Contributor timken

I know that is more a gtk/gnome desktop evolution, but I'd like to submit this aniway.

Gnome desktop theme management is simple, and clean, but there is a feature that I'd like to add them.

I'd like my gnome theme involve with the time. For instance, the luminosity of the widgets and icons. There is also a lot of stuffs to do with the background : position or offset, slow animation from the morning to the evening, luminosity, etc.

This is not only a detail if the gnome desktop theme can follow the user environment.

The google personalised home page is working like that for the background.

Thanks

Currently, the take screenshot feature (Print Screen key or Accessories>Take Screenshot) hides the mouse when it is taken. It could be useful to be able to show the mouse if needed.

For example, i was trying to explain a bug that caused the mouse to turn into a black box, but i couldnt visually show it because the screenshot hid it.

When you play 'corrupted' videos in vlc, it just skips the frames it can't read. Totem on the other hand stops entirely and throws an errormessage at you. This is annoying. I'd like to see this kind of immunity in totem...

In the visual effects tab of the appearances window, if you customize your settings, and then accidentally switch to normal or extra, this should not erase all of your customized settings.

Any advanced linux user could take this.

This should be already possible using command line commands. However, it`s only theoretically possible. Practically there is no entry in the wiki for that.

What I want is...

1) Encrypt your hole disk, including /home /swap /boot ... All! Using TrueCrypt.
(The harddisk could be also en external usb-harddisk!)
2) Install a mini linux on USB-Stick.
3) Place a keyfile on that USB-Stick.
4) Boot from that USB-Stick.
5) Use that keyfile and ask for a password to authenticate.
6) If the authentication is correct unlock the harddisk and decrypt and encrypt it on the fly (just like normal encryption).
7) Now boot the rest of Ubuntu from the (USB) harddisk.

This should be already hard enough. If you want even more challenge and it even more secure you could also store a keyfile on a smartcard. To enter pin and read that keyfile from that smartcard at stage 4) (booting form usb-stick) should be very hard.

There has been some confusion, but to clarify this brainstorm:

There is an official deviantart "theme" competition which requests new wallpapers and allows new themes to be inside the submission. However, there are two issues:
1) the contest requires the construction of a wallpaper
2) themes and mockups are ungraded and unacknowledged.

This brainstorm argues two amendments:
1)Mockups-only submissions with previous ubuntu wallpapers should be allowed. Wallpapers should not be required. Mockups shouldn't have to be GTK themes.
2)Even if only wallpapers get prizes, there should be a best-mockup recognition award to the best non-wallpaper aspect of submissions. (arguably, themes are harder to judge than wallpapers.)

This would allowed skilled UI designers who are unskilled artists to compete to win consideration by the ubuntu team. I'd like to see mockups of theme ideas that are abstract and un-artistic, like https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Hardy/Alternate/round_edge , be able to be in the running for this competition. We want to improve the ubuntu look and feel, not just reskin it.

Sorry for the confusion. Here's the original brainstorm text:

Recently, a brainstorm idea was created for a DeviantArt theme mock-up competition for Ubuntu 8.10. It was accepted, but canonical changed the competition's scope from themes to just wallpapers only.

There's a great deal of interest by the general ubuntu art community to create a new theme for ubuntu, as seen by the Hardy incoming "alternate looks" page, yet this competition was changed from its original scope to a far less interesting scope.



[....]

I recently switched to linux mint, I must say it is very nice and based on gutsy 7.10.

They use the red hat liberation fonts by default and OMG It looks amazing.


The default ubuntu fonts are painful to look at once you know how good it can look.


https://www.redhat.com/promo/fonts/

Orange Brown theme should not be the only one included
There should be color themes based on all the basic
colors e.g. blue theme, yellow theme, red theme, black theme
green theme.

Get cryptography professional and demigod Bruce Schneier to audit and certify the 'Crypto API' framework in the Linux kernel, and the crypto-related stuff such as IPsec, dm-crypt, block ciphers, hash functions, /dev/random, /dev/urandom, the PRNG, etc.

Then we can have the Bruce Schneier seal of approval; "The cryptographic features of this operating system are deemed secure by Bruce Schneier!".

The brainstorm site needs to have a new item in the user menu: Ideas I've commented on. For many comments, people are looking for responses, or are curious to know what other people are saying. You could also provide the ability to "watch" topics, and be notified when they are updated and/or comments are made.

With an interface similar to daemon tools or WinMount...
I think this is already possible, but not in a very easy way... for example:
One day I downloaded one tar.gz with installation files of one program, and that file had more than a thousand files inside! it would be much easier to just:
-mount
-install program
-unmount

Instead of:
-extract to disk (using more space on disk and causing unnecessary wear and tear on a hard drive)
-wait lots of time
-install
-tell ubuntu to delete files
-still wait some time

Even if not by default, at least having some program in the repositories would be very nice.

A GUI for doing hard drive maintenance would be a good addition for Ubuntu. It would be able to be scheduled to run at night or on next boot and comprise of at least these 2 methods.

1, Trigger the hard drives, (not solid state) to read every sector of the drive/drives allowing SMART and other built in hard drive technology to remove partially damaged sectors before it is to late. This is roughly how Steve Gibsons SpinRite software works see www.GRC.com for details. This process will need to monitor hard drive temperatures whilst this is happening to avoid causing any potential problems to the drive.
2, Trigger fsck to repair the file system.

3, I'm sure there most be other stuff that could be run, clearing caches etc...

If i want to share the "look and feel" of my desktop with someone else, i have to send many different files: wallpapers, gtk-engines, gtk-themes, metacity themes, iconpacks, screenlets and so on.

I would like to press an "export look and feel"-button to get a file with all the look-and-feel-related stuff included, so that i can reproduce my complete look and feel on another machine.

I would be great if Ubuntu set up a team of volunteers that are willing to help newbies get started.(I know this already exists in the form of the forums/irc/mailing lists etc but this is different). It would be something like this. Noob goes to Ubuntu site because he has a problem or a question and sees the voluntary tech support page. He then applies for having his own tutor for getting started with Ubuntu. Then a tutor is assigned from the already available pool of volunteers. After the tutor is assigned the contact info is given to the noob. Then they could go and chat trough irc to get to know each other and to answer all of the noobs question. Also the volunteer could help out configuring the noobs system using vnc or something like that. I think it would make some people more comfortable and it would show the power of the free software community. This only meant to compliment the other already existing forms of voluntary tech support.

A separate partition for /home has been proposed for a long time in the forums. It implies some risks, though, so based on disk size Ubiquity should estimate the amount of space that should be left for / or whether a separate partition should be made at all. Then...

-The first time an user installs Ubuntu, he is given the option to set a separate /home. This option is selected by default, with a size for each partition based on a sane guess:

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/7958/firstinstallaro2.png

-Of course, he can just choose not to set a separate /home. This option will be selected by default if the results of the system test suggest that's the best thing to do.

http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/6498/firstinstallbfs6.png

-Manual install is also possible. Selecting it greys out everything related to separate /home, since it's implied that the user doesn't want to be guided.

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/7976/firstinstallcvc2.png

-If the user set a separate /home, the next time he installs Ubuntu a new option appears and is selected by default, prompting to use the existing /home partition. All other options are still available, though.

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/9034/secondinstalliq1.png

[....]

This is just small usability improvement to Ubuntu Brainstorm login page.
Username field should be initially focused. Thanks.

Add IPv6 support to Ubuntu sites such as Ubuntu.com, Launchpad.net, Canonical.com, etc.

Include a video at desktop that shows the user what means GNU and what is the free software... The linux user should know this. Ubuntu is not just a easy OS it is a free OS.

We should make it take only 3 or 4 clicks to enable CPU clustering over a network. Every home user these days often have 3 or 4 computers in their household when half the time are simply sitting there browsing the web.

Users should be able to configure clustering in GCC (switch to DistCC), enable openmosix, maybe even set up programs like blender properly in a centralised location, and just need to click a button. That way everyone can use their computing resources more efficiently, and easily.

At the very least we should make it easier (not neccessarily include it in the main distribution). And small polish like this may not benefit many people, but the people who notice (your graphics and developer crowd for instance), will be eternally greatful. And, lets be honest, its a great sales pitch for many businesses :D

OSX already ships with a solution known as Xgrid which people can use, in its clients and servers. Xgrid has only failed because even Apple does not integrate it into their programs. OpenMosix for instance though is ready to go and can be made into an "out of the box" solution.

Be able to Search/Replace a pattern in bunch of files specified by a directory and a filename pattern.