Its one thing to have drivers to support a device. Its another to know which applications to install to use the device. I propose setting up a database which tells you what Applications you need to use your new device.


So if I want to know which TV Tuner programs I need for my TV tuner, I just select my TV tuner, and it will tell me which programs to install. If I set up a wiimote, it should highlight the wiimote libraries. And finally, if I get a blu-ray drive, it could suggest CD/DVD/blu ray burning/playback software.

And its not that hard to code really. It is just a basic database

I'd like my car pc to be able to act as a wireless bluetooth headset for my mobile phone.As I would then be able to use my general speakers on my car and general microphone for talking, instead of requiring a second handsfree kit.

Even for home users, if they are gaming for instance, it allows them to use the same mic they use for gaming, for a mobile phone call instead. Its all about integration, and eliminating the need for duplicate devices ;)

We should investigate ways to use LinuxBios/Openbios enabled hardware to provide a better user experience. Possibly even set up a team to meet with them and discuss.

Some ways it may help is:
- Shave time off bootup
- The ability to support ACPI maybe on hardware not supporting it correctly now
- Being able to support buggy hardware better
- New ways of booting the computer we never were able to do before (ie, boot straight into a media centre instantly)

If we push as ubuntu enabled computers, we could also try to get them to employ LinuxBios/Openbios so that more of the computer is open, and we can do a lot more with the hardware, instead of relying on firmware updates (that sometimes can only be applied in windows).

OpenBios also may benefit some motherboard manufacturers because they no longer need to pay money for the more commonly used bios.

We should try to 'become one with the hardware'. This lets us do this. And it doesn't hurt to take 2 or 3 hours out of some developers time to work on something that may make booting more configureless, the computer more stable, more features, and provide a means of booting quicker.

At the moment, we nearly have no support for Display Calibration devices. In fact, even support for the most popular ones (such as the PANTONE huey) is "pre-alpha/likely not under development".

Graphics artists require such hardware devices to ensure that the color output on their display is consistent with other displays, and print-outs. Many design studios consider such devices a pre-requisite, and without support, we have very little chance of even beginning to take on OSX or windows in the design markets sector. Support for such devices has been overlooked far too long, and its time we add support for at least 2 or 3 of these devices!

I don't think we have a single 3D printer working in linux at the moment.

We should investigate improving CUPS to support 3D printers in a standardised way for starters.

Our first printer to support should probably be fab@home which is a totally open source (open circuit design printer), thats cheap, and we can easily support and afford to test (you basically can probably buy the parts from mostly anywhere to build it, or get their kit. http://fabathome.org/ .

3D printing will certainly take off in the future, and we should definately get a infrastructure in caser to properly support them (prferably before Apple and Microsoft get one). So that by the time fab@home model 3 is out (which hopefully will be the same cost as a current inkjet, although I doubt it), we are totally ready, and we become the platform of choice for 3D printing

A team focused on researching support for new types of hardware devices should be started.

I find that linux developers in general always tend to wait for announced hardware, or until hardware becomes popular before adding general support for it. The issue is, that because most companies wont announce the existance of a new type of product until close to release date, we are always behind in support, because we never even have the infrastructure for it.

Some examples of technologies we should design an infrastructure for now are: Android mobiles, Multitouch, 3D printing, acellerometers and 3D projection. And there are plenty more which we should at least start coding proper libs for, so it doesn't break down into a bunch of adhoc drivers, and utilities that aren't universal.


Many people say "we should work on more important things". Like what? Making gnome look prettier? Thats all great, until manufacturers realise we don't have the infrastructure for the hardware they were thinking of designing, so they wont bother with us, because it will take months before programs could use it even with drivers (so they may as well just focus on the most popular platform).


Lets jump the gun, and start being the best at supporting NEWER hardware, and not just older hardware. If we don't do this, hardware in linux will never be truly "plug and play", instead, it will remain "plug and pray".

If we have an awesome infrastructure for cutting edge technologies, we will have something to brag about, and software developers will see linux as the best at supporting technologies in a generic manner.

By default, the Linux kernel will automatically disable ACPI on computers with bios which are older then 2000. However, many of the computers which have ACPI disabled, are in fact ACPI compliant.

I propose we create an online lookup database which ubuntu can check for hardware ACPI compliance, and offer to install ACPI support for computers which support it. A semi-automatic testing tool can be made which is also offered to users with pre-2000 computers, to submit to the database.

At the very least, a checkbox should be offered in the configuration panel, where ACPI can be easily forced and users can be shown their expected success rate. This will also eliminate the need for users to mess with grub.lst, potentially messing up booting entirely to give ACPI=force a try.

The use of accellerometers and motion sensing is going to increase massively over the next year. Lets develop a framework for them, and start integrating it into Ubuntu now.

Some uses may include:
- Ability to set off alarm if laptop with locked screen is moved (or to perform an action)
- New screensavers which detect the motion of the computer
- Work on integrating support into games to improve them (maybe have a pinball-like game for instance).
- Pause CD burning and resume if motion is detected, so that its more likely to produce a good burn (no more idiots knocking laptops stopping the burn for instance)
- Park the Harddisk heads (duh, everyone does that these days).

If we start developing awesome support for them, its likely dell will integrate them into the next gen of their linux desktops/laptops, which will definately help our cause.

We could be the first OS to use motion sensing extensively, and in a good way, not just for HDD head parking, and tech demos.

Its been demonstrated by Johnny Lee that its possible to turn any screen or projector into a multi-touch touchscreen with a wiimote, an IR LED, and a bluetooth adapter (about $40 to multi-touch ANY screen), and that it can perform quite well.

We should implement his work, so that developers can start integrating heavy multi-touch support into the desktop environments. It allows the development of minority report like interfaces and new peripherals. At the very least, it allow very cheap "digital whiteboards" for education users. At best, it allows us to have a semi messy, but very cheap Microsoft surface-like implementation. Also, this has a big impact on movie making.

Implementation of this, allows:
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/388/
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/5555/
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/3077/

This allows us to start developing things in a whole new way, and bring multi-touch and touch screens to the masses cheaply.

Finally, its easy to code. Bluetooth support is implemented already, and there are probably already wiimote libs too. Its just a matter of putting it together.

Since the wiimote is just a simple IR camera, we could also create open-hardware schematics for people to make their own blazingly cheap replacement for a wiimote, making it even cheaper.

More info at: http://www.wiimoteproject.com/ and http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/projects/wii/