, while something is written on it or while part of the data is still cached in the RAM, freeze all file operations to the device and demand it to be plugged in again. After it is plugged in again, complete the remaining operations and unmount the device.
If the warning dialogue is canceled by the user, then cancel all operations and regard the device as unmounted.

edit: Thanks to Auzy for finding the very good description of this in http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/1515/ which was lost due to being incorrectly marked as a duplicate of something completely different.

One of the suggestions powertop (a tool that helps to save battery power) told me is to turn off my notebook's bluetooth when it is not being used.
"Disable the unused bluetooth interface with the following command:
hciconfig hci0 down; rmmod hci_usb"

I think it would be nice to have a way to turn off/on bluetooth graphically using bluetooth applet.

Pidgin saves account passwords in plain text (check the contents of ~/.purple/accounts.xml )

Saving passwords in plain text is wrong! The Gnome keyring is a perfect replacement for this insecure method and should be used.

I've got a 1 Gb USB storage with an 800 Mb file on it.

When I want to copy an updated version of this file (same name), Nautilus warn me that the operation can't be done cause there is not enought space on the disk.

So I have to manualy erase the old file, empty the trashcan, and finaly copy the new file.


Therefore I suggest that Nautilus check files name when coping or moving operations BEFORE complaining about having not enought space left. (and then simply ask if we want to replace/rename/cancel)

I think some of the screenshots on www.ubuntu.com are outdated.

For example, the menu screenshot on this page: http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu is not the menu we see in 8.04.

Also, some text is outdated as well. For example, this page: http://www.ubuntu.com/products/WhatIsUbuntu/kubuntu says "KDE version 3.5.5 is the current stable release".

There are lots of other examples on the website. I think to use up-to-date screenshots is very important. They would give new users a better and more accurate impression of Ubuntu compared with old screenshots.

This is an idea that, if it would be implemented, should be optional at first and be tested through and through. It's quite experimental in my eyes. I'm not even sure if this idea can be executed at all.

When you use a system it will always become fuller and fuller. Although Linux doesn't suffer as much from this as Windows, it can still make things harder to find and influence the performance( a lot). A way to solve this is to regularly clean your system by removing all unused applications and manually search the whole system for files that were left behind. Sometimes the --purge option when removing software still leaves stuff behind and let alone compilated programs.

What I suggest is to create temporally views of the whole system as it should be. Every once in a while the system will return to that state with the exception of the user data, leaving alone the configuration but also deleting all unnecessary configuration files. In a more advanced stadium applications could be adapted to work together with this system and update their view files automatically so the user doesn't have to create a view every time he updates the computer or installs something new and it will probably include less unnecessary files and be able to handle already existing configuration better. This way a user can easily restore his system very easily reducing the need for backup applications and if the program would be a little bit extended and get support for GNOME's lock-down editor it could also be used in labs.

A view ideas behind the technique that could be used to do this. I'm not sure if what I say actually makes sense, but I'll try to let it.

I think it would be the best if a basic image/view of the whole system would be delivered when the system is installed. At least this image should be kept to allow the user to restore his/her system easier to the original state. Here you've probably got a question. Because, when you would keep all files, your system would be twice as large as normal, _at_least_. And we don't want that. I've got three ideas how to solve this:
1. Create a central mirror where the files are stored. There are two options here: a mirror owned by the user or a mirror from Ubuntu/Canonical. The latter has some huge downsides: you'll have to upload all files to the server, which won't make your ISP happy. And it would cost an enormous amount of space at the server.

[....]

While reading over the brainstorm site people suggest adding a lot of different things to the base installation of Ubuntu, and some of them have good arguments (but most don't in my opinion).

I propose that after the installation process the user would be asked to choose from a couple of installation options for programs such as;
1. Suggested (default selected)
2. Manual
3. Advanced

The Suggested option would install a "default" Ubuntu programs list.

The Manual option would give the user a list of tasks that they expect to do (e.g. photo editing, note taking, pc based emailing (not webmail like hotmail/yahoo) word processing, simple games, music listening, movie watching etc...). Then, the computer could install the programs pertaining to the selections (e.g. evolution for pc based email, or openoffice for word processing) from the install disc or internet connection.

The Advanced option would probably not install any of these programs, maybe just simple things like nautilus and a terminal. The idea here is an experienced user already knows exactly what programs they want to use for specific tasks and this would save them the trouble of removing the default word processor, notes application, torrent application, mail application etc.

Feel free to comment and fine tune these ideas, they are rough. But I like the idea of letting the user say don't waste my time installing programs I will not use or replace later anyhow.

downloads should go to $HOME/Downloads. XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR should be set to "$HOME/Downloads" instead of "$HOME/Desktop" in the file ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs.

This Downloads folder should be the default download location for firefox and this folder should be bookmarked in nautilus by xdg-user-dirs-gtk (like Music,Videos,Pictures and Documents).

RATIONALE :
* less cluttered desktop and/or homedir
* still easy to access your downloads

It's useful if you can set gmail or yahoo mail or other web mail program as default mail client.
I don't use from a long time Epiphany er/or outlook similar mail program

Once an Idea Has been Implemented, and added the the Implemented Ideas section, give us the following options.

-Sort Ideas Alphabetically
-Sort Ideas by Popularity
-Sort Ideas by Date Implemented