http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com Brainstorm V2 upgrade: Ubuntu Brainstorm is scheduled to have a major upgrade tuesday morning, and will be down a few hours. Get ready!]]> en-us Fri, 09-Jan-2009 00:00:00 UTC Fri, 09-Jan-2009 00:00:00 UTC QAPoll module http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/4931/

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No attachments. ]]> Fri, 09-Jan-2009 00:00:00 UTC http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/4931/ http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/643/
It also discourages vote vengeance.

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No attachments. ]]> Fri, 09-Jan-2009 00:00:00 UTC http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/643/ http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/1423/
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No attachments. ]]> Fri, 09-Jan-2009 00:00:00 UTC http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/1423/ http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/2235/
This is especially helpful when you need to browse a large amount of pictures. Because the application starts loading the thumbnails only after you select the folder.

If you liked this idea, check out my other ideas.

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No attachments. ]]> Fri, 09-Jan-2009 00:00:00 UTC http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/2235/ http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/83/
The counter-argument to this would be that it could cause an element of uncertainty, but I do not feel that avoiding this should come at the expense of being able to change your mind.

Attachments:
Bug #197157 : [Information on this bug will be retrieved soon]
]]> Fri, 09-Jan-2009 00:00:00 UTC http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/83/ http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/1898/
saves time when you have multiple documents or applications open

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No attachments. ]]> Fri, 09-Jan-2009 00:00:00 UTC http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/1898/ http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/393/ - we need speed and simpleness
- good , standard comprehensive tools
- not a separate configuration tool for every aspect of the system
- get rid of unneeded services
- get a good -standard in every linux distro - search tool
- the menu of linux daryna is nice but still buggy
- better hardware driver support especially for laptops wi-fi ,printers ,scanners
- one small sure step forward is better than a large step forward and several steps backward.I 've seen many times linux distros loosing what they already got. Hardware supported in previous releases is not in later ones.
- let's not be so protective with our beloved child. lets start wanting more out of it . as linux is becoming more popular more people more and more will say it sucks and this is good - it means they use it and they want more out of it.



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No attachments. ]]> Fri, 09-Jan-2009 00:00:00 UTC http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/393/ http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/3004/
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No attachments. ]]> Fri, 09-Jan-2009 00:00:00 UTC http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/3004/ http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/2222/
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No attachments. ]]> Fri, 09-Jan-2009 00:00:00 UTC http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/2222/ http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/229/
Epiphany is a very simple browser, more conforming to the spirit of GNOME, which lacks a lot of the features of Firefox. However, I think most people will probably not need Firefox' extra features and plugins. Those who do need Firefox could easily download it when Epiphany becomes the default webbrowser included out-of-the-box in Ubuntu. Ubuntu should aim for consistency, and Epiphany certainly is a better candidate than Firefox if consistency is the goal.

Epiphany currently uses the Gecko-engine for rendering, but will probably feature WebKit - http://live.gnome.org/Epiphany/WebKit - soon. WebKit would probably do a better job than Gecko.

Because somehow Ubuntu brainstorm says the Blueprint URL I gave isn't valid, I give it here in the text: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/epiphany-default-browser

Attachments:
Blueprint epiphany-default-browser: [Information on this blueprint will be retrieved soon]
Ubuntuforums.org thread #717568
]]> Fri, 09-Jan-2009 00:00:00 UTC http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/229/ http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/1838/
In my opinion, that would be more appealing for non-Ubuntu users.

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No attachments. ]]> Fri, 09-Jan-2009 00:00:00 UTC http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/1838/ http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/1606/
Firstly, I have been trying Ubuntu on a MacBook Pro running Parallels. This is a virtualisation app, and it lets e run Windows, Linux or any OS which can run on an Intel platform. I was looking at Ubuntu out f interest, but also as I have a couple of friends who are less than keen on Windows but who don;t want to buy into Apple's world.

When I started, I was using Ubuntu 7.6 - it installed well in Parallels, and I was able to get to the GUI pretty quick. However, at this point things started to go wrong:

• It didn’t recognise the keyboard layout I had. I'm using a UK keyboard, but Ubuntu was seeing it as a US board. Parallels was set to use a UK layout, which made typing interesting. The preferences available to me didn;t let me make the change that I needed, so I was forced to enter the Terminal, locate some instructions on the net and manually enter key mapping and other bits and pieces.

• It was also limiting its display to 800x600, and no matter what I did in Ubuntu or the host Parallels app, I could not get any resolution other than that. Again, a trip to the terminal to manually enter desired resolutions was needed.

Other set up tasks required Terminal work as opposed to using options in the system set up. It was dawning on me that Ubuntu was on the surface very promising, but it required in depth technical knowledge to get it running correctly. Any instructions I found were clearly written by those in the know for those in the know.

If you want the man in the street to use Ubuntu, and get the most out of it, then the user needs to be thought of. The user you need to attract is not some kind of über geek, or even a passing expert, but the kind of user who would blunder into his local PCWorld (CompUSA or whatever box shifter store is nearby) and buy the first machine that the salesman shows him because "it's good" and he knows no better. This kind of person won't be interested in fiddly terminal stuff, nor will he want to know either.

Ubuntu needs to target this person - provide tools to get him up and running. Make 95% of system preferences available from the GUI, using simple drop downs and buttons. Make the system as easy to get running on as a Mac (seriously, Macs are very easy to set up -why can’t Ubuntu be that easy?).

Make your documentation easy. Not written by experts for experts. Assume the user is coming to this with nothing. What next? How do you install? How do you set up?

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No attachments. ]]> Fri, 09-Jan-2009 00:00:00 UTC http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/1606/ http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/478/ I believe they deserve the same support from the project since Gnome and Kde are the most popular desktop manager out there.
It seems quite obvious to me, the project is very much focused on one and only distro, its first baby : ubuntu.
And it shows. Kubuntu web site looks quite poor and unprofessional compared to ubuntu. Most graphic choices like the kdm default theme (even if it's supposed to be a matter of taste) look, again, unprofessional. And finally the whole distro doesn't seem to have the same amount of attention when it comes to details (one example among others: the little thing on ubuntu warning the user about the existence of proprietary drivers for display which does not exist on kubuntu).
I've been told once, like a year ago, by an ubuntu dev that the situation is such because the project doesn't feel like fragmenting its market share.
Whatever is the official position of the project, I don't think you should do things half way.
The Kde project is itself in full evolution with Kde 4. It does deserve full support from ubuntu.

Thank you for reading.


Attachments:
Bug #150333 : [Information on this bug will be retrieved soon]
Blueprint kubuntu-ubuntu-feature-parity: [Information on this blueprint will be retrieved soon]
]]> Fri, 09-Jan-2009 00:00:00 UTC http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/478/ http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/36/
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No attachments. ]]> Fri, 09-Jan-2009 00:00:00 UTC http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/36/ http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/336/
Similarly Linux uses terms such as "Root" (compared to "Admin") represent a new vocabulary that users must learn in order to feel comfortable with the system. Similarly the folder structure uses abbreviated forms of words that while make it faster to type when in the command prompt confuse users who can't understand their meaning. Examples are plentiful here: /bin, /sbin, /etc, /root, /dev, /mnt, /lib, /boot, /tmp

Obviously this is a "hard" problem with the structure of the OS, Renaming folders isn't an easy thing to do. But the fact that these folders and many programs don't use "natural language" makes the OS and experience inhumane and provides another learning curve.

My proposal would be to give natural language names to all parts of the OS and to also support abbreviated forms when in the command line.

I would also propose changing application names that are ambiguous and confusing in favor of sexier natural language versions (preferably single words). Applications that have their names changed could have a footnote stating the original name in an About/Info dialogue box.



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No attachments. ]]> Fri, 09-Jan-2009 00:00:00 UTC http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/336/