Ubuntu QA:
BlogBrainstormPackage status
Log in
Ubuntu QA
The Ubuntu community has contributed 17459 ideas, 107690 comments, 2263278 votes
Idea sandbox Idea sandbox
Popular ideas Popular ideas
Ideas in development Ideas in development
Implemented ideas Implemented ideas

Popular ideas Here are this week's most popular ideas about Ubuntu.

Improve the file copy/move progress dialog  
Written by timnwells the 5 Feb 10 at 01:53. Related project: Nautilus. New
When I copy or move files around it pops up the progress bar with a NotifyIcon that allows for hiding or showing the progress bar. So to keep track of how that copy/move is going I usually put the progress dialog as always on top and move it to a corner of the screen or something so I can see at a glance where it is up to.
124
votes
up equal down
Solution #1: Show progress on the notify icon
Written by timnwells the 5 Feb 10 at 01:53.
If instead of a dialog, the progress of the copy operation could be shown on the notify icon as a percentage, or perhaps a very small progress bar could appear under the panel below the icon to indicate the progress, without the need to popup dialog and always visible at a glance.
4
votes
up equal down
Solution #2: Notification bubble
Written by Andrey Sudarikov the 9 Feb 10 at 09:29.
Instead of a dialog, several progress bars (for several simultaneous file operations) could be displayed in notification bubble.

See the 1 comments or propose a solution >>

Notification blob shows with offset  
Written by argento the 8 Feb 10 at 22:15. Related project: Gnome. New
notify-osd system shows a shadow bubble when something has to be notified.

Change in sound volume or screen brightness shows the bubble just below the top bar, and that's Ok.

But, other notifications are shown with an offset. This was done by design to let volume notification compare. This offset is still present even with no-volume notification
24
votes
up equal down
Solution #1: Slide down old notification
Written by argento the 8 Feb 10 at 22:15.
I agree to show just few notifications at a time (say 2 is OK as now).

Let every bubble appear just below the top bar, without offset.

New bubbles should push old ones down.

It can be implemented with a sliding effect.

Add a comment or propose a solution >>

No easy way to add menu programs to start at boot  
Written by dstansby the 4 Feb 10 at 16:18. Related project: Gnome. New
Currently in ubuntu there is no easy way to configure programs to run at boot. The startup manager program is confusing at best when adding a new program, and there is no other way to add a program to start at boot.
-30
votes
up equal down
Solution #1: Add right-click menu item
Written by dstansby the 4 Feb 10 at 16:18.
When you right click on a program in the main menu there could be an option to "Start program at boot"
95
votes
up equal down
Solution #2: Add a list of installed programs to Startup Applications
Written by dstansby the 4 Feb 10 at 16:23.
When you choose to add a program at startup, instead of showing the user a confusing dialogue about program executables etc. it could show the user a list of programs that you have installed. The user could then choose which they want to start, and which they don't want to start, at boot.
12
votes
up equal down
Solution #3: Easy way allready exists
Written by footprint the 8 Feb 10 at 11:59.
I just tried Drag & Drop from thr Main Menu to the Startup Applications window and it works!
6
votes
up equal down
Solution #4: Like #2 but with option to minimize the window (thunderbird)
Written by Papamatti the 8 Feb 10 at 20:54.
There is no option to minimize an application after startup. This would be useful for programs like Thunderbird e.g.

See the 4 comments or propose a solution >>

Keyboard can never lose focus from password field  
Written by brauliobezerra the 6 Feb 10 at 00:15. Global category: Security. New
Rather frequently I am typing some password somewhere and bam! some application appeared and took the focus out of the password field. And then somebody sees my password. Or even the whole Internet sees it.
66
votes
up equal down
Solution #1: Make Ubuntu aware of password fields
Written by brauliobezerra the 6 Feb 10 at 00:15.
If the window manager knows when the keyboard focus is in a password field, it could protect it from losing focus in certain situations, like:

- some application has just finished loading and its window pop on the screen;
- some application open some window automatically, because of an external event (download finished, new instant message, etc);
- some application request focus;
- the same application is trying to move the focus to other component of the same window.

And let the focus go away in the other situations:

- user clicked outside the control;
- user pressed Enter, Tab, Alt-Tab, etc.
3
votes
up equal down
Solution #2: password lockdown :S
Written by pererik87 the 6 Feb 10 at 14:56.
when the keyring password is in focus its not possible to turn of the computer.

It should be possible to turn of the computer without clicking deny-> cancel or typing the keyring password.
-27
votes
up equal down
Solution #3: Request to click before prompting
Written by Lachu the 6 Feb 10 at 15:03.
Password fields should request to click special widget, with lock whole X Server onto password field and exit widget.

User ought to input password, before click onto that button! There no way to exit from this field without clicking button again.

Behavior of enter key/arrows could be: give focus to exit button.

Below password prompt, some helping messages should appear, like press exit key to accept prompting password.
70
votes
up equal down
Solution #4: better focus rules in geral
Written by pererik87 the 6 Feb 10 at 15:29.
instead of making extra rules for password fields, the general window rules should be so good that it is not necessary. No more unwanted focus stealing..

See the 5 comments or propose a solution >>

Ubuntu needs to gain some Money in order to finance its best projects  
Written by Otacon87 the 7 Feb 10 at 13:35. Related project: Add/Remove program dialog. New
For a few days i was thinking:
"How can Ubuntu get a lot of money without annoying end-user or make him donate money?"
-35
votes
up equal down
Solution #1: ADs during Package Install process
Written by Otacon87 the 7 Feb 10 at 13:35.
When a new user installs a new application he will take the install process in background (or just stays there staring the progress bar).
My idea is really simple: add a new widget to the installation progress that shows ADs.

-> User can choose to show or not those ADs.
-> By default showing ADs is enabled.
-> Optionally this option can be shown during Ubuntu System install process.
-> If user clicks on an AD default browser will pop-up.
-> If user clicks on "Show shell output" the AD widget will be replaced by the shell output widget.

Maybe it can be a little ugly, but it will make canonical gain a lot of money (impressions or clicks) and will not annoy the user that much.
35
votes
up equal down
Solution #2: Sell Ubuntu
Written by alms66 the 8 Feb 10 at 03:22.
Heresy I know, but hear me out on this one, it could work.

You box and package an Ubuntu disk. Each country would get it's own localized version of packaging. If necessary, in that country, you could also include a copy of legal codecs for dvd playback and whatnot - assuming Canonical would want to do that to not risk legal action. Hopefully, a lower than normal price can be negotiated for those though.

You would clearly state on the box that Ubuntu is free, can be downloaded for free and what you are paying for is the packaging (and additional goodies where needed) and distributing of the product. You would also clearly explain that the cost of this has been rounded up to the nearest $5 (for example in the US) or so, as a small "donation" to Ubuntu so that open source projects can be funded.
14
votes
up equal down
Solution #3: Donate ideas
Written by Lachu the 8 Feb 10 at 11:09.
Allow users to request special feature for money.
15
votes
up equal down
Solution #4: Ubuntu salesmen
Written by Arki the 8 Feb 10 at 11:11.
MS', Oracle's and other's salesmen go out every day to Govern offices, fundations and organizations to sell their solutions and support.

I think Ubuntu has to make an effort in this way. Several good contracts with some Governs Ubuntu could get a good source of financiation.

See the 4 comments or propose a solution >>

It is Often Difficult to Record Sound  
Written by lhb1142 the 5 Feb 10 at 22:37. Global category: Usability. New
Often I wish to record the sound playing through my computer (internet radio, other sounds from web sites, etc.).

Currently, at least in my opinion, there are too many hoops to go through to get the sound.

For example, I have found no way to record the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts from their own website. They use RealPlayer. I can listen to it but I cannot record it.
48
votes
up equal down
Solution #1: Record Button in Volume Control
Written by lhb1142 the 5 Feb 10 at 22:37.
I would like to see a simple "Record" button located within the volume control at the top of the screen.

When you right click on this volume control icon, you see a Mute option and a Sound Preferences option.

I would like to see a "Record" button placed there. When one clicks on it, WHATEVER is currently being heard via the computer speakers and/or headphone jack would be automatically recorded in WHATEVER format is being used (mp3, aac+, ogg, etc.) and the resultant file should be placed in the Home folder. (You would click again on the Record button to stop recording.)

If the format were one you didn't want (say, for example, real), you could convert it to whatever you DID want (say, aac+ or FLAC) with Sound Converter or Real Converter.

It seems to me that this would be a much simpler solution to this problem than is currently available in Ubuntu and it is also my opinion that the simpler, the better.
14
votes
up equal down
Solution #2: Create virtual input device
Written by Akerbos the 6 Feb 10 at 14:52.
There are simple tools that record input devices. In order to use them to record sound generated by the computer, you have to change the used audio devices completely. I.e., you do not here anything while recording, then.

Create by default an additional input device (next to microphones, line in, ...) that catches the currently chosen output device.

Add a comment or propose a solution >>

Totem has a giant, useless box right in the middle.  
Written by ekspiulo the 5 Feb 10 at 22:26. Related project: Totem Movie Player. New
http://imgur.com/AQ9g8

There is a lot of wasted space in Totem's interface: it could be used for something helpful.

* There is a large black rectangle which serves only to contain Totem's logo and to give the window and undesirable minimum vertical size.
- Pros: The video play area is exposed to the user. Totem has a Big F-ing logo, so all the other applications know who's boss and don't forget it.
- Cons: Totem consumes a lot of space that can't be recouped. Totem is over 80% useless by surface area.
- Indifferent: This makes Totem look like a video player and not an audio player.

* The side pane's default view is of a Playlist, which spends most of its time being empty.
- Pros: The playlist functionality is exposed to the user.
- Cons: Totem consumes a lot of space that can't be recouped until the sidebar is closed. The playlist is usually empty, so this is useless.
- Indifferent: This makes Totem look like an audio player and not an video player (Most people don't queue up several video files in a row to watch).
-11
votes
up equal down
Solution #1: A media browser in the middle of Totem.
Written by ekspiulo the 5 Feb 10 at 22:26.
http://imgur.com/VlAsc

The video play area could be a media browser which shows the user's videos. Default to the user's Videos folder, it would show a file browser of files that Totem can play with thumbnails and perhaps richer meta-data than is normally shown in nautilus. In a perfect world this would also allow simple video previews by hovering over a thumbnail and having the file start playing in the thumbnail icon (something that would be awesome in nautilus as well, but I digress).

The video play area is currently used for nothing while the user is not watching a video, so this would involve no sacrifices in the current UI. Additionally, a toggle button could be placed next to the sidebar button to show/hide the media browser while a video is open.
-5
votes
up equal down
Solution #2: Hide Video Panel
Written by Akerbos the 6 Feb 10 at 17:23.
When no video is displayed, hide the area to save place.
26
votes
up equal down
Solution #3: Move the 'Time' bar
Written by alms66 the 6 Feb 10 at 22:07.
What really is a wasted piece of real estate in Totem is the area between the forward button and the volume buttons. You could move the time bar down into that area, allowing the video display to be the same height as the sidebar's height and having a continuous row of buttons and controls instead of dead pixels.

See the 2 comments or propose a solution >>

Ubuntu - Open Feature Store  
Written by orangape the 4 Feb 10 at 23:26. Related project: brainstorm.ubuntu.com. Category: Idea structure. New
Canonical lately started a survey (http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GFVQP62) where Ubuntuusers are asked wich proprietery Applicatons they could imagine to use in future Versions of Ubuntu.
This has started heavy discussions about how Ubuntu should handle the question of mixing closed and open code.
Due to the reason that this question has a lot of explosing power to the Community this Brainstorm wants you to vote and give your Ideas about how you could imagine that Ubuntu deals with closed source programms in the future.
28
votes
up equal down
Solution #1: Boost open source development by creating an open feature store.
Written by orangape the 4 Feb 10 at 23:26.
Ubuntu should not waste to much power in creating Partnerships with the makers of closed source software.
They will create packages by themselve if they see a gap in the market anyway.

Due to the Fact that the idea of Open Source is the winning principle do this instead: Power up the speed of development for linux applications by creating an Open Feature Store.

There should be 3 Parts:
1. App-Brainstorm:
Enhance brainstorm.ubuntu.com to become a platform where users can not only vote for features or apps but also donate or tell how much money they would spend to have the requested feature avaliable as open source. Once there is reached a critical vote-count the idea gets an freeze and transfered to the second part of the Feature Store.

2. Casting:
There the featurerequests gets worked out more detailed. Experts from Canonical could help to specify how the feature should be integrated into the OS and how the api should be like for best interaction with all the other apps provided by the distributor.
Then developers and teams can apply for getting the job by offering their price to the community for implementing the feature. After the community has chosen the developing team the project can start.

3. OpenStore:
When the new feature is ready users can start to buy it inside the OpenStore starting at a minimal price (1 $) with the option to give more. Once the sum of the preoviously provided offer is reached the package gets immidiatly relaesed as OpenSource to the welfare of everybody.
All Feature-aspects are open again and the open source community is in full power to modify the provided code as wished.

--
I think a Feature Store like this could help both the developers and the users.
- Developers can earn money with open source and feed their families. Beside that many new programmers will enter the world of open source.
- Users can be sure that they spend their money to the welfare of everybody. Beside they get best quality free software that will become guaranteed open after some time.

--
An Example:
- Inkscape users would like to have a easy to use animation tool integrated. Maybe 500 People vote for this.
- Now developers know that there is some demand.
They calculate that they will maybe need 2500 man-hours to provide the feature and offer a price (maybe 75.000 $)
They get the charge and create the feature. Their api's got to be open but the code stays closed till maybe 5000 users gave 15 $ in avarage. Then the Package gets relaesed under a GPL License and the Community is in full power of the code again but Inkscape enhanced magnificently to soon become better than any closed software application.

--
It's an os-application booster ;)

See the 2 comments or propose a solution >>

Simpler way to close unwanted windows  
Written by barefoot the 3 Feb 10 at 01:08. Related project: Gnome. New
When browsing the web with multiple tabs open (eg in Firefox), I can quickly close unwanted tabs by clicking the red "x" icon in the corner of the tab marker. Easy way to de-clutter when I've finished a task.

When working in multiple windows, to close windows and de-clutter I have to focus each window and click the "close window" button on the window itself, or right-click the window icon on the task bar and select "close window" from the menu.
-27
votes
up equal down
Solution #1: "Close window" button on panel window icon
Written by barefoot the 3 Feb 10 at 01:08.
Why not have a close window "x" button on each window icon on the panel, the same as on each tab in a tabbed browser (or any other tabbed work environment)?

When a task is complete, it would be more convenient to simply close unwanted windows with a single click each, rather than switching to each or selecting from a menu.

Of course, if an application is closing there may need to be a dialog pop up (eg "Do you want to save this document"), but quickly dispatching multiple Nautilus windows (for example) would save me whole seconds every day ;-)
-16
votes
up equal down
Solution #2: Close icon (x) on right-mouse + hoover
Written by alhernau the 4 Feb 10 at 12:30.
When moving pointer over the taskbar while right button is pressed, the buttons would show an additional (x) icon to close them using the left button.
- No change to current behavior when using only left button
- Right click still open the menu with close/move/etc.. entries
- Closing multiple window would be similar to closing tabs in Firefox, only change: holding right button down.
25
votes
up equal down
Solution #3: keep it like it is
Written by pererik87 the 4 Feb 10 at 19:20.
the current one click solution is just fine.

Right click the panel tab, move the mouse a half cm up (over "close") and release the button
14
votes
up equal down
Solution #4: "Close all" menu item for multiple, grouped windows
Written by ekspiulo the 5 Feb 10 at 22:40.
A somewhat common use case for application windows:
Several windows for the same application are open because they're all being used for the same larger task. The user finishes the task and proceeds to close all of the instances of this application.

In the event that there are enough windows of a single application open for them to be grouped on the panel, it would be genuinely helpful to be able to close them all at once.

The risk of doing this accidentally is only marginally worse than the existing risk of closing a single application accidentally, using the obscure and difficult to accidentally access right-click panel application management sub menu.

See the 6 comments or propose a solution >>

Prevent Malware before it is an issue  
Written by C.H.E.W.S. the 5 Feb 10 at 03:51. Global category: Security. New
Lets face it, no matter how much the linux security model makes since it has undiscovered Holes. Ubuntu is going to market with the idea of being less likely to be infected than windows. However by reading across the internet security holes are being tested as exploits at an alarming rate since 2009. My idea is to implement a more preemptive program for discovering these issues and fixing them. (Think offensive security!)I know as of now most linux users are keen to intelligent practices in how we install, however more and more non technical users are moving to linux partially for peace of mind. They will want to install software outside of included repos. Even google has been proven hackable!
12
votes
up equal down
Solution #1: Sponsored program for discovering exploits
Written by C.H.E.W.S. the 5 Feb 10 at 03:51.
I suggest sponsoring a controlled event in which people can win money based on how effective of an exploit they can come up with. The system being hacked should simulate a variety of users: click happy user, security expert, mid level user. Blender sponsors open movie project to improve blender so why can't we fund an event to improve security. (Participant will have to explain the exploit of course!) So summed up it is a pen testing the default configs and the systems ability to withstand different levels of user intelligence! Security for a mid level user is the most realistic target of course but an idiot can reveal tons of holes.
15
votes
up equal down
Solution #2: Software suggestions / warning
Written by haydoni the 6 Feb 10 at 21:04.
If the user has downloaded an executable from a website, then when they try to install, before the install display a warning (something like): "installing software from the net can be insecure and that they may be better off installing one of the following **produce a search of similar applications and descriptions from the software centre based on the name (?) of the file which they have tried to install** from the secure repositories".

*********This could be exceptionally useful for ex-Windows users who are downloading .exe files!********

This would not only promote (or remind) repository use for the average/new user, but would only be one extra click for the determined/proficient user (who knows what they are doing). It could have a tick box saying: "next time don't display suggestions". If they choose to ignore this, that's their decision.

See the 7 comments or propose a solution >>

1 2 Next >>