Check out this kind of theme. It's simple and functional. Really should think about implementing something along these lines.

http://willwill100.deviantart.com/gallery/

There is help online for getting an Ubuntu laptop to send out to a projector, so it's definitely possible, but it would be nice if there was some graphical interface for this process. Also, most laptops use fn+f3 to switch between varying output methods. This could be easily integrated into Ubuntu and would go a long way to winning over academics, like myself.

Why not use Splashy for a better looking graphical boot? It supports animations, transparency, it's very easy to make new themes (it's a xml with images)...

Splashy complete features from http://splashy.alioth.debian.org
- Require zero kernel patches/full functionality in user-space
- Boot/halt/reboot/runlevel-switch support
- Progressbar support (with optional border)
- Verbose mode (with F2/ESC keys)
- Configuration file in XML
- Cope with any video-mode resolution/size
- Cope with 8, 16, and 24 bit framebuffers
- Alpha channel (transparency) support
- Video mode detection
- Initramfs support
- TrueType2 fonts support
- Lots of image/animation file formats supported: jpg, png, gif, mpg, swf
- Low dependencies and code in C to best perform
- Full LSB support
- Multiple themes support
- Really easy to create new themes
- X detection on exit
- Smooth progressbar movement
- Animations support
- Fade in/out effects
- Totally configurable

Ubuntu offers to programmers many choices of programming languages and integrated development environments. However, although programming in Ubuntu may be easy, advanced features, such as the implementation of a graphical user interface or the deployment of the finished application to other computers are not intuitive.

For instance, GTK and WxWidgets are great options, but integrating them usually requires a lot of routine coding and some expert knowledge in order to integrate them in the IDE.

It would be great to work with the available IDEs in order to offer an easier integration of the graphical interface in the application developed with these IDEs.

...change settings and add OS's that it dosn't detect. Instead of complicated codes ect. why not include a graphical interface? Whatever a code can do, the graphical interface can do as well. Advanced users can use codes if they want. It would make it more easier for newbie's.

When having multiple keyboard layouts set fast switching between layouts is not easy. This can be very annoying when switching the layout occurs regularly and when the number of layouts used is greater than 2.

Several reasons for this can be identified:
1) One has to look at the upper right corner in order to see the actual keyboard layout.
2) When having more than 2 layouts the order of the layouts is unknown - pressing the key combination, waiting for the layout to change, seeing the layout which has been set and deciding whether it is the right one slows down the process of switching enormously.

I had another thread about making ubuntu more graphical and less DOSy.
However it would be a good idea to do this:

am having a problem with synaptic or with my update manager not updating and I must enter a command to solve the problem.
So why not going to help and support and look for my problem there and find a link that I can click on and it would type the needed command I need without seeing it.
I love Ubuntu but its not user friendly enough for new users and I think the devs would concentrate on user friendliness for newbies rather being advanced for the advanced users. Share the fun!
if not then make ubuntu less depended to the terminal for new users

PS: I understand that the ubuntu devs are making ubuntu a little bit more graphical each release and am happy about it. But ubuntu needs a lot of work to make it more appealing to the average user.

PS2: if thats not a good idea, then you guys are thinking only about yourself and not the rest.

Include Xorg-edit, a GUI editor for xorg.conf, by default on Ubuntu.

I see a lot of people that don't have their monitor resolution set properly, and have to edit xorg.conf to do so.

If it comes by default, it will be a great and helpful tool for lay persons and beginners.

Info:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=156243
http://www.deesaster.org/progxorg.php


If it is not possible, at least, put it on the Ubuntu repositories.

for Brainstorm.

Note this is not urgent but could be an objective to aim for in the future.

A system for automatically discovering, analysing, manipulation, and presentation of inter-relationships of concepts would be helpful in ordering much of the information generated by Brainstorming sessions.

Keywords that are in common "imply" a connection of some sort between separate documents.
But where "links or connections" are "stated or defined", there is no doubt about the connections.

These connections can be used to group data/issues/considerations/topics/factors into prominent groups, And show the overall independence or overlap between them.

The discussions comments may even be helpful to automatically detect what depends on what, and what might prevent what from happening.

Altavista search engine used to have a great system back in the late 90s, but no more. Kartoo has a good system - "try a search for "ubuntu brainstorm duplicate".

http://www.kartoo.com

Cuil search engine has a categorizer function;

http://www.cuil.com/

See how it arranges topics with contours of probabilities of topic overlap.
See the issues that are common between topics, and hover over them to see which topics they are forming the link between.

Click on a linking issue to zoom in on the topics related to it. Altavista used to have an ability to select a "group" of issues and/or topics to very efficiently zoom in on exactly what you were looking for.

[....]

scrollbars are ugly. regardless of where they appear, vertical or horizontal. most of the time they just sit there and waste space. when i do want to use them they are too small to hit conveniently (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts%27s_law ). some examples of scrollbar stupidity: an appearing vertical scrollbar reduces the available horizontal space, this will cause a horizontal scrollbar to appear, which reduces the available vertical space even more. sometimes the situation is such that scrolling one scrollbar to it's extreme causes both scrollbar to disappear. so the vertical scrollbar is the reason for the horizontal scrollbar, which in turn is the reason for the vertical scrollbar. scrollbars are an ugly waste of space and should be replaced, even more so because of the netbooks with their small resolutions.