Ubuntu Studio is far behind Ubuntu in ease of use. The installer is confusing to many users, and it requires too much configuration to get working. The documentation is buried and instructions are lacking. This is a niche market that I think Ubuntu can become extremely successful in. I don't mean to sound condescending, but most Ubuntu Studio users aren't the most computer savvy people. They tend to be creative types, who get discouraged when Ubuntu Studio doesn't work right out of the box. Ubuntu Studio needs to be at least as easy to use as regular Ubuntu, if not easier.

Ubuntu comes bundled with a variety of software, which while being a good thing, does not really satisfy the needs/wants of many users, who may have preferences for alternate solutions. An example of this is the evolution v/s thunderbird debate or even the totem v/s vlc one. Most other GNU/Linux distributions provide package selection during the installation phase which caters for this problem but this involves a certain level of ambiguity, especially for new users, which is not desirable as far as Ubuntu is concerned.

Nonetheless the initial problems persists - that of user choice. This is where my idea begins: During the pre-install period, offer, besides "Default Install", the user the option to take part in a small, simple and brief questionnaire, which will allow his/her needs/wants be taken into consideration (it is his/her OS after all!) without causing any real ambiguity. Added to that, it could allow selection of proprietary software (e.g Flash, Java & Restricted Drivers) to be installed, together with respective license agreements and regional filters (Multimedia Codecs in countries where they are not illegal). It could even allow the user choose the theme of his/her installation (for those who don't like the default one).

A sample questionnaire can be found here:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ah8dtsntxxwc_68cpqw7469

Currently we have a number of repositories maintained for ubuntu or other linux distros. This is good in the way that users don't usually have to google for the software they need. However some of the software doesn't make it into the repositories, and there is no way for an application developer to reach the users other than put their software on the web and hope that users will find it through google. Another drawback of this approach is that there are requests to put software into the repositories. And yet another drawback is that it takes a little more time for a newer version of the software to make it into the repository. All of these problems can (at least partially) be solved by using a distributed repository approach. In this case there can be a central directory which will only need to contain some metainformation: where the packages are, how to download them, their checksum, and maybe if they are secure (read: maintained by canonical)

there are other advantages to using this approach, however there also are some security issues that need to be solved before implementing this idea. One is that since anyone can publish to the central directory, an attacker can possibly publish a modified version of software which was developed by another author and already gained some popularity (e.g. Pidgin), that contains a back door.

Remember the bad ol' days of EasyUbuntu and Automatix? How many of you (and how many times) ran them on fresh Ubuntu installs as a first step? The "ubuntu-restricted-extras" metapackage made them obsolete for good.

But what about now? Have you tried to play your legal DVDs with menus(!) in Hardy, even with libdvdcss2 enabled, and it failed miserably? So - as everybody knows for sure - it's time to install VLC. Easy, done with no effort. Now, set it up to pop-up automagically when you insert your disc. What?! No bloody way?! So, the solution is pretty simple and obvious: google out these instructions: http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Hardy#How_to_make_VLC_open_when_you_insert_a _DVD and follow them step-by-step. Got it? Voila! It works! Hip-hip-hurray!

But this can be done MUCH better. Simply provide one "vlc-dvd-support" (sort-of-meta)package with reasonable description and decent ./postinst and ./prerm scripts, which will do EVERYTHING of above for you. And yes, put it in the medibuntu repository if none of official repositories cant't bear it.

And make it the same way with as many other common post-install tasks and workarounds as possible.

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PS: If you vote this idea down (as somebody just did), explain WHY by adding a comment, please.