Popular ideas - Ubuntu brainstorm

Ubuntu QA:

Blog

Brainstorm

Package status

The Ubuntu community has contributed 16778 ideas, 103272 comments, 2165696 votes

All more
Projects more
Global categories more
- Accessibility
- Documentation
- Education
- Gaming
- Graphics
- Hardware support
- Installation
- Internet & Networking
- Look and Feel
- Marketing
- Multimedia
- Office
- Programming
- Quality
- Security
- Server
- System
- Usability
- Others

Idea sandbox

Popular ideas

Ideas in development

Implemented ideas

Here are the most popular ideas ever about Ubuntu.

Provide a simple graphical interface to manage _any_ type of network connection

Ubuntu

In :
Priority :	Medium
Definition :	New (Needs guidance)
Implementation :	Unknown
Assignee :

Written by Alan Pope the 28 Feb 08 at 13:50. Global category: Internet & Networking. New

A single unified tool should be provided which allows the user to connect to a network (or internet) via any supported method. It would also be useful to provide an extension to this tool to manage firewall rules and network connection sharing.

8371
votes

80
votes

47
votes

65
votes

44
votes

Solution #6: Add "Automatically connect to VPN..." option to wireless network settings

Written by nickpick the 29 May 09 at 18:54.

Add a drop-down list (or another similar way) allowing the user to select a VPN network he wants to connect to automatically -once the connection with the specified, not just any, WiFi network- has been established.

Example:

+ Automatically connect to VPN...
-- none (default)
-- University_VPN_Example
-- Corporate_VPN_Example
-- Home_server_VPN-Example

29
votes

27
votes

26
votes

25
votes

31
votes

Solution #11: Sharing Internet and network configuration automatically.

Written by nq6 the 13 Aug 09 at 02:39.

#view the outline of the idea.

The new user can not share your internet with other computers or put two computers with Ubuntu in a network easily.

Below is the commands for the user to perform these tasks. This is not simple for a new user. Install packages, use the terminal, set the ip manually, type in the link of the Nautilus Ip of the other machine.

#commands to the two computers
sudo apt-get install samba system-config-samba

#commands to the computer that shares the Internet
sudo su
modprobe iptable_nat
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth1 -j MASQUERADE

[...]

#command to view the other ubuntu in the network - the PC 1
sudo su
ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.2 up
smb://192.168.0.1/

#command to view the other ubuntu in the network - the PC 2
sudo su
ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.1 up
smb://192.168.0.2/

Who has two network devices, you want to share internet and create a network between two PCs, it has to be experienced and know many commands. This is not ideal. The Ubuntu aims to ease.

See the 118 comments or propose a solution >>

Fix Suspend and Hibernate

Written by tighem the 28 Feb 08 at 17:22. Global category: System. New

Suspend and hibernate still seems to be a big issue based on forum posts.

7267
votes

32
votes

Solution #3: Mix of improvements + Solution #1 (letting the user choose)

Written by franco.valoppi the 26 Aug 09 at 03:47.

I think that even using proprietary driver may make it more compatible, always let the user to choose.

On the other hand I have some other ideas to improve performance (probably already implemented):
- Memory trim and garbage collection, before hitbernating.
- Memory Defrag.
- Exclude System Prefetched data from hibernate files. I mean memory used with programs already closed but still in memory in the case you want to open them again.

-5
votes

Solution #4: Add an idle option

Written by qwerty800 the 19 Sep 09 at 14:54.

As a temporary solution, we should add an "idle" option to ubuntu.

Since suspend and hibernate both invole creating a system image and storing it in the ram/in the swap, until we fix this, we need to find another alternative to this.

The only alternative remaining is to leave your computer open during all the night!

Well, my idea is to add an "Idle" option, that would:
-Suspend most of the programs
-Lower the CPU clocking (If possible)
-Lower the fan speed (If possible, trying to emit the less noise possible)
-Lower the HDD speed (If possible)
-Lock the screen

That way, we could still avoid energy wasting, while waiting for a working sleep mode.

38
votes

12
votes

See the 273 comments or propose a solution >>

Clean up Preferences and Administration.

Ubuntu

In :
Priority :	Undefined
Definition :	New (Needs guidance)
Implementation :	Unknown
Assignee :

Written by writser the 28 Feb 08 at 16:49. Global category: System. New

First of all: What is the difference between Preferences and Administration? For example: why do I see 'Encryption and Keyrings' in Preferences and 'Keyring Manager' in Administration? What is the difference between 'Default Printer' and 'Printing'? Why do I have to disable the Tracker under Sessions and not under Search and Indexing? And why are these menu's so large? I have 24 items in Preferences (they don't even fit on my screen!) and 18 items in Administration. To put all this stuff in a popup menu is bad interface design imho. Besides, the number of option should be much smaller. A few suggestions:

Below are all settings I can visit via the System menu. This is just way too much.

-- Preferences --
Universal Access
About Me
Appearance
Bluetooth
Default Printer
Encryption and Keyrings
Keyboard
Keyboard Shortcuts
Main Menu
Mouse
Network Proxy
PalmOS Devices (I don't have one)
Power Management
Preferred Applications
Remote Desktop
Removable Drives and Media
SCIM Input Method Setup (What is this?)
Screen Resolution
Screensaver

[....]

Developer comments

* 'Screens and Graphics' has been dropped in favor of just 'Screen Resolution'

5845
votes

83
votes

Solution #2: Fedora 10 inspired solution

Written by yule the 18 Jan 09 at 17:28.

I believe the "Preferences" and "Administration" sub-menus of the "System" menu should be re-structured similarily to "Fedora 10", splitting the items into categories of interest: Look and Feel, Input Devices etc.

Also, but this is probably a generic Gnome defect, items like "Screensaver", "Appearance", "Screen Resolution" should be merged together.

-112
votes

Solution #3: Most important things in Preferences/Administration and everything in control p.

Written by jeypeyy the 18 Jan 09 at 21:05.

Put the most important things that a user will need in Preferences and Administration. If the user want to change less important stuff he/she could go to System->'control panel' where the user can change everything that is configurable.

What I mean with important is something like "screen resolution" while "Sun java 6 policy tool" is less important.

58
votes

Solution #4: Add a shortcut to the gnome-control-center in the system menu

Written by c0p3rn1c the 6 Feb 09 at 15:33.

I'm not asking to remove the existing shortcuts in the system menu just to add a shortcut to the gnome-control-center, this makes it much easier for beginners to find what they are looking for. Especially when users are coming from Windows or Mac they are used to a having a control center.

On top of increased similarity to the most popular commercial OS's gnome-controle-center also adds extra functionality with the search box for people who are not used to Ubuntu yet and or are not yet using gnome-do.

Please try the gnome-control-center menu before you vote against it.
It's really a matter of choosing increasing usability over the possible redundancy issue.

115
votes

Solution #5: All in one Gnome Control Center

Written by dael99 the 14 Feb 09 at 00:56.

All the administration task should be done in the Gnome control center, but nowdays it's just a launcher for gnome-conf apps.

The Gnome Control Centre should be a homegenius way of do things, use the same windows for operations and provide a back button, just like a file explorer (more intuitive no?)

Instead of launching a new windows it show be showed (not nested) to the main area of the Centre. This way we could compete with MS, KDE and MAC in terms of a nice control center.

(also we save some space on the gnome pannel)

68
votes

-72
votes

78
votes

17
votes

Solution #9: Restructure the System menu similarly to the Control Center

Written by Endolith the 9 Mar 09 at 14:35.

Like solution #6, except without sub-sub-menus. Just put "Personal", "Look and feel", etc. directly under the System menu.

"Use submenus sparingly, as they are physically difficult to navigate and make it harder to find and reach the items they contain." "Do not nest submenus within submenus. More than two levels of hierarchy are difficult to memorize and navigate."

http://library.gnome.org/devel/hig-book/stable/menus-types.html.en#menu-type-su bmenu

58
votes

Solution #10: Grouping of the listings.

Written by wish the 5 Mar 09 at 19:25.

1. For example, the Network configurations, Network Proxy and Remote Desktop can be grouped under a single listing Network.
2. Similarly, Compiz Settings Manager, Appearance, Emerald, Screen Saver, Screen Resolution, Windows etc can be grouped under GUI or some other better name.
3. Bluetooth, Printer, Mouse, Palm, etc can be grouped under devices.

Preferences and Administration should also get the option to be open in separate windows where they will not be cluttered.

65
votes

78
votes

57
votes

11
votes

Solution #14: Unified menu for all settings

Written by probono the 4 Mar 09 at 22:09.

The separation between system-wide and per-user settings is not necessary. Neither Windows nor Mac OS X have this kind of separation, as it confuses the user more than it helps. I've observed many people to constantly search for a setting in the wrong menu, because nobody remembers in which menu a certain setting is. Hence, I propose to unify all settings in just one menu, as demonstrated in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF2-JHF6v10

Also, the number of menu items should be brought down by combining multiple of these that fall under the same topic, as it is done in Mac OS X. For example, "Keyboard" and "Keyboard Shortcuts" could be tabs of the same panel. The same is true for "Software Sources" and "Synaptic Pagage Manger", to name just two examples.

-27
votes

-41
votes

Solution #16: Make the Menus Self learning

Written by hariks0 the 7 Apr 09 at 18:37.

If the menu preference could be set in a way that only the recent or frequent items are shown and the others only after a preset delay. Also the "Edit Main Menu" could be used to eliminate the unwanted items from popping up [by the user].

There should be a screen during installation letting the user select which applets they want to install with some tool tip for each of the items.Another requirement is an option to replace the default "menu Bar" with "Main Menu Icon" in initial setup from live CD ,which makes the desktop cleaner.

My third suggestion is to open the two menu items of"System" tabbed in to a window named "Preferences" the other "Administration". The applets/ items could be represented by icons and in alphabetical order.

839
votes

Solution #17: Develop according to the examples below

Written by nq6 the 24 May 09 at 21:35.

Below I developed some screens to explain better my idea.

Reduce the number of options available to facilitate the choice by the user. Decrease from 39 to 16 items.

Scheme simplification.

idea of how many icons can become one. view of the behavior of windows with the merger of these icons.

overview of the idea. In this picture you can see the whole blueprint at once.

[...]

Simplify the menu to facilitate usability. Below the simulation of how the menu of Ubuntu can be. Much simpler, less polluted Visually, and easier to find what you want.

The Ubuntu is an excellent system, more needs to move forward in some areas. One is the simplification of the options that the user faces. The current options make Ubuntu confused. I think that my idea is to improve usability.

-175
votes

6
votes

5
votes

-13
votes

Solution #21: Implement or modify mintMenu

Written by je1403 the 14 Jul 09 at 23:41.

Linux Mint is an Ubuntu-based distribution. It is especially beginner-friendly. One of its best features is the mintMenu. This replaces the gnome-menu, but is categorized in the same way. It's pretty difficult to explain it by text, but check out this image: http://www.jessture.com/images/linux_mint/lm3-1_mint_menu.png
The menu is divided in several sections. The "Applications" section is categorized with the average "Office", "Internet", etc. Instead of having the pop-up menus, the menu has a fixed width and height, using scrollbars when the listed items dont fit. Mouseovering the categories shows their contents. The best part is the search bar. If you type "screen" it will filter the results and show you screen resolution, screensaver, login screen, for example. Watch this video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePEbfsV2yQw

See the 109 comments or propose a solution >>

Offer to create a separate /home partition and use existing ones

Written by frandavid100 the 22 Mar 08 at 10:55. Global category: Installation. New

A separate partition for /home has been proposed for a long time in the forums. It implies some risks, though, so based on disk size Ubiquity should estimate the amount of space that should be left for / or whether a separate partition should be made at all. Then...

-The first time an user installs Ubuntu, he is given the option to set a separate /home. This option is selected by default, with a size for each partition based on a sane guess:

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/7958/firstinstallaro2.png

-Of course, he can just choose not to set a separate /home. This option will be selected by default if the results of the system test suggest that's the best thing to do.

http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/6498/firstinstallbfs6.png

-Manual install is also possible. Selecting it greys out everything related to separate /home, since it's implied that the user doesn't want to be guided.

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/7976/firstinstallcvc2.png

-If the user set a separate /home, the next time he installs Ubuntu a new option appears and is selected by default, prompting to use the existing /home partition. All other options are still available, though.

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/9034/secondinstalliq1.png

[....]

Developer comments

I have always used a separate /home as well. Keeping /home after reinstallations is one major reason which has been mitigated by ubiquity preserving /home now (I didn't test that yet, though).

Either way ubiquity (the Live CD installer) should point this out clearly.

The other reason is that I want to use it from multiple Linux installations, but that's mostly a geek use case.

I have no idea what size / and /home should have by default,
I always use 6 GB for / and the rest for /home, but if someone wants to use huge databases, that'll break.

Thus I think we should stick to our current partitioning and rather improve the UI for keeping /home. There is always manual partitioning for people who actually care.

--

Preserving the contents of /home during installation has been implemented in the desktop CD installer (ubiquity) since Ubuntu 8.04. This is achieved by deleting the system files and directories that are about to be replaced and then continuing with a normal installation, leaving /home, /opt and others untouched. We decided against creating a separate /home partition as there is no correct answer for a /home partition, / partition size split for all users, and we felt the likelihood that whatever guess we came up with would be a major regression for a large subset of our users was quite high.

In addition to this, partitioning is a complex subject, one that is quite difficult for many non-technical users to understand. This difficulty is further complicated by a lack of safe, online partition resizing in Linux.

Please note that the functionality to preserve the contents of /home exists in Ubuntu, just not via the arguably dangerous implementation suggested here.

-- Evan on behalf of the Installer Team

5291
votes

51
votes

120
votes

5
votes

Solution #4: new automatic partition menu on install

Written by mitcoes the 29 Jul 09 at 14:24.

Add this option:
USE a /home partition,
=> select the (old home) partition to use
=> make a new one => choose size
=> all the free space
=> choose other size

And of course after giving -/- a partition with enough space.
about 10 Gb in my opinion in a modern HDD, and other options in small devices.

And 6 Gb - i prefer 10 Gb - for / and the rest for /home MUST BE THE DEFAULT, for KK, and, of course in EXT4.

This partition - /home - would be partitioned as NTFS or FAT32 inoder to share documents with MS WOS. As an option, of course. But better an EXT4 driver for MS WOS.

22
votes

Solution #5: Recommend that the user have 1 partition (with swap file), and improve reinstall

Written by AndrewLuecke the 26 Jan 09 at 06:48.

The problems with having multiple partitions, is that nobody can ever tell how much is needed. What if their system partition isn't big enough? Then the whole computer will need reformatting.

The most flexible way of managing space is 1 partition that holds all files. Then whether you have a 1GB home directory, or a 160GB home directory, it wont matter (users shouldn't have to make assumptions about what they want in the future).

Furthermore, by using swap and allocating it as a file at install time, it wont be fragmented, but can be expanded (and defragged after) in the future if required, so that users also don't need to assume how much swap they require (as its not a good idea resizing the swap partition).

Then optimally, have different reinstall modes:
1) Clean install (wipe everything)
2) Clean install, using old home directories (with option to move all existing files into something like "/oldsystem"
3) Normal upgrade

Everyone wins, and there are no disadvantages with my method!!!

See the 61 comments or propose a solution >>

Improve file/folder sharing experience (Samba)

Written by bartong the 29 Feb 08 at 01:35. Global category: Internet & Networking. New

Currently it is very difficult to setup and control access to shared folders without editing conf files and reading detailed instructions on all the variables. I propose that sharing (specifically Samba) be given a well worked GUI and some real TLC to bring it up to standard with the experience on Windows or OS X.

5254
votes

Solution #1: Defaults and GUI Options adjusted appropriately

Written by bartong the 29 Feb 08 at 01:35.

By default a share should be accessible as Read Only by anyone on the network without a username or password (guest access). While guest access should be turned on by default, it should also be easy to turn it off, and if desired to give guests read/write access to the folder.

You should also be able to specify local users who will have read/write access, and these local users should sync with smb users invisibly (ie: the user doesn't need to know that there are two password databases being used).

The Properties window for a folder should contain a Sharing tab with all the options available to choose. I also propose a Shared Folders option in the Preferences menu should list the currently shared folders along with their settings, and provide a button to take you into the dialogue where you can set the options.

83
votes

7
votes

2
votes

Solution #4: Samba Server Configuration Wizard

Written by Agafonov the 18 Nov 09 at 21:29.

We need a simple to use step-by-step wizard which will ask some really simple questions and generate an smb.conf file based on the user's choices.
How about https://launchpad.net/sscw ? It is a working example, although right now it's using zenity. If re-written using python it would become a very handy companion to nautilus-share.
We even should not include smb.conf in the samba package: once installed, samba server will not work until the user has defined how it should behave.

See the 44 comments or propose a solution >>

Fix compatibility with webcams and microphone

Written by dragonx the 28 Feb 08 at 17:30. Global category: Multimedia. New

In many cases, I can't configure my webcam or I have problems with the microphone. Now I can use my webcam but only with V4L2 and only 3 programas detect my webcam. It's a good idea can use my webcam in all programs as camorama.

Developer comments

That's pure driver issue in the first place. A big plus is to recommend UVC-based webcams to users, since it takes a lot of work off the shoulders of driver-developers. On the
integration-side proper support for v4l/v4l2 in webcam-related applications needs to be solidified. The ideal application to polish up is cheese of course.

5230
votes

See the 41 comments or propose a solution >>

Enhance mobile devices sync

Ubuntu

In :
Priority :	Undefined
Definition :	New (Needs guidance)
Implementation :	Unknown
Assignee :

Written by jherran the 28 Feb 08 at 15:01. Global category: Hardware support. New

There are lot of people having troubles syncing their devices (pda, smartphones, etc.) with ubuntu. At this poing there is only one solution available, multisync, and works for only a few devices, and it's very limited on their functions.

And I think, this is a very important point for lots of people.

**Suggestions from duplicate idea 397 work on that idea :

1) Clean up the Opensync and SyncML plugin packages to work properly with Evolution by default.

2) Set up an official Ubuntu SyncML server for Ubuntu users.

3) Possibly clean up open source SyncML clients for the different mobile platforms.

Developer comments

The current status of mobile devices synchronization in Linux is generally is quite shaky. It *can* work but it's a lot of work usually. There are a few efforts around but there's no single project that works in the majority of the situations.

This is also caused by manufacturers not using a single synchronization protocol. The most promising project now is OpenSync[1] which supports basically SyncML 1.1 and the Nokia variation and it works with several degrees of success between phones and desktops but the project itself is in a constant alpha state with a lot of issues, the GUI is simplistic and there are no integrated resources to sync with online contacts/calendars
like Google's. This can be overcome by preparing Evolution and/or Thunderbird to do it.

In short, despite the infrastructure is mostly there, we need work to make it a seamless experience for the user.
Bear in mind that this is a huge effort. Synchronization looks simple but there's a lot of factors and situations that need to be addressed like how to synchronize devices with different capabilities and how to keep 3 way synchronizations (desktop, online and mobile).

4381
votes

26
votes

Solution #2: Sync both PC and phone with google calendar & contacts

Written by fc.truter the 2 Jun 09 at 20:27.

Instead of creating hardware interfaces for every phone/PC combination, Canonical could take different approach, and sync both devices to a online service such as Google Contacts/Calendar or perhaps even with Ubuntu One.

On the PC side, Evolution already supports this to an extent but the process can be made much more streamlined. From the phone side, projects like GCalSync have already started something like this but few have seen the potential in this, and there is massive room for improvement.

This could be the next step in cloud computing and could bypass all the device driver issues and unwilling hardware manufacturers, since most phones already support Java or a similar language.

6
votes

See the 72 comments or propose a solution >>

Better wi-fi support

Written by neilneil2000 the 29 Feb 08 at 00:20. Global category: Internet & Networking. New

More support for more wireless chipsets out of the box and "Windows style" ease of set up.

I have spent may a day trying to configure wireless cards on Ubuntu, often without much luck!

Please also deliver more support for what they are both wireless PCI cards and USB, as it is currently very low base of drivers for such devices

4373
votes

See the 61 comments or propose a solution >>

Restoring the bootloader by Ubuntu installation CD

Written by vinlos the 29 Feb 08 at 10:46. Global category: Installation. New

If I install Windows after Ubuntu, it's impossible to boot Ubuntu until I install again GRUB following several instructions.
My idea is adding the option "Restore bootloader" in the list which appears when Ubuntu installation CD start. The aim is to offer a simple way to restore GRUB without loading a live distribution, opening a terminal and following a long series of instructions

[Edit 06/03/2008]
In my opinion, the user SHOULDN'T boot the Ubuntu Live Distro. It would be an unuseful waste of time.
Instead, it should be possible to select a new option among those ones of the startup menu of the CD.

4289
votes

312
votes

124
votes

134
votes

17
votes

Solution #5: Make a DUPLICATE of the mbr and place an option in boot.ini and vista bootmgr

Written by supermorph the 3 Apr 09 at 18:26.

as an option as WELL as placing grub into mbr , i would suggest Making a DUPLICATE of the mbr and place the mbr file in windows boot.ini and the vista bootmgr menu's (should windows be located in the install)

i had to re-do somebodys system, they was very dubious on linux (they had another distro and it didnt do wireless, so they over generalised and thought gnu/linux as a whole was not good) and i suggested to fix thier pc,
they left it with me, so i put thier media-centre xp first, all thier apps how they liked, installed a hidden user for me, and installed jaunty 9.04 at the end of the hdd, and made the users exactly like the xp, (both with firefox, and wine 4 ubuntu) i also took the liberty of extracting the installed mbr of ubuntu to a file "ubuntu.mbr" i called it, and placed it into thier xp partition (hidded,system applied) and added a menu "Ubuntu Linux" to thier boot.ini as the second option, i then proceeded to make a recovery image of this setup and put it to four dvd's with all of the dvd's bootable to a registered acronis 8 personal of myne, so if they restore it will ALWAYS work, and if they need whats on there they can remove the mbr and STILL use ubuntu (or put it back if they ask how to do it)

mabye this could be done, and add an option to restore this mbr file to the hdd in recovery mode on the live/alt disks?

sorry for the long post, but i think it will actually help because of the way i done things, theres no way ubuntu cannot be run in that configuration.

[...]

kind regards
supermorph

-11
votes

186
votes

41
votes

12
votes

110
votes

See the 41 comments or propose a solution >>

Engage DeviantArt for Ubuntu theme competition

Ubuntu

In :
Priority :	Undefined
Definition :	Pending Approval (Needs guidance)
Implementation :	Good progress
Assignee :	Mike MacCana

Written by mikemaccana the 29 Feb 08 at 01:19. Global category: Look and Feel. New

There is a wide community of online artists capable of creating brilliant, unique artwork.

heading: Get your artwork on 10 million desktops

Ubuntu, the world's most popular Linux distribution, needs a new theme. The winner will appear in the default desktop of Ubuntu 8.10.

We're looking for original wallpapers, that match Ubuntu's color palette. You entry should also include a suggested combination of application, icon, and window themes. These can be existing themes, or your own original works - you only need to submit a wallpaper to win.

Work must be CC licensed, and be openable in either Inkscape or Gimp (rest of criteria continues)

Submit your works to DeviantArt and include the words [Ubuntu810].

Good luck!

Developer comments

At this point in time it is unclear as to whether we can realize something like this. In any case we cannot promise to include anything as default without having already seen it. This might be a good way to find alternative wallpapers to also include on the CD and/or universe as an extra package.

4015
votes

See the 133 comments or propose a solution >>

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ... Next >>

Submit your idea