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The Ubuntu community has contributed 16744 ideas, 103101 comments, 2159954 votes
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Popular ideas Here are this week's most popular ideas about Ubuntu.

Synchronize desktop wallpaper with xsplash background  
Written by phrizek the 17 Nov 09 at 17:51. Global category: Look and Feel. New
Once you change your wallpaper on on your desktop, the overall look and feel of ubuntu becomes inconsistent when it concerns the xsplash background and the user's desktop. This leaves the user to find hacks and workarounds to make their desktop theme consistent.
63
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Solution #1: Make a checkbox to easily synchronize desktop wallpaper with xsplash background
Written by phrizek the 17 Nov 09 at 17:51.
Take a look at this script here:
http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/desktop+background+as+xsplash+%2B+gd m?content=114984&PHPSESSID=183f5f0adfa276aa6310278b4caa0979

It enables you to change the xsplash background to automatically match your current desktop wallpaper. It would be fantastic if Lucid Lynx had a similar feature installed by default. There could be a checkbox in Appearance Preferences under the background tab that allows you to quickly enable or disable this feature. Having such a feature would not only make ubuntu feel more personal, but would give a more consistent desktop appearance as well, from splash to desktop.

This feature could be disabled by default and left up to the user to enable.

See the 7 comments or propose a solution >>

The places drop down menu is difficult to customize  
Written by bbordwell the 15 Nov 09 at 21:58. Related project: Gnome. New
Customized drop down menus such as "places" would greatly enhance usability.
-41
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Solution #1: Preferences GUI
Written by bbordwell the 15 Nov 09 at 21:58.
One of the options that comes up when you click on "places" should be "places preferences". It would be a simple GUI that allows you to add/remove things from the list, as well as change recent documents settings (i.e. disable, the number of documents it remembers).
85
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Solution #2: Use Alacarte
Written by biffen the 15 Nov 09 at 22:45.
Alacarte is used to edit Applications and System menus, it should be extended to edit the Places menu as well.

Adding a "Places preferences" item to the Places menu (as proposed in solution #1) would crowd the menu itself. Editing the menu is a rare task and should be accessible by right click, rather than via a menu item, as with most other parts of Gnome and many other environments.

On a side note, the ability to choose whether the bookmarks go into a sub menu should be part of the customisation.
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Solution #3: Drag 'n' Drop to add things to Places
Written by Warbo the 20 Nov 09 at 09:59.
If a folder or bookmark is dragged on to the Places menu it should drop down to allow the user to drop it somewhere in the list. There could also be an item such as "New Folder" which appears in the list when in the process of dragging, allowing a hierarchy, which would prompt the user to rename it once they've dropped their item.

Dragging a Nautilus window should do the same, with the window's current location being added to the menu. Browser windows and hyperlinks should also have the same behaviour (there should be no distinction between local and online). Basically treat Places as a bookmarks system (which preferably would give the same lists in every application)

See the 3 comments or propose a solution >>

ssd-mode should tweak several system settings with one choice  
Written by TuxHHG the 15 Nov 09 at 17:20. Global category: Hardware support. New
Karmic is out, with the new ext4 filesystem. Which settings benefit a ssd drive? None at the moment, the user have to tune several things by hand and run in open bugs at lauchpad while doing this. Lots of wiki pages are available but most of them did not run cause of karmic structure changes.

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Solution #1: One simple ssd-mode package like laptop-mode
Written by TuxHHG the 15 Nov 09 at 17:20.
The ssd-mode package should tweak the filesystem fpr commit, barriers, nobh, noatime in one go. It should set /tmp and /var/tmp to a ramdisk, reduce logging dramatically or store logs to a ramdisk too. Should set a better scheduler for the ssd. Most of the available tips did not work with karmic through race conditions or ugly bugs.
The ssd prices are coming down, some desktop have them for their operating system. Netbooks and laptops comes with ssd, microsoft is working on a proper ssd filesystem. Ubuntu only have no clear direction to benefit and goal with the ssd. Should we tell the customer to trash the ssd and buy a hardfile? If 10.4 comes out there will be much more ssd in the computers, the fast boot need some tweaks to got the point.



See the 6 comments or propose a solution >>

Alt-tab and fullscreen  
Written by qwerty800 the 15 Nov 09 at 00:23. Global category: Gaming. New
I don't know it's still an issue on other games, but on the few games I play on wine, you can swich applications while playing. That's really handy, but it brings some other problems.
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Solution #1: Allow differnt software to be run at different resolutions.
Written by qwerty800 the 15 Nov 09 at 00:23.
I'm currently playing starcraft in fullscreen. Since the game is in pause, I can use my computer for something else. But starcraft is in 640*480, while my desktop is in 1440*900. So I swich my screen resolution back to 1440*900 (It doesn't swich back until you have closed the game, usually), and I discover that starcraft have now become a little square in the top-left corner of a buggy desktop.

Basically, what I would expect here is to, when I unminimise starcraft, bring back the game in it's native resolution, and go back to 1440*900 when I unminimise it!
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Solution #2: Allow Alt-tab to swich to the desktop
Written by qwerty800 the 15 Nov 09 at 00:27.
When I use a fullscreen applicaiton, and that I want for some reason to swich to the desktop, I can't. There's no entry for that. Instead, the only way I could find was to swich desktop (Ctrl+Alt+arrows), but it's less known, less intuitive and less handy. Here, not much of a big deal, but I would still like it to be implemented.

See the 2 comments or propose a solution >>

title-bar / caption are waste of space  
Written by yzarc the 15 Nov 09 at 12:39. Related project: Gnome. New
since they appeared, long time ago, they hold more or less the same features.

Let's see two examples:
Google-chrome, they improved it with the tab-bar and everyone loved it.
UNR, they get rid of it and put the caption and controllers in an applet (windows-picker) saving lots of space.

The gnome title-bar is poor in features and ugly too. It's allways in the way of who tried to make gnome look fancy. Think, do you really look at the caption, or you just use it to close or move the windows? If I wanna know which window is the firefox one, the last place I look is the caption.
19
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Solution #1: Improve windows-picker solution.
Written by yzarc the 15 Nov 09 at 12:39.
give it more features:
1- show min/restore commands.
2- permit to the app to add gadgets like progress bar, tab-bar, multimedia commands.
3- make it fit with the gtk theme and touching the windows to give the illusion it's part of the window.
4- add launchers.
5- window "menu mode", the window is no maximized but stay attached to the panel, like the calendar.
6- group / ungroup windows.
7- tile windows command.
8- show desktop applet.
9- places applet.
39
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Solution #2: permit app to use its space
Written by yzarc the 15 Nov 09 at 12:47.
make it more flexible permitting apps to use it as they need.
tab-bar for browsers, art and commands for media players,avatar, status, last msg of a IM windows, etc. no just title and min/max buttons.

look at this example from "clever windows" mockup, the title bar belong to the app, is useful and beautiful, holds interesting informations, is no more just an useless strip.




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Solution #3: Make window managers more sensitive.
Written by Lachu the 15 Nov 09 at 15:45.
Already window managers have designed to not disappoint users. It will force designers to add caption bar, caption buttons, etc. We should fix window border size to 2/4 pixels to each edge. Also, we need to make whole space not contained in active window interactive - by clicking on other window, we don't bring it on first front, but menu with possible actions should appear.
Use cases:
1) Alex would to move window. He only click on destination position and select move there. Alex can also click on window border or white space at screen, go to mode submenu and select move.
2) We had window maximized. It takes whole screen plus borders. Alex can click on border and select window list > gedit(for example). She can also select desktop from window list or click minimize window.

It will brinks better way to integrate with user(more natural, flexible, faster). Additional features is we don't waste space and there always possibility to use mouse(today we must use keyboard in some cases or move window on whole screen).

We should display windows title, when cursor leaves active window or alt key is pressed.

Add a comment or propose a solution >>

Improve Fadeout Animation  
Written by stoffel the 14 Nov 09 at 14:52. Global category: Look and Feel. New
Currently, the desktop is faded out just before the screensaver is activated. This animation is very nice, but I think the animation artwork can be made sexier.
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Solution #1: Keep fadeout + logo fade in/fadeout
Written by stoffel the 14 Nov 09 at 14:52.
For Lucid Lynx, an elucidating animation like the following may improve Ubuntu's coolness factor:

Ubuntu fadeout animation proposal

Summary:
* keep current fadeout
* simultaneously fade in the Ubuntu logo
* the Ubuntu logo gets brighter while the background gets darker
* show the Ubuntu logo for a few seconds at full brightness
* then also fadeout the logo
* start the screensaver when the screen is faded out (by default: black screen screensaver)

See the 5 comments or propose a solution >>

TInstallation process is boring but it is simple to rectify  
Written by doddo the 15 Nov 09 at 14:44. Related project: Frozen-Bubble. New
Hello!

When installing ubuntu, after having been prompted for all them questions, that's when the non interactive installation part starts. This may sometimes be a long process ~30 minutes. It is a dull process in that there is not a whole lot to do but sit and wait.

The probosal is to make this part of installation more fun.
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Solution #1: Add mahjongg program during installation of Ubuntu
Written by doddo the 15 Nov 09 at 14:44.
When "boring" part of installation starts,

What about spawning a mahjongg program or maybe solitare ? It can be in a small window so you can monitor installation progress at the same time as having fun. Or why not show case the pinnacle of linux gaming: Frozen-bubble?

I figure implementing this one is not too hard and is cheap in terms of system resources, the biggest bottle neck when installing is often reading from the CD Rom.
35
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Solution #2: Leave the computer and do something else
Written by mikaelstaldal the 16 Nov 09 at 14:03.
Leave the computer and do something else during installation.
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Solution #3: Use the live CD mode to install
Written by Ssdg the 16 Nov 09 at 16:11.
The "install only" mode do exactly what it's told to... And to do something AND install... we can use the LiveCD mode and install from there. Plus it's much better than a single game. it's a whole desktop

See the 2 comments or propose a solution >>

Chat logs are not consistent when switching between multiple computers  
Written by hackel the 15 Nov 09 at 02:00. Related project: Pidgin Internet Messenger. New
When I switch between my laptop to my desktop to my netbook, I end up with chat logs stored on three different computers. I would like to be able to see my entire conversation history with my IM contacts from any computer.
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Solution #1: Include option in Empathy and Pidgin to store message history in Ubuntu One
Written by hackel the 15 Nov 09 at 02:00.
Storing IM history on Ubuntu One would allow me to access the entire history from any computer I am using. Having an option for this directly in Empathy and Pidgin would make this functionality extremely simple for the user.
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Solution #2: Implement XEP-0136: Message Archiving
Written by stoffel the 16 Nov 09 at 01:01.
Empathy and Pidgin should implement XEP-0136: Message Archiving.

URL: http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0136.html

See the 2 comments or propose a solution >>

Application level hibernation  
Written by DrG the 14 Nov 09 at 12:27. Global category: Accessibility. New
Allow hibernation like state for applications .
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Solution #1: Allow hibernation like state for applications
Written by DrG the 14 Nov 09 at 12:27.
A scenario ...
GUI of an application which provide application hibernation (X) is a part of GNOME panel or a small dock or a drawer like applet.
Considered an application 'Y' . During work, at any time , the 'Y” window can be dragged and dropped to 'X'. This creates a small icon or a miniature screen shot . On clicking the icon (even after reboot ) the state of the application is restored.


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Solution #2: Saving process memory and state.
Written by Faldegast the 14 Nov 09 at 17:50.
This could be a lot more tricky then you imagine. As far as i know there are nothing like this in Linux.

An alternative would be to run each process in a Virtual Machine of some kind. This would bring a small overhead, but not as much as you think. This would mean that a process could be saved, restored and even moved to another computer. The last thing have a lot of coolness factor added to it. :)

It would also mean that we would be able to set per-process memory and CPU limits, neither is well supported in Linux today.

It would also mean that we have to do some work on the virtual machines. To have a different environment for each app would not be a good solution. Virtual Machines would have to share the root filesystem and other system-wide resources. The good part is that most system-wide resources are implemented as files, which simplifies that...

Of course sending a process to another computer would detach it from the filesystem, but some apps would be able to recover from that.
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Solution #3: CRYOPID
Written by DrG the 19 Nov 09 at 09:40.
CRYOPID (http://cryopid.berlios.de/) seems promising.
It is in the repo.

If it can work like the description in it's Website, a GNOME panel applet, like that mentioned above, can be created without much effort.


A simple algorithm -------------------------

On Dropping application Window to the applet
Prompt asking to include libraries . Choose Yes/No

On Choice
Take a Window snapshot of the application
Create a binary file of the application in user/.freeze (or custom) folder ,with or without -l switch according to the choice
Show a miniature Snapshot in applet

On clicking the snapshot
Restore the application
---------------------------------------


See the 4 comments or propose a solution >>

Release readiness indicator  
Written by utnubuuser the 15 Nov 09 at 21:47. Related project: ubuntu.com. New
There is an article on Linux Magazine about Canonical releasing buggy regular releases and not warning the general public about their less-than-stable nature.

Idea: Put a dynamically generated readiness indicator that accepts user input on Ubuntu.com's main site. Dynamic in that users can indicate their experience with the new release.
ie. a red flag/radio-button for unsuccessful installs, a amber flag/radio-button for somewhat successful installs, and a green flag/radio-button for successful installs.
The averaged results of the input could be displayed as a color-coded bar or something similar.

18
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Solution #1: Readiness indicator
Written by utnubuuser the 15 Nov 09 at 21:47.
Put user-generated readiness indicator on the main Ubuntu site to help steer noobs toward LTSs.

See the 4 comments or propose a solution >>

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