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The Ubuntu community has contributed 22700 ideas, 138270 comments, 2629576 votes
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Popular ideas Here are the latest ideas about Ubuntu that have been approved.

Scroll speed in mouse options  
Written by trileletri the 11 Feb 13 at 16:26. Related project: Unity. New
Mouse scroll wheel should have an option (like in Windows) to set scroll speed - how many "lines" to scroll in one flip of a mouse wheel.
62
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Solution #1: Add scroll speed slider to mouse settings panel
Written by trileletri the 11 Feb 13 at 16:26.
Add a simple mouse wheel scroll speed so you can set scroll speed to 1,2,3,4,5,6... lines of text for scrolling

See the 1 comments or propose a solution >>

Display downloading speed software center  
Written by seiryu89 the 12 Apr 12 at 20:08. Related project: Ubuntu Software Center. New
It will be a great idea to display the current downloading speed of a package that it's been installed.
161
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Solution #1: Display under the progress bar the current downloading speed and time remaining
Written by seiryu89 the 12 Apr 12 at 20:08.
Display under the progress bar the current downloading speed and the time remaining

See the 6 comments or propose a solution >>

QuickBoot feature like Windows 8  
Written by idude.aldunate the 13 Jan 12 at 14:41. Global category: Others. New
The latest Windows 8 Developer Preview, boots incredibly fast! Wouldn't it be nice to see that speed on our Ubuntu powered machines? From "no power" state to "desktop" it's like less than 15 seconds.
I would really like to see that feature on Ubuntu 12.04 or 12.10...
7
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Solution #1: Implement the FastBoot feature from Windows 8, or create on alike
Written by idude.aldunate the 13 Jan 12 at 14:41.
8
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Solution #2: Implement snapshot boot in grub and kernel
Written by LSenf the 14 Mar 12 at 21:03.
Just to make this more specific:

Kernel: Implement kernel hibernation and kernel resume

Grub: Implement snapshot image booting


An example where this was implemented on linux for ARM:

http://www.elinux.org/images/3/37/Snapshot-boot-final.pdf

(Have a look at the diagram on page 19)

See the 5 comments or propose a solution >>

Booting with only one User account could be more efficient  
Written by icyitscold the 9 Aug 10 at 21:37. Global category: Usability. New
I, like many people, have only one user account on my laptop. Lets say, for simplicity, that booting takes 20 seconds, 10 seconds to get to the Login Screen, wait for password, then another 10 seconds to load the desktop environment of the user after login. Real Total (incl wait for password) = 35 seconds

But if there is only one user account on the computer, then Ubuntu should know what Desktop Environment to load, since there is only one, and could, therefore, load up that Users account while he is typing the password in the background.
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Solution #1: When there is only 1 user, load desktop environment while passwrd is being typed
Written by icyitscold the 9 Aug 10 at 21:37.
if there is only one user account on the computer, then Ubuntu should know what Desktop Environment to load, since there is only one, and could, therefore, load up that Users account while he is typing the password in the background.

New Real Boot time incl Password = 22 seconds

See the 3 comments or propose a solution >>

Mouse scroll, speed should be changeable on-the-fly, globally, through a GUI  
Written by shiki the 17 May 10 at 14:34. Global category: Usability. New
Okay I know some of you will hate me for this idea. We are writing 2010 and as far as I know there is no possible way to set speed or scroll speed globally. Even if you set it, you have to mess with Firefox's "config" or xorg.conf.

It's all good and 'geeky', but I guess everyone would like to use Ubuntu with ease, and these problems can be pretty annoying.

Please provide a simple GTK utility (and of course this needs a 'fix' in xorg and apps) for this setting (for cross-UI).
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Solution #1: A GUI app which would accomplish this
Written by shiki the 17 May 10 at 14:34.
Don't know about how apps get the information about scroll speed but the config util should put the config file where the other apps expect it, or Xorg should apply it globally.

Add a comment or propose a solution >>

Ubuntu desktop needs to be more accesible  
Written by mitzampt the 27 Apr 10 at 14:12. Related project: Gnome. New
Even though there are numerous customisation features for Gnome, KDE and XFCE there are times when finding a certain application or file becomes unnecessarily slow. If you already know what file you need to open you still have to browse to its directory and the same goes for browsing through the Applications menu for that one app...

New users tend to hate the way the menu is organised and also the filesystem, even though things are pretty simple.
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Solution #1: Make a search bar or search applet that goes inline with the icons
Written by mitzampt the 27 Apr 10 at 14:12.
Deskbar is a neat tool, but I hate that I have to grab the mouse to click it and then clicking again to type the command or filename. So i think deskbar should have the option to display it's input box inline and maybe later suggesting to the user about choosing a quick key combination

Also, for KDE, the menu should move the search function on the launchy thingy...

I believe this is why people like stuff like browsers and google and having that integrated into the desktop is one step into getting people to like Ubuntu desktop..

Add a comment or propose a solution >>

Select best repository automatically according to the network segment  
Written by fracting the 26 Apr 10 at 01:35. Related project: Add/Remove program dialog. New
Ubuntu Software Center can select best repository server automatically by scan the servers one by one,it works well most of the time,but we can make it better.
Every time I run "Select Best Server",it scans all the servers arround the world, and this takes a long time .However ,if it just scans several nearby servers according to the location of the user, we can save a lot of time.Since it's easy to position a computer from one's IP address,we can also select the best server automatically according to one's network segment.It is possible and effective, and much faster than scan one by one.
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Solution #1: Select best repository by network segment
Written by fracting the 26 Apr 10 at 01:35.
First of all,we have to run an analysis-server in order to collect the connection speed data between Ubuntu Desktops and repository-servers from amounts of UserIP-ServerIP couples.

Continue,all the Ubuntu Desktop machines should automatically run a random test backgroud when the network using on the user's computer is in idleness.
Ubuntu Software Centers scan serveral servers randomly,then submit the result data including [UserIP,ServerIP,ConnectionSpeed] to the analysis-server.

After that,when someone run "Select Best Server",Ubuntu Software Center will connect to the analysis-server,then the analysis-server will return the fastest repository-server address according to the user's IP address and the previous statistic data.

How does the analysis-server work ? This is based on the following conjecture:
Different IP addresses in the similar network segment has the same connection speed.
For example,according to www.whatismyip.com ,the IP address 121.33.180.2 is in GuangZhou China, it's ISP is CHINANET GUANGDONG PROVINCE NETWORK, and so is 121.33.200.220 .Then we can conject that 121.33.190.163 is also in GuangZhou China and is also provided by CHINANET GUANGDONG PROVINCE NETWORK , because it is in the network segment which is between 121.33.180.2 and 121.33.190.163 .(In fact this my current IP address.) For this reason ,we can determine the fastest repository-server for almost all IP addresses by collecting and analysising just only a few IP addresses.


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Solution #2: Only for large downloads
Written by Akerbos the 26 Apr 10 at 06:49.
The analysis might be useless overhead of only some MB have to be downloaded.
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Solution #3: Top 3 & click for more
Written by Tom6 the 30 Apr 10 at 18:13.
A single click should just scan the top 3 identified so far. A double-click or the second click should offer
1. Top 10
2. Scan all

So Top3 & Top10 changes according to which have been found to be fastest previously. Logs could keep values of top20 & the test is only done by using this button by default.

When downloading 8.10, 9.04 and 9.10 i found the fastest servers were a long way off. In my country people all started downloading at approximately the same times but the Czech site was hardly being used (it had been swamped earlier)
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Solution #4: Select Best Servers in a country
Written by zergling78 the 8 May 10 at 13:55.
Now "select best server" scan all servers and return the fastest one. But most of time people choose the server in their countries, sometimes in countries near by.

My idea is when a use select a country from the left country list, add an "Select best server in XXX" button above "Select best server" button. Then the use can click it to only scan the server in that country.
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Solution #5: best server is not always in your region !!
Written by thom the 14 May 10 at 23:59.
Read this:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1131855&page=2

In some contries, a server on another continent may well be a better choice.

See the 1 comments or propose a solution >>

Update-manager is not as fast as it could be  
Written by julientroploin the 13 Apr 10 at 10:19. Related project: Update manager. New
Update-manager is a simple to use and powerful tool, but some actions performed with it, although they seem simple, force the user to wait several seconds until its done.
Some details could certainly improve the impression of reactivity.
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Solution #1: store locally the the "No changelog available"
Written by julientroploin the 13 Apr 10 at 10:19.
Some updates (from external source) do not propose change-log available from the update manager.
Update manager takes a long time to say "No change-log available for this update blablabla see ... for further informations" (Using a French version, I don't know the English message)
But I think lots of users don't go to the given URL, so they wait a long time for poor information.

Perhaps is it possible to receive the message in 2 stages :
- "No change-log available" send the fastest way
- furthers detail could arrive slower
so the user that is not interested by those details can switch to his next task...
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Solution #2: start installation sooner
Written by pczahra the 29 Apr 10 at 13:56.
The package manager should start installing packages as soon as they have all their dependencies satisfied, rather than once all downloads are complete. Look at the system monitor as the network traffic is maxed out and the processor is sitting doing nothing, then suddenly the network is silent and the processor is maxed out instead. Some of this work could be done concurrently.

Add a comment or propose a solution >>

the files are fragmented for ever  
Written by jerome.bouat the 21 Oct 09 at 17:48. Global category: System. New
Of course the ext2,3,4 file systems avoid to fragment the files by design.

However a few files still be fragmented, even if they will not change for months.

The file fragmentation slows down the computer boot sequence as well as the cold startup of the applications.

For example, the below boot files are fragmented:
-----
j@j-desktop:~$ find /boot -type f -exec filefrag '' \; | grep -v ' [01] extent'
/boot/System.map-2.6.31-14-generic: 2 extents found
/boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic: 2 extents found
/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic: 2 extents found
-----

The start of the openoffice application could be slowed down by the below fragmented files:
-----
j@j-desktop:~$ find /usr/lib/openoffice -type f -exec filefrag '' \; | grep -v ' [01] extent'
/usr/lib/openoffice/basis3.1/program/libtklx.so: 2 extents found
/usr/lib/openoffice/basis3.1/program/offapi.rdb: 2 extents found
/usr/lib/openoffice/basis3.1/program/libdict_zh.so: 2 extents found
/usr/lib/openoffice/basis3.1/program/libchartcontrollerlx.so: 2 extents found
/usr/lib/openoffice/basis3.1/program/libsvxlx.so: 2 extents found
/usr/lib/openoffice/basis3.1/program/libsdlx.so: 2 extents found
/usr/lib/openoffice/basis3.1/program/libxolx.so: 2 extents found
/usr/lib/openoffice/basis3.1/program/libsvtlx.so: 2 extents found
/usr/lib/openoffice/basis3.1/program/libfrmlx.so: 2 extents found
/usr/lib/openoffice/basis3.1/program/libscfiltlx.so: 2 extents found
/usr/lib/openoffice/basis3.1/program/libxlsxlx.so: 2 extents found
/usr/lib/openoffice/basis3.1/program/libvbaobjlx.uno.so: 2 extents found
/usr/lib/openoffice/basis3.1/program/libswlx.so: 2 extents found

[....]
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Solution #1: make e2fsck defragment after usual check
Written by jerome.bouat the 21 Oct 09 at 17:48.
When the mount count has been reached, e2fsck check the filesystem.

During this process, e2fsck collects statistics about the file fragmentation.

Why not using those information just after the check in order to defragment the older files. In order to prevent harming the boot process, the defragmentation could finish after a delay (30 seconds ?).
-22
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Solution #2: use a cron script which tries to defragment by copying
Written by jerome.bouat the 21 Oct 09 at 18:39.
For example we could rely on the shake utility which copies a file inside the same transaction (and thus unfragment it).

We could create this weekly cron script:
-----
#! /bin/sh
defragmented_dir_list="/boot /sbin /bin /lib /etc /usr/sbin /usr/bin /usr/lib"
for root_d in $defragmented_dir_list ; do
find $root_d -type f -ctime +1 -size -8M -exec filefrag '' \; | grep -v '[01] extent' | awk 'print $1' | sed 's/://' | xargs shake ;
done
-----
1
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Solution #3: Add an option to fsck so it doesn't give the hard drive too much hard time.
Written by Ssdg the 22 Oct 09 at 22:19.
Running a defrag on each 20th boo might be an unnecessary pain for the disk (because having too much defrag might shorten the drive's lifetime.) so, maybe an option for fsck or a solution like "sudo touch /forcefsck" might be a good idea.
Maybe something like
"echo "defrag" > /forcefsck "
61
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Solution #4: Include a Defragmenter in System Tools with simple GUI
Written by Gaming4JC the 23 Oct 09 at 20:06.
Much like Windows, users could simply choose to defrag the computer via a program in system tools. It could have a simple GUI explaining the amount of fragmentation, and perhaps allow scheduling of defragmenting on boot time.
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Solution #5: Optional defragmentation during shutdown
Written by stoffel the 24 Oct 09 at 15:01.
As said in solution 1, collect the fragmentation statistics during the regular e2fsck check during startup. However, instead of slowing down the boot process, store the statistics to a file.

Then, if the user wants to shut down the system, ask her/him whether the system also should be defragmented at the same time (default option).

Advantage over solution #1: faster startup.
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Solution #6: make e2fsck defragment a few seconds at each boot
Written by jerome.bouat the 26 Oct 09 at 12:28.
When e2fsck hasn't to check the file system, it could spend a few seconds in order to defragment the old files by using a simple and fast search/defragment algorithm.

It would just stop searching after it found a file which fits the criteria, without searching a better candidate.

After the file has been defragmented, it can search a new one and defragment it. e2fsck would stop after 5 seconds.

The criteria could be:
- more than 1 month old
- less than 16 MB
- atime less than 15 days
- ...

If e2fsck is defragmenting 5 seconds at each boot. It would slowly defragment the disk.
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Solution #7: make prelink reallocate a file before modification
Written by jerome.bouat the 28 Oct 09 at 17:00.
prelink is inserting the direct link of the linked library into the binary. Most of the time, it increases the file size and thus fragments the file.

Why not making prelink reallocate the whole file in one shot before writing the modified content?

See the 1 comments or propose a solution >>

lzma should replace gzip for compressing the documentation  
Written by jerome.bouat the 20 Oct 09 at 10:54. Global category: Installation. New
All the documentation files in /usr/share/doc are compressed with gzip.

For example, the perl package provides the below compressed documentation files:
-----
j@j-laptop:~$ du -h /usr/share/doc/perl/*.gz
16K /usr/share/doc/perl/AUTHORS.gz
40K /usr/share/doc/perl/changelog.Debian.gz
864K /usr/share/doc/perl/changelog.gz
0 /usr/share/doc/perl/Changes.gz
j@j-laptop:~$
-----

Quite 1 MB for the documentation !
20
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Solution #1: use lzma compression instead of gzip
Written by jerome.bouat the 20 Oct 09 at 10:54.
For example, the perl package would save space for the installed files by using the lzma compression instead of gzip:
-----
j@lt:~$ gunzip /usr/share/doc/perl/changelog.gz -c | lzma --best -c > changelog.lzma
j@lt:~$ du -h /usr/share/doc/perl/changelog.gz changelog.lzma
864K /usr/share/doc/perl/changelog.gz
584K changelog.lzma
j@lt:~$
-----

See the 3 comments or propose a solution >>

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