1. There are deeply invasive performance/scalability/latency fixes for CFS regressions (vs. 2.6.24) in the 2.6.25 tree. These fixes are too invasive to be ported to the 2.6.24 kernel without significant risk.

2. Many of the driver updates/new drivers in the kernel-ubuntu package are merged into upstream as of 2.6.25. (This is always true, but the smaller the delta against upstream the better on release day).

3. Fedora 9 is based on 2.6.25 which means that key RH kernel developers are aggressively working to get the feature and performance/scalability regressions vs. 2.6.18 & 22 fixed.

4. The kgdb patch will probably be merged at the start of the 2.6.26 cycle which means the delta vs. 2.6.25 kernel should be pretty manageable. This would be really valuable from an LTS ongoing perspective.

5. The RT patch will be better maintained (and smaller) against 2.6.25. (see #3)

6. Better virtualization and SELinux support (see #3).

Given the life-cycle of an LTS release (especially this one which will finally have a meaningful chance to enter the data center) these considerations are especially important.

Obviously 2.6.25 would have to be in addition to 2.6.24 for the Hardy 8.04 LTS release time-frame, but it does allow the aforementioned benefits to be propagated forward.

Whenever users plan to buy new hardware for their ubuntu machines, they first have to search the web to find informations about kernel/driver support or incompatibility issues.

It would be really helpful if a sticker on the outside of the box of a scanner/printer/usb-dvb-tuner/mp3(ogg)-player/digicam/... simply said "works with ubuntu" or "designed for GNU/Linux" to guarantee that the product runs "out of the box" with Ubuntu or other Linux distributions.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/darkomen/155060941/
http://forum.ubuntuusers.de/topic/88743/next/

Edit (2008-03-04): This project seems to be on the road already: http://www.ubuntu.com/partners/hardwareprogramme

Ubuntu should include a way to add/remove fonts from a repository just like the add/remove program panel. When a user needs a new font, they could open up the window, and the program would download the latest repository fonts. The user could look through the fonts and choose which ones to install by simply checking a box and clicking "apply." A user could search for font keywords to find certain styles of fonts. For example, someone could search for keywords words "serif","sans serif","cursive", and the GUI would display fonts that match the search. This would be a killer tool for designers.

Furthermore, the GUI could be very helpful. When a user browses a font, a sample image of it could be automatically loaded so that the user can quickly find fonts that are appealing to them. A rating system or popularity gauge could be used so that the best fonts can be highlighted.

A tool like this would create inscentive for font designers to make their designs free/public. Credits could be given to designers in the font descriptions.

The ability to perform basic disk and maintenance tasks are sorely needed.

Nautilus could be used as well as a new external program or Gnome format

The other day was my birthday and they gave me a USB-external-harddrive. It was in FAT32 and I have not got any idea on how I can format it to ext3. OK, I know it can be done with terminal but some users (like me) see that disgusting and old-fashioned.

Thus, I had a problem while transfering some files. Now I have some consistency problem in the disk that prevents me from creating some folders because they exists. I decide to perform a file system check but... I didn't know how to do it. Terminal again.

Conclusion: avoid using terminal for some commong tasks over USB external drives.

An online Ubuntu PC hardware store is what people (aka "masses") need to fully make the jump to Ubuntu. Sell the hardware "known to work" (pre-installed Ubuntu computers and peripherals) and support those manufacturers who actually care about Linux compatibility.

when you purchase a Mac you know everything is compatible and everything you purchase at a APPLE STORE also is tested and works 100% with Mac OS.

but when you try Ubuntu on your own, there is always a risk that many of your hardware/peripherals may not work. The worst problem is YOU DON'T KNOW where to Purchase compatible hardware to FIX your problem.

If you can't fix your problem, then you are back once more in Windows... (be it a dialup modem, Usb modem, wireless card, bluetooth, printer, scanner, videocard, webcam, etc)

you always have the community to help + the guys at http://www.phoronix.com/ have always pitched in this area, but is not enough.

We need 100% Ubuntu compatible and tested hardware by canonical themselves to be sold online. Only sell what works (there is no need to test all the hardware in the world)

this would create a real market demand for "Linux compatible" hardware from manufacturers.

we can't support every piece of hardware like we have been doing, we need to support what WORKS NOW!

If this is implemented a few other good things will happen:

1- Less forums posts like these: "i can't get XXXX hardware to work, why doesn't it work! i got working hardware in windows or mac, ubuntu sucks blah blah"


[....]

Make a guest account that people can login to, and check mail, surf web.

Every time the guest account logs out, its purged so next user who login is a clean fresh account.

Mac OS X has this;
* http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/300.html#system

Today most of the computers are providing 2Go of RAM or more. When I'm looking at the memory consumption of ubuntu it is about 400Mo.

I think that Ubuntu should look at the RAM capacity of the computer and take the full advantage of the hudge amount of memory that we have today.

I'm sure it will be possible to preload most usefull apps and to bring a more efficient, smooth and fast system.

People around the globe that are using/concidering using Ubuntu are afraid that some of their hardware won't work for them. And some are frustrated to buy additional add-on cards to work around unsupportad onboard chips. All this could be avoided with a lookup in an ubuntu Hardware Database Website.

Some problematic hardware can be used with more or less work if helping information is available together with the hardware compatabillity data.

The hardware database can be found at http://hwdb.ubuntu.com/

From idea #47: The data should then be available in a format that is simple for users to browse on-line when considering new hardware.

I'm bored with dual-screen on GNU/Linux, it really has to have a graphic configuration, and better features.
I would like to move windows from a screen to another, but when I maximize I need it to be in a single screen.

Update: Xrandr GUI blog post by Bryce Harrington

Many games feature the ability to play with other people. However, the first thing the game will check for is to see if it is currently up to date. When Ubuntu enters version freeze, the games fall out of date, and it can be harder to play them online without finding a 3rd party update or compiling it yourself (Freeciv, Scorched3D, and Battle for Wesnoth to name a few). This also creates issues when different distributions freeze at different times, so it can be hard to play with other Linux users.

Ubuntu should provide a repository for up to date games for games that will always need the latest version to play online.