IdeaPool

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 * WineX CVS built into a ready prepared .deb with an Ubuntu created frontend to assist Windows user migration of directx based apps and games. Possible license issues, may need to be in the restricted repo. -- A-Wing (info[at]a-wing.co.uk)
     * Note: Transgaming has rather strongly cautioned against this in the past; see http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2002/05/msg02463.html -- RyanSchultz

This page is for everyone to contribute ideas for projects, bounties, enhancements and proposals. Please contribute your feedback on ideas here and add a link to your page on the wiki or add your mail address, so people can get back to you.

Please see http://www.ubuntulinux.org/community/participate for information on where and how you can get involved. Make sure you also visit AcademicInvolvement and http://www.ubuntulinux.org/community/bounties

TableOfContents()

Instructions

Do this before adding your own ideas

Adding ideas

Ideas

Doing the Basics Right

The most obvious idea for improving Ubuntu is to do the basics right. Everything that users expect just happens and they can get about their business. Clearly this is happening at the lowest level through the ongoing bug fix process [http://bugzilla.ubuntu.com/]. Please continue to contribute your well documented bugs to the system. In addition, with each release new packages are introduced throught the package selection process by the TechnicalBoard. In addition, there is the ongoing improvement of the underlying software through the evolutionalry nature of open source development. We also need to ensure we address the needs of the average computer user out of the box. For more thoughts see WinningTheDesktop, ReallyWinningTheDesktop, WhatWindowsUsersWant and IssuesAsNoviceUbuntuUser. For simply dropping impressions visit: NewUsersImpressions.

Here's one I've just discovered: you can fill a ubuntu disk to the point that it can't reboot! This seems to me to be a basic OS issue: no OS shold allow a disk to be filled to the point that it can't reboot. Is there not a way to protect enough space for space for reboot? I found one entry on the question: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=38715&highlight=disk+full+recover. But this is not really a solution.

For people like me the iso image is no longer available for BitTorrent after I reload my machine. Could we put something in that would make the Ubuntu files available for BitTorrent on new installs.

Specifically for ex-Windows users, I would like to see the approach "Let's not give them an excuse to boot back into windows". The first thing people need to manually re-create their favourites and configure their email etc, etc. Why not ask if they want their Windows installation read (if they have one) and pull in all their settings? Surely, this would prevent people from booting back into Windows - are there any other similar ideas out there?

Additional Drivers

Can an ubuntu linux driver for a USB wireless adapter with a Zydas - zd1211- chipset be available in Ubuntu? I have tried so many linux distributions without any support for my wireless adapter. I really like Ubuntu and would really want to switch all my development to it, except for the limiting lack of internet connection due to unavailable driver for the Zydas chipset of my wireless dongle adapter. I know so many people are looking for this driver because of my google search, and further search in many linux forums. I believe it will be a big boost if available.

Actualy Ati remote wonder I&II is incomplete:

  • Play, pause, FF, RW eject cd-rom
  • Ok button isn't working
  • Double click work 1/5 times

  • Numpad keys display: &é"'(-è_çà

If some peoples had time to fix it I would be gratefull (Tenshu_AT_gmail_DOT_com, Paris France)

Software Investigations

General

  • Tweak Wine configuration and version to run more multimedia software. Previous versions of Wine (current: 20050419) did run a lot more than the current one and the standard configuration file of the wine package isn't well tweaked.

  • Add Jedit to the ubuntu package list. It is alot more powerfull than most of the other editors available, open source and with a plugable archtecture. http://jedit.sourceforge.net

  • In the light of the recent Ubuntu DB2 certification I think that an Oracle certification for Ubuntu Server would be highly appreciated. ( vali.dragnuta at inode dot ro )

CD/DVD Ripping/Burning

  • Coaster (libburn) - GNOME/GTK alternative to K3B http://www.coaster-burn.org/

  • Gnome Baker - K3B clone using GNOME/GTK http://gnomebaker.sourceforge.net/

  • Thoggen - A simple and elegant DVD backup app using Ogg Theora and Gnome/GTK http://thoggen.net

  • Port K3B http://k3b.sourceforge.net/

  • Sponsor a unified cd burning lib, whether it's libburn or freedrtools or whatever

  • Goobox (currently in universe for hoary). I think we should be using Goobox instead of SoundJuicer for now at least. The Goobox interface is not quite as simple, but it is still very simple and Goobox supports looking up album photographs which SoundJuicer doesn't, setting the audio quality to rip to via the GUI which SoundJuicer lacks, and it is easier to add mp3 encoding to Goobox (just install gstreamer0.8-lame, with SoundJuicer I believe there is some additional manual configuration needed). Goobox is also a more correct program to launch when an audio CD is inserted (see below). Goobox appears to lack the option to control what folders are created through the GUI (ie.: music/artist - album/*.ogg or music/artist/album/*.ogg) but this is minor compared to what SoundJuicer lacks. It'd be nice if Goobox would put the album cover photo in the album folder when a CD is extracted.

  • (maybe this should be a bug report) Ubuntu does the wrong thing when you insert an audio CD. It opens the Gnome CD player (I believe this is the default ubuntu config). Sometimes this is correct, but often what the user wants is to rip the CD or to copy the CD (play, rip and copy are the three main actions I think a user might want when inserting an audio CD). So a lot of the time the user ends up thinking Ubuntu is trying to be smart but messing up, and has to close the CD player and manually open the app they want. We could open SoundJuicer by default, but this would be just as bad. We could use Goobox (currently in Hoary universe) instead of gnome cd-player and sound juicer. This would be an improvement because opening Goobox is the correct action more often - Goobox is both a CD player and a ripper. It'd also be an improvement because I think Goobox is a better CD player than gnome-cd (nicer UI, show album photo) and a better ripper than sound juicer (see above). It's still incorrect if the user wants to copy the CD however, and I don't think an app that combines CD playing, ripping, and copying is necessarily a good idea. Perhaps a popup dialog asking whether to play, extract, copy or do nothing?

  • Just to add some more weight to the Goobox issue, I have just upgraded to 5.10. I inserted a CD and was presented with what I considered a complicated interface for just playing a cd. I use a Logitech Cordless MX Duo, and even though the keyboard shortcuts were correctly detected, the media buttons had no effect on sound-juicer. I installed goobox and set it as my default with the --play --hide-show options. What does this have over sound-juicer? A nice notification-area icon to control the cdplayer and show that it is running, and my media keys just worked! I think this is a superior way to have a cd player work. John Collaros <timefantom@gmail.com>

Archiving software

  • unrar included in Ubuntu is broken. Using original unrar would help but is non-free. Ubuntu's unrar doesn't unpack any modern rar archives.

  • p7zip http://p7zip.sourceforge.net/ could provide every functionality needed for archiving, included those provided by unrar. It supports: 7z, ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, GZIP, BZIP2, Z, TAR, CPIO, RPM and DEB. And it has already been packaged for debian experimental.

  • [http://fileroller.sourceforge.net/ File-Roller], when using drag-and-drop, should start extracting the files when the user drops the file somewhere, ""not"" when he/she starts dragging.

  • Consider integrating archive management into Nautilus such that archives are simply opened and handled like directories (by using GnomeVFS?).

Mind Mapping software

Multimedia

  • Provide a clickable script on the desktop of every new installation that will automatically install multimedia/non-free support (mplayer/mp3/java/flash/nvidia/etc) but warn the user about the legal implications beforehand. Adding support for all these non free features is crucial for a fun and usable desktop, but it is very hard for a novice to do as of now
  • Provide a version of totem compiled as i686, i386 performance on proprietary nvidia drivers is horrible, if this is an xv issue with the binary driver, provide a download of totem compiled against it
  • Build in MythTV for ease of use. Support as much hardware as possible.
  • Incorporate the Demudi (www.agnula.org) music software integrations, audio workstation (Like Garage Band) is a killer app.

  • Praat - doing phonetics by computer. GPL, new release a couple of times a month. http://www.praat.org/

  • Reduce multitude and confusion of multimedia applications. The needed functionality is currently divided between five applications with significant overlap (Totem, CD Player, SoundJuicer, Serpentine and Rythmbox). The following use cases should be considered:

    • Use case 1: A CD or DVD is inserted; the content is presented; items (Audio/Video) can be selected for playback or storing in the media library (ripped).
    • Use case 2: The multimedia application is opened from the menu; the media library is presented; items can be selected for playback or burning to a disc.
  • This could be good but also annoying for more advenced user. Maybe a better symbiosis between these programs can be a solution. Consider using Nautilus for everything besides playback.
  • All program in "main" should be esd compatible. making "killall esd" before using gnomemeeting is not a solution for real OS. Lyly lylyatbigfootdotcom

  • Consider integrating MMS (http://mms.sunsite.dk/) as a multimedia center.

Internet

Graphics

  • Pre-installed pdf printer - similar to adobe distiller - installed by default for printing webpages, non-open office documents, etc.
  • Help gimp move to gleg.
    • Could someone explain what gleg is, or where to get info about it?
  • How about just adding some (or all?) installable gui-applications to the gnome application menu (maybe with a shaded icon and a different text-color)or maybe a submenu-structure "installable applications", and install them on first use? That would make package management a trivial task even for grandma.
    • Sounds a good idea to me -- the way Windows hides infrequently used menu items seems a sensible way to do it to me. It would need to be done in such a way that it can be enabled/disabled easily and made very obvious how it can be used to install apps in the first place.
      • Hiding menu items is not intuitive to new users, and cranky old users like me don't like it.

  • include a gui html editor (nvu?) (See WhatWindowsUsersWant)

  • Port xdraft http://sourceforge.net/projects/xdraft/

  • Include Inkscape in the default install.
  • Preinstalled integration of evince as firefox plugin for PDF and PS files. -- Lyly lyly at bigfoot.com

Supporting the DRI-Team

  • For desktop users it is getting more and more important to have working 3d accelleration. Especially in the light of the latest Gnome and Kde features (transparency and other beautiful or useful gimmicks) it is quite important to have this working. While some card manufacturers deliver binary drivers, those are of varying quality and no use for some platforms (ppc...). The work of the DRI project is of great importance for Linux on the desktop and thereby for Ubuntu. Maybe it would be a good idea for canonical (if there are resources left for that) to hire some of the DRI folks or at least support them financially, because they don't have enough time to develop, because they have to do it in their spare time.
    • This really is important; the use of proprietary drivers hurts Free software. -- ["Jeroen"]
  • Convert the utah-glx drivers to the dri format. While the cards currently supported are rather old it provides a solid basis for further nvidia drivers

  • http://r300.sourceforge.net/ (R300 3d acceleration engine)

  • http://dri.sf.net/ (DRI Project Homepage)

  • http://www.livejournal.com/users/anholt/15633.html

Developers, Developers, Developers

  • Could Ubuntu become the ultimate Python development environment? All the batteries included. Major cross-platform tookits should be taken into account. Also... Ubuntu projects using python should be more visible, maybe some shortcuts to relevant source files or at least a wiki page listing all the Ubuntu python related projects. A programming menu item should be default, contributions via Python should be encouraged. Maybe add [http://gvr.sourceforge.net Guido van Robot] for wannabe programmers.

  • ipython installed
    • vi/emacs with python syntax highlighting turned on by default (also other scripting languages)

  • Port Eric3 http://www.die-offenbachs.de/detlev/eric3.html

  • Improve Nautilus support of SVN, CVS source control. Develop integrated clients like TortoiseSVN and TortoiseCVS, which have developed into very usable clients that overlay desktop icons. Hide CVS folders by default. bpilgrim1979
    • Ubuntu's gnome already has launcher emblems for cvs-added cvs-modified, etc!
  • Develop control panel for starting/stopping LAMP services--"Changing user..." dialog first, then control panel stays open. Allow command line switches. bpilgrim1979

Security/Anti-virus/Firewall

  • Is there a way to implement file access so that they can be edited by regular users. For instance, if you want to edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf manually using gedit, could you have a pop-up requiring you to enter the appropriate password? What if you opened it up using nautilus -- could you double-click xorg.conf and be able to edit it? I think that would make it easier for "newbies" to follow some instructions on editing config files.

  • There's currently no anti-virus software or software firewall installed by default - would it be difficult to integrate the ClamAV and Firestarter packages? -- TomInglis

    • Linux doesn't need anti-virus and Ubuntu has been configured by default not to listen on any ports, so a firewall isn't needed too. There are ClamAV and Firestarter packages in the archives though, those who feel the need for such a thing will usually know how to use them. For the server installs, a default setup with mailserver linked to ClamAV or F-Prot would be nice though. -- RubenVermeersch

      • Any operating system needs virus protection. Just because Windows it the most vulnerable, doesn't mean that other OSes aren't vulnerable at all. Also, a lot of Linux users download Windows files for thier own Windows box. Scanning them for viruses would be a good idea. ClamAV does this.

      • A firewall is also a good idea. Ubuntu may supposedly not listen on any ports, but what if a user wanted to open up a port for a particular pieces of software? Linux does come with a firewall. It's [http://packages.ubuntu.com/breezy/net/iptables iptables]. However it has a CLI and is not "user-friendly". [http://packages.ubuntu.com/breezy/admin/firestarter Firestarter] (GNOME) or [http://packages.ubuntu.com/breezy/net/guarddog Guarddog] (KDE) are both good GUIs that run on top of iptables. It would make sense to include them in the default installation. -- Angrykeyboarder

      • And this is why Linux will be hit as hard or harder than Windows did with MSBlaster. I agree Firestarter should be included by default as it's quite small , easy to use, and based on the kernel firewalling. As far as virus protection, good luck. There really isn't a good one. -- JoeTennies

    • Ubuntu definitely comes with a firewall -- IPtables (1.2.9 in Warty). IPtables is a very powerful, low-level, highly scalable firewall. It can preform basic filtering tasks, or all out stateful packet inspection. I'll admit there is quite a learning curve for configuring it Knowledge of networking protocals is a must. If you were talking about a little firewall app with a pretty UI, then RubenVermeersch was correct, it is not needed. Ubuntu is very secure out-of-the-box. -- AdamKaplan

    • As for virus protection; I dont know of any practical Linux viruses. It would be difficult to write a "virus" that does anything but annoy the user or delete their dot-files :-). A linux OS virus would likely require the user to become superuser (or sudo) and manually install it. If you do that, you deserve the virus. -- AdamKaplan

      • If the virus imitates a login screen, the password is easily gotten. This sort of thing needs to be thought about. Also, 'it can't harm the system' is a sysadmin mindset - a userspace virus is worse as it can remove all the users documents. The system is the easily replaced bit. -- EdMack

      • It is quite possible for a virus to use a known kernel hole (probably already patched upstream but not fixed on what people have). Remember Linux doesn't need to reboot as much as Windows. My personal computer probably typically runs a kernel from a month or two ago. This is just because I haven't rebooted since then. -- Joe Tennies

    • I am aware that there's no substantial risk of viruses infecting a Linux computer, because there are a number of features making it inherently more secure, but there is always a risk that a computer which has not been updated with the latest packages / kernel patch can be infected (although Hoary's update manager goes some way to prevent this). Also, when I'm running a Linux computer within a network containing mostly Windows computers, and want to share executable files, it's fairly considerate to make sure I'm not infecting all of the other machines. How is Ubuntu secured sufficiently so as not to need a software firewall? -- TomInglis

      • For Viruses: What types of files would you be sharing from linux that could be infected with windows viruses? As far as I am aware, the common movie, audio, and document formats cannot be virus infected. So unless you are sharing windows executables, windows scripts or other potentially ducious windows files, your linux cannot infect windows machines. Such files are useless on linux anyway (at least without wine). As for a Firewall: As previously stated, Ubuntu listens on NO ports for NEW incoming connections. Therefore, it would be extremely difficult to do any remote exploit on a default Ubuntu install. Even if you run a dozen servers on your ubuntu, a firewall is still mostly useless. What will it block? connections to your servers? just dont run them! non listening ports? whats the point in that? You need a firewall if there are special advanced rules that you need to implement, if you wanted to restrict some types of connections or for logging.
    • Desktop: virus scanning of files downloaded for using on windows should be possible. email scanning would be a good thing too. users should have a credible way to identify malware, even if it is not direct threat to the linux. -- TadasZ

      • have a look at aegis-virus-scanner - maybe this is what you're looking for. -- DanielHolbach

    • Server: virus scanning of any incoming mail is required at least. this means a required up-to-date antivirus available. see http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=12866 -- TadasZ

      • amavis-ng with spamassassin and clamav is easy to implement with postfix - have a look at those packages -- DanielHolbach

    • Server-firewall: i strongly prefer/recommend [http://firehol.sourceforge.net firehol] for server use. please include in main Wink ;) -- TadasZ

    • Ubuntu should provide a graphical frontend for Iptables installed by default during installation; such an example of a program is Guarddog <http://www.simonzone.com/software/guarddog> --chrispgskn

*What about rootkit removal of vira. If the user gets a suspecion that a rootkit is installed, it should be possible to boot from the install cd and choose remove viruses and spyware. Maybe also a trusted mode should be possible, where the computer always boots with the CD, and ensures that no vira is installed in any packages. I guess it should just happen automatically, whenever a user boots with the CD, but chooses to run Ubuntu. All we need is a single trusted hash of af list of all files. If this checks, every file is just checked the first time it is opened. Also note that updates can be perfectly handled by this scheme. The only thing that is needed is a small kernel, that can load other kernels (from /boot), and can check a public signature. Then it just checks if any kernel is installed and signed by Ubuntu - and then shows it as a boot option.

Games

Desktop Enhancements

  • The ability to install .deb Packages by double-clicking in Nautilus. (This doesn't raise security issues as users can already do this by sudo dpkig -i, but would benefit the it-just-works experience). See gdeb / DebInstaller

  • A smaller/clearer default font, to waste less desktop space

  • We need a good interface in GNOME for tweaks to xorg.conf, maybe written in Python or something, but browsing through the forums, many articles are just on (XTweakThatShouldBeSimpleA-Z). Windows users have a dialog to control their entire video setup, I think we need something that at least provides adding non-standard video resolutions, setting up Dual Display (nv or ati), enabling compositing and whatnot. If we're going to pamper windows converts, they should NEVER have to see the X config. --JamesGolden

    • we need a "yust work"-interface to configure VGA/DVI output for beamer presentation

  • Proprietary (video) drivers need a more end-user install. Yes, apt-get install (nvidia-glx) is easy, but I hear complaints that people tend to go to the nVidia website and try to install the compile to X driver. Maybe in the Add/Remove synaptic frontend, add some proprietary driver entries? (And convert the packages to enable themselves automaticly, not having to run a command). Or maybe even the next step up? On first boot give a welcome screen that helps with first-time configurations and guides to Ubuntu Communities. --JamesGolden

    • What about detecting the hardware in the installer and having a mapping from USB or PCI device numbers to driver packages, probably in the Packages-list and the deb-file itself. The installer would automatically install the drivers for the installed devices. When a new USB / Firewire / whatever device is hot-plugged, which is unknown in the system the installers pops-up and proposes to install the driver he finds in the database. --Johannes2
  • There is no good gui for power management config.
  • More intuitive menu structure for system configuration, now you have "System Tools" under Applications, "Preferences" under System and "Administration" under system. Is it necessary to have it separated over three locations? I suggest shrinking down the list of configuration tools in those menus and keeping the important in one place.

  • Bring back the gnome panel item to run apps, ALT+F2 is not intuitive for newbies. We shouldn't ask people to launch GUI apps from the console & not every app in ubuntu has a .desktop item. This has been requested by some people in the forums.

  • The multiple desktop selection in the bottom right corner is nice, but people like my mom often accidentally click on places you would never think of, I don't think she would understand where her window has gone. I would suggest make it less accessible those desktops, even if power users like it more the way it is now. Maybe make a double-click necessary. Also the calendar should disappear more easily in the top right corner when you accidentally click on it, instead of requiring to click on the button again.
  • When you rightclick on windows on the taskbar, the "Close" option should be at the bottom. People are used having it this way.
  • Is there a way to enhance GNOME file management so "newbies" can use their files with fewer disruptions caused by permissions problems? For instance, when they try to open a file that they don't have permission to open there could be a dialog saying, "you don't have permission to open this file. it is only accessible from _the user who owns it_. If you would like to open this file please enter this user's password: " -- or, if the permissions are wrong, "this file is a movie file but had been disallowed for reading. would you like to change the permissions?" Anyway -- we could have much more user friendly file handling in GNOME/Ubuntu/Nautilus. It could be intelligent and helpful.
  • When you download a file form the internet you get an "Open With?" dialog. It suggests an application. If the application you want isn't in the list, then you have to navigate /usr/bin to find it. Couldn't it be made so you can select the application you want from the applicatoins menu or some other more user-friendly way?

  • A GNOME client for the UNIX messaging system (wall, write, etc) should be created and running. If you are not running a console and only X, you will miss out on useful broadcasts and messages. This is especially important if your running Ubuntu on a network or as a multi-user system. LukasSabota (punkrockguy318 _at_ comcast _dot_ net)

  • Graphical Tutorial Program For Kids And Adults. There is Wink. It can create tutorials: http://www.debugmode.com/wink/. You can render/export files to swf, pdf and html.

  • It would be nice to adjust the amount of lines being scrolled by using the mousewheel. Some people want to scroll fast (like me), while others like to scroll slow. If you can adjust this, it wil give your Ubuntu installation a more personal touch. This is possible in Windows and KDE, however not in GNOME. So if someone can add this function to the mouse settings window (where the speed of the cursor and doubleclick can be adjusted) it would really help me and a lot of other people too (I hope). -- Thomas de Hoog
  • Touchpad configuration -- This doesn't exist on the ppc version. I couldn't change the touchpad to let me tap to click, or change acceleration/etc.

  • Instead of application icon in Nautilus top left corner, icon for "up" could be used. When you click on it, Nautilus would go back to previous directory. (Same as pressing "Backspace" key). That is, when using Nautilus in spatial mode. This is also filed in bugzilla: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=303173 .

  • KeyTouch, a program to configure the extra function keys of your keyboard with: http://keytouch.sf.net -- Marvin Raaijmakers

  • it is hard for desktop publishing users migrating from windows to make thumbnails,using image resizer tool is good option as it will make multiple copies of images with custom sizes.this feature is also included in Windows XP power toy.i suggested this utility so many times to Gnome community but got no reply.If you want i can give idea how it works also can give you MS vc++ Code.Any developers contact

--maheshkale

  • Many users of ubuntu complain about the primary colors, the reddish brown color, of the defualt ubuntu theme. Why not design a series of defualt themes as used now, but set of simple and bright colors like red, orange, green, blue, purple, and so on. This would allow ubuntu users to find a theme, in terms of color, that would fit their taste easily.

  • How about having a default input engine that allows input for Chinese Korean Japanese Languages. SCIM does that, http://www.scim-im.org/ Making the adding of a different Input languege easy as in Windows. kirillrdy@mail.ru

  • When you drag a file with the middle mouse button you only get a small set of options. I suggest this could be enhanced depending on the type of file you drag, for instance if you drag a compressed file, add

an option to extract it to the destination folder you are dragging it. Other options could be included depending on the type of file. This is something windows users miss.

  • Default key strokes across Gnome. For example, ctrl+w closes a window in some programs, others it does not. A default set of keystrokes should be defined, at least for basic open/close/save/quit/new/etc. operations.

Emblems and folder/file colouring for Work space and improved workflow

  • Having easier access to the emblems and colouring coding folders/files to help in organizing the workspace, having colours assigned through the right click menu, and then an option saying assign emblem, I think assigning emblems through the properties adds way to many steps for a user. I strongly recommend having the assign colour as First and then assign emblem a Second,

--Oceanelement

  • Side buttons (buttons 4,5) on popular mice models should work as foward/back buttons in browser windows (eg: Nautilus, Firfox) by default. Currently this is only possible using external programs such as imwheel, which require a moderately technical setup and configuration process.
  • There should be an option to set to number of lines a mousewheel scrolls by default. It is possible to set this for specific programs such as firefox, but it is not possible to set a system default that works in Nautilus, Epiphany etc and other programs that do not offer this option. Currently KDE and Kubuntu offers this, but Ubuntu(Gnome) does not.
  • The ability to minimize full-screen applications with a simple command such as alt-tab in Windows. Currently it is impossible to easily minimize any full-screen application, including but not limited to games.

--David O'Connor

  • Temporized pc shutdown option, in Log Out menu. Shutdown pc in x sec --BigSus

  • How about using tabs in Nautilus like Firefox does? That way you could easily have many folders open and navigate between them, in just one window. If you wanted to drag a file to another folder, you could have two tabs. One with the file, and one with the folder where you're gonna put the file. Then you just drag the file to the tab(without releasing the mousebutton) and Nautilus would switch the tab so you can see the folder. Then you drag the file from the tab to the folder and release the mousebutton, and Nautilus begins to move the file. --Robban aka Synt4x_3rr0r. shadows88@gmail.com

Cursor

Font

Screensaver

  • Perhaps we should have a pretty ubuntu screensaver?
  • I don't know if this is a Gnome, XScreenSaver or Ubuntu issue, but I think it would be cool if the "Start new session" option, accesible from GNOME menu were also accessible from the XScreenSaver lock screen (the one which asks you for your password) [feature seen on KDE 3.2 - Mandrake 10.0]
    • This feature exists for xscreensaver 4.21, but is marked experimental.

  • Button to log out the current user after a timeout (like on xlock, it is mentioned also on xscreensaver's FAQ) -- TimoAaltonen

Help/Troubleshooting

  • Include extensive easy to access network troubleshooting documentation so that users are never stranded with no docs.--Anthony Barker
  • Ubuntu should come with a 'tour' of the distro for first time users (especially first time users of linux), that will get people on their first foot. showing them howto setup the distro, What on earth some things meen (note; root meens nothing to my mum, telling her to sudo would help no-one) and where to look for more information. Could easly be achived with a short series of HTML pages with images or a small program designed for this. Also should automatically open on the first install. People should not have to look up on the internet to find out how to do basic things. -- Gord Allott
  • What would be great (esp. for new users) would be to have a "search engine" available in the Firefox search bar that allows users to search the ubuntu forums. Another search engine could be a deb package search.

System Setup/Install Enhancements

Installer

  • If 'libntfs' was interfaced with 'libparted' then the partitioner could be taught how to resize NTFS partitions so that duel booting with Windows XP would be possible. A preliminary investigation into the source code shows that it can probably be done; 'libparted' seems to be designed with this sort of thing in mind. -- KarlHeg

  • Installations with a single reboot. Now the installer reboots after the base has been installed, but it should just pivot-root to /target. The current behaviour breaks hands-off netboot-installations, because the machine just netboots again -- TimoAaltonen

  • Make the installation process a good time and add some simple games for the meantime. What about InstallerGames? -- NicoDietrich

  • don't start rsync and fetchmail, cause almost no enduser needs them
  • maybe use a smaller mailrelay and not postfix, it's a bit bloated for enduser system. Alternatives
  • Ubuntu attempts to automatically connect to the Internet during installation, using DHCP settings from an available DHCP server. If this option fails (e.g. DHCP server exists but Internet access is limited for DHCP IP range), Ubuntu could fail-back to asking for a Static IP address or to 'Skip and continue setup' (preferably the Static IP entry could be an option in the initial installation questions - with DHCP as the default). (It's assumed that Ubuntu uses DHCP automatically to avoid overwhelming new users with technical requirements - I'd argue that many users are at least a little familiar with need for an "IP address" and would have more serious trouble with the hard drive partitioning section of the install!) -- Kubuntu_User.
  • It would be appreciated if you included Ndiswrapper with the install CD. Since some of us are hindered offline for a short or even long while without it, this would stop, or slow me down from installing Ubuntu on a machine that has (ugh) ex pee on it. -- Jon
  • Ndiswrapper was included on the Hoary 5.04 install disk. It would be great if the Ndiswrapper could be set up during the install, perhaps just before the automatic connection to the internet described above. If Ubuntu is for Linux for Humans, we need to make the internet connection as seemless as possible. - Dave Drass
  • To save demo-ers contortions that they may or may not be able to perform I believe it would be a good idea if the live CD came with a few exotic screen resolutions out of the box. In my case it happens to be 1400x1050 - quite popular on laptops but there are others. One reason someone might want to use the live CD is to take himself or some friend on a quick tour of Ubuntu. As it happens laptops and possibly all LCD-type screens are quite ugly when used at anything but their panel's native resolution. -- cga2001

  • I had an idea how to allow even braindead people to install Linux on certain PCs. It was originally intended for commercial distributions but the technical idea could be used by you, too, of course. I have written it in German http://www.hauke-laging.de/ideen/rechnerspezifische_linuxdistribution/konzept.html but have a quite complete English translation http://www.hauke-laging.de/ideen/rechnerspezifische_linuxdistribution/concept.html

  • How about looking at ‘Nesting’ or ‘Docking’ Ubuntu into Windows from the ‘Live’ CD. The CD would boot Ubuntu, although content would run from the HD location. Allowing for full ‘Synaptic’, ‘apt-get’ etc, as well as no need for Partitioning. ‘Dyne : Bolic' is a good example; http://lab.dyne.org/Docking - DD.

  • Something similar to Nesting/Docking above. A small business/network setup idea. You install ubuntu on a machine which will be the 'Server'. The Server can then create package tailored, LAN pre-configured, docking/live CD's for installation on the client machines. That way there is no possible loss of support on machines that have Windows OEM'ed or 'Mandated from above'. The installation can be upadted via local package directories (docked clients) or by (re)burning new livecd's.
  • I'd like to see an extra step in the automated partitioning process. Now you have an option to use all free unpartitioned space. I'd like to see this option changed to "Use free unpartitioned space" with an extra dialog asking how much free space it should use in total. This with maybe a recommended minimum amount of space that is required to install unbuntu properly. At this stage the next best thing to use all free space is to completely set up the partioning manually. This is far too complicated for a normal user. By just providing an option to specify the total amount of space to use the normal user doesn't have to deal with any manual stuff. -- Prodoc

  • Make Ubuntu as easy to install for Windows users as any Windows application. Users would just double-click a program that asks for their name and how much space they want to give Ubuntu, collects information about their language and such from Windows, places wingrub and the ubuntu installer on the hard drive, modifies boot.ini, and restarts the computer into linux where an automatic installer takes care of the rest. See InstallUbuntuFromWindows for details. -- Michael10

  • change the blue background of the text installer to something more like the ubuntu colour scheme
  • remind the user of their current partitions when asking them where to install grub.

  • How about a tool that simplifies the setting up of Ubuntu to use Windows NTLDR for booting GRUB/Ubuntu for Newbies that can not alter the way their computer currently boots. And may not have the expertise or desire to follow the instructions for setting up by hand. Amigo-XP has somewhat of an idea on this, though I don't know how well it would work for Ubuntu. ( http://amigolinux.org/amigoxp/XP-details.htm )

Package Management

  • Be sure to check out SoftwareMap... a great idea for an easier package manager. -- SolidAndShade

  • It should be possible to record the system's package configuration in a file using Synaptic (or the proposed SoftwareMap). When installing Ubuntu on a new system, the user could load this file onto the hard drive, tell the package manager to "import configuration from file," and the package manager on the new computer would download all the packages that were on the old one. This would make it unnecessary to spend hours hunting through the list of packages and trying to remember all the software you have on your current Ubuntu system when setting up a new one. The import utility would have to be somewhat smart -- If some packages were upgraded since the config file was written, the user would be asked if the latest versions should be downloaded, and other conflicts would be dealt with in a similar fashion. -- SolidAndShade

  • In Gentoo there's something called USE-Flags. I can define a systemwide "ssl" flag to install all application with ssl support, I can define "doc" to install special documentation... It's kind of a dependency switch... You could add a "restricted-formats" for totem to install all restricted packages for it too... -- fabian
    • Under Debian, and I think also Ubuntu there are task-packages, which manage to install all packages for a particular problem (e.g. ubuntu-desktop).

    • But I think it would be also interesting to have some knobs to let some packages depend on other packages for example lang:de would force mozilla-thunderbird}} also to install {{{mozilla-lang-de. Like langauge-*-pack, which doesn't install every package, but only thisone which is usefull because an depending package is also installed.

  • It would be great if Synaptics would show just my installed applications in a list somewhere and NOT their dependencies, so I have an overview over my selfinstalled packages -- fabian
  • It would also be great if I could remove certain packages without removing ubuntu-desktop, cause I don't need reisertools for example... (this has got something to do with the point above, cause after my proposal, there would be just ubuntu-desktop in the list...) -- fabian
  • maybe group together certain packages (mount, time, diff,grep, less...) to a "gnu-base-package" or something like that. That would clean up the lists in synaptics dramatically... -- fabian
  • There should be an easy way for temporarily installing the packages (something along the lines of save-package-configuration -- install new package and all its missing dependencies -- revert to saved package configuration). As of now, I have to check the dependencies list prior to installing a package for testing so that I could remove not only the main package but its obsolete dependencies as well. -- wolli

  • Use unionfs to implement the above. I will see if it's possible to install breezy ontop of hoary using unionfs to simulate dualbooting. -- JohnNilsson

  • Support having a unionfs layer on /etc where user modified files are stored. When the system needs to modify /etc it should thus make sura that changes are written to the system layer not the user layer. -- JohnNilsson

  • The centralized repository method of installing software (apt-get/synaptic) is valuable, but it is not a complete solution. It has the following problems: latency between software release and acceptance into repository, the difficulty in maintaining a large repository, the installation of non-free/proprietary software etc. The solution is [http://autopackage.org/ autopackage] . It is not designed as a replacement to synaptic/apt-get, rather to supplement its shortcomings for a superior solution. The ultimate goal should be something similar to MacOS appfolders, but better. Once the user has chosen to give some software access to their system, we should be making it as easy as possible for them to act upon their decisions. Security therefore becomes a matter of how to aid the user in making the correct decisions rather than making their lives inconvenient.

  • A centralized package management tool would be great value if you are to manage more ubuntu-machines in a network. The idea is to select the packages from a central location, and then be applied by a daemon on the clients. You could manage all clients at once, have different groups, and install specific packages on single machines - all from the comfort of your office/room. NielsKjøllerHansen

  • A way to install deb, rpm, or tar packages without using the command line. Some sort of integration into nataulus or Konqueror. Installing packages that don't appear in the ubuntu pool (like maya and limewire) using alien, and then installing them using dpkg without using the command line would be so much easyer for people wanting to install packages, but don't understand/are afraid of the command line. If you see a problem with this (give me a break, Im 14) email me at rjmarsan@gmail.com

Startup

  • reduce boot times, avoid usability issues (see item 21 in http://mpt.net.nz/archive/2005/04/11/ubuntu), and help out notebook users (see complaint below) by removing the network configuration and internet clock check from the startup. I've just pulled mine and I boot in about 1/3 the time (faster than windows). Just as importantly, the network config and the clock check are silly in the case of roaming laptops, since user input (passwords, perhaps other configuration) will certainly be needed before the network is properly configured or the clock works. I think Windows actually has this one right: they do the network stuff after login, which makes user intervention easier and doesn't waste time. Finally, the network config is not necessary for anything else in boot: When I removed the S40network and S40ntpcheck (or whatever it was called) from my boot sequence nothing broke. --dpod (daniel.odonnell the-symbol-above-2-on-us-keyboards uleth.ca).

  • Enhance a colorful startup with green "ok" and red "fail". Look [http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=8556 here].

  • We should look into the parallel startup script method that IBM came up with to speed startup. [http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-boot.html?ca=dgr-lnxw09BootFaster IBM] -- Keith Bassett

    • I have discussed some things like this with Jeff Waugh. He's concerned about breaking System 5 init scripts. Then you end up like Gentoo and have to write custom init scripts for everything (biggest issue being w/ universe) -- JoeTennies

    • You could also include Jimmy Wennlund's sysvinit replacement program called [http://jw.dyndns.org/initng/ Initng]. -- Adrien Anselme

Updating

  • Incremental updates: Use rsync or xdelta with apt to cut down bandwidth. This requires that the reference (as far as apt-sign is concerned) package is an uncompressed tarball. The rsync case is easiest - a transparent protocol change - but there's a cpu tradeoff; the xdelta solution has all the advantages but requires the server side to keep track of old versions.
  • Downloading updated packages in the installer should start after the first user logs into the system, preferrably integrated with the new hoary application update monitor. This would reduce the time to install Ubuntu dramatically, especially on systems with slower network connections.
    • This would also prevent upgrading to an unstable configuration (ie no x) out of the box (which has happened to me on two boxes)
  • Enhance/Integrate apt-build for easy optimization of the whole system

Apps CDs

Something really nice with Ubuntu is that it's one of the rare distribution that is usuable with a 56K modem. Most distribution let you connect to the net with it but it's a nightmare to update since it would take days. With Ubuntu, I just have to pop in the new CD that I receive every six months in the mail and Synaptic will hapilly update my system.

It would be nice to have have an iso (or many) that it is a snapshot of everything in main that we could download with bittorent somewhere with a fast internet connexion (or ask friends) and bring back the 56K Ubuntu installation so it would be easy to install all these great apps without taking hours to download.

Maybe extra CDs could be made for other repositories.

  • Web Extras: The Shuttleworth Foundation used Moodle for their Learnlinux online learning. Can all the web package be on the cd to run Moodle. Web based CRM/ERP software LTSP
  • Music Extras: Ubuntu already has music player, so we need Music software that create music from midi to final.

  • Educational Extras: The Shuttleworth Foundation has some school software that can be included. Moodle. Kewl.NextGen? LTSP

  • Graphics Extras

William Kinghorn williamk@dit.ac.za

  • Include more 'pre-installed' software packages, Reps etc !?

    • - Dia, QCaD, aMSN, LimeWire, Nvu, Thunderbird, Abi Word, Adobe Reader, Gnumeric, Project Management, Scribus, Bluefish, Screem, Mplayer, Audacity, Firestarter, Boot Manager, CalmAV, etc. Info; http://ubuntuguide.org/ - Ubuntu Unofficial Guide, http://www.mrbass.org/linux/ubuntu/ - Unofficial Ubuntu Add-On CDubuntu-5.04-add-on-cd-e-2005-07-09.tgz.

Networking

  • more network card drivers, such as linux-wlan-ng installed by default, as well as including ndiswrapper in a default Hoary installation
    • prebuilt rfmon-patched prism wireless modules (see [Orinoco + Monitor + Kismet 2005 + Hoary]) in the repository would be good -- [sjalex]
  • better support for corporate proxies - it should be done once and supported in multiple apps (gaim, mozilla, synaptic)
  • support the development of the airport extreme/broadcom drivers
  • easier pppoe configuration (gui or link) maybe from network-admin program... -- Lyly lyly_at_bigfoot.com
  • We should use something like the xandros winbind/samba client login stuff by default and set up Ubuntu to log into active directory out of the box. If our goal is to get Ubuntu adopted everywhere as a desktop, this one is huge. If admins don't have to fight through 10 scripts to get this to work, Ubuntu becomes much more friendly to existing environments. --Keith Bassett
  • a program for connecting to the internet which supports dail up, ppoe/pppoa .... that start each time your not connected when you start your brower.

  • Zeroconf/Bonjour/Rendevouz support. There is an opensource implementation called Avahi and according to their homepage http://www.freedesktop.org/Software/Avahi it already supports all important features mentioned in the mDNS RFC. Avahi could be used to share printers (cups) and music (rhythmbox) with other users without any hassle. Mac users will also appreciate this since they could just plugin their ibook/powerbook in a linux network and start printing. -- Ramon de Ruiter won[AT]home.nl

  • Only start networking at boot if the interface has link; otherwise wait 10 seconds and continue booting (10 seconds for user to plug in network card) (mostly interesting for laptops) -- Jochem Kossen jkossen[at]xs4all.nl
  • Internet sharing. So that in a few click I can share the internet from ethernet on eth0 to all nearby wireless laptops on eth1. For this to work it would need to turn on dhcp, and network address translation. windows and mac os x both make this very easy.

    • This can be done w/ FireStarter (which I suggest is needed for firewalling). Though it must become obvious it can do both. -- JoeTennies

  • Easy to use WiFi network roam program for mobile users. Are Debian network interfaces the right thing to use or is something custom like wifi-radar needed?

  • Intergration of linux-wlan-ng with iwconfig tools. At the moment linux-wlan-ng uses a custom interface, and is a pain too setup. These drives are used a quite a few wifi devices such as the usb d-link dwl122.
  • Add netatalk 2.0.3, please!
  • WPA support without manually configuring WPASupplicant. WPA Supplicant is pretty easy to configure, but it would be much easier for beginners if it was integrated into the Networking configuration tool. Should be fairly easy to accomplish.

  • Graphical tunneling utility that uses SSH or another relatively secure protocol with preset tunneling modes (e.g. VNC, CUPS, NFS, Samba, etc.). This would allow roadwarriors or other remote clients who do not wish to use a command line to connect to home or work without compromising security. -- thelinuxevangelist<A~T<gmail/D0T/com

  • My apartment building has more than one 802.11 networks. Install asks me for a WEP key, but doesn't ask me for what SSID the WEP key applies to!
  • My IBM laptop has a fingerprint reader. It would be cool to be able to use that for sudo and the screensaver, ssh, etc.

  • Add ZD1211 driver to Breezy. I compiled this with Warty, and it worked fine. hfairchi@ata-sd.com

  • Samba, smbfs, ssh should be installed by default for setting up mounted files shares in an office environment. Also to allow for remote admin.

Printers

  • Printer setup on home networks with windows based machines. I'm a software developer and I don't know what a printer command line is (referring to the open office printer setup tool).
  • switch to hplip for hp printer drivers
  • Local auto-detected printers that are obviously a fully supported model should be automagically added. The system knew I had an hp deskjet 940c plugged in already (the autodetect field said as much), why should I have to go through the new printer wizard? -- ChrisZS ([at] gmail [dot] com)
  • Replacement of Gimp-Print with Gutenprint (the new name for Gimp-Print 5.0), this includes many enhancements and bug fixes for Epson users (and I'm sure it fixes issues with other printers). I believe its now in Debian Sid so backport possible? -- A-Wing (info [at] a-wing [dot] co [dot] uk)

Language

  • How about including Mozilla/Firefox that is built with Xft & Pango support so that it can display indic language pages (like that provided in fedora). There seems to be such build already in the net. I understand that just pango linking alone is not enough m17n library has to be linked to it ?! right? can some one throw light on this? rajesh ganesan

Control Panel

  • Someway to adjust brightness, contrast, gamma. Right now I can use xgamma for gamma, but no way to adjust brightness and contrast. My laptop (HP zt3000) looks horrible without someway to adjust contrast, so much so that I am forced to go back to using Windows (feel pity on me!)
  • A control panel similair like "The Mandrake Control Center" in Mandriva or "YAST" in Suse.

  • Port YAST2 to Ubuntu. There's a YaST2 port in the making for Debian, so that shouldn't be a big matter. http://yast4debian.alioth.debian.org

Copy/Paste

  • What the Ubuntu desktop is lacking is a proper copy and paste tool. If you copy a selection, close the application, open another application, and then paste, then copied selection will be lost. What is needed is a tool like Klipper (KDE) to store the copied material, and pastes it when needed. -LukasSabota (punkrockguy318 _at_ comcast _dot_ net)

    • They have been working on this in the GNOME world for a long time (google for it). The biggest issue, I believe, came from the application's ability to convert the data to multiple formats -- JoeTennies

    • I've found a solution that seems to work perfectly: gnome-clipboard-daemon. Details can be found here: http://members.chello.nl/~h.lai/gnome-clipboard-daemon/index.html . This should be incorporated into the next release for sure. LukasSabota (punkrockguy318 _at_ comcast _dot_net)

QEMU Image?

I'm proposing a qemu image, which would include an Ubuntu already installed. This would allow users to try out ubuntu from the cozy comfort of their favotite OS. Maybe even distribute a CD with this image, that would "install" ubuntu under windows, complete with a desktop icon and start menu entry. Images for emulators or virtual machines would work, but QEMU works because it's free, and relitivly fast. -- reub2000 at earthlink.net

Tweak Enhancements

  • Install 'gkdebconf' and 'libgnome2-perl' by default, on (first) gnome startup, add a script that changes the configuration mode from dialog to gnome. Or instead of just first, each time gnome starts, and revert to dialog on logout. (So dpkg-reconfigure can be called from console if something goes wrong with X and it needs to be re-configured) - chibifs@studiochibico.com

  • Sane defaults for mount options. Eg. a /tmp partition doesn't need suid or dev support, so set defaults to nosuid,nodev -- Jochem Kossen jkossen[at]xs4all.nl

Hardware Detection and Handling

General

  • One original idea to make hardware work with Ubuntu: make an application that lists all the hardware that is currently compatible with Linux (and supported by Ubuntu). In this application, it will be possible to search for a device using hints such as hardware type, brand, etc... The app could contain links to vendor websites, etc... This way users will be sure their new device will be supported. Example: I want to buy a webcam, I open the application "Choose New Hardware for Ubuntu", I type "webcam" in the search box, a list of all supported webcams is displayed, I choose the Philips SuperCam 12, because I know it's good and it's supported by Ubuntu !! Then when I receive it, I plug it in, and it works right out of the box!!!! If Ubuntu becomes *really* popular, vendor really will want to be on this list so maybe they will start to contribute to make Linux Drivers !! This app could be web-based, something like http://hardware.ubuntu.com (like packages.ubuntu.com with the same type of interface but with compatible hardware devices search instead of packages search...) Please see: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=403160&posted=1#post403160 for a discussion on this topic.

  • Elektra xserver patches - The elektra xserver patches would allow disabling and enabling the use of closed-source drivers (like nvidia or fglrx) very easy. Elekra sets up a registry for linux; so a script could change registry entries of the xorg configuration to suit what the driver needed. This would remove the awkwardness of scripts editting configuration files, and such. This would also allow other graphical applications to edit the xorg configuration. [http://elektra.sf.net]

  • For FreedomToasters [www.freedomtoaster.org] and for DialUp PPl: a dvd or cd iso with all the most common applications that are not included into THE CD. AndreaAbelli

  • For The Unlucky: a dvd/cd with the hardware database and all the most exotic drivers that are not included into THE CD. (just an idea) AndreaAbelli

  • http://nat.org/2005/february/ this hardware rendered x server should go in as soon as its usable...the version of x.org in hoary will already have the composite extensions if Im not mistaken, and it would be great to have it all rendered on the graphics card.

  • Detect and configure 'Wacom USB graphics tablet' by at the very least changing the mouse driver to wacom when it is seen (usually on /dev/event2). At most, have it add cursor and eraser devices to the X config. The tablet is my only mousing device, it's inconvinient to set up as the core pointer when it's using the wrong driver by default and can't be moved. :P
  • Hardware detection: ISA Sound cards, USB devices such as scanners and printers needs to be improved. an out of the box full multimedia experience is critical to getting homes using this almost perfect OS.
  • Hardware compatibility: make it work smoothly with Apple Mini
  • Setting up many-mouse buttons (probably with imwheel) also, this is something users shouldn't have to battle with (it is still hard).
  • Include Synaptics driver for touchpads. This would enable scrolling with touchpads out-of-the-box. I think basically every laptop user wants this.
  • Further to the Synaptic driver for touchpads, a gui interface for configuring the touchpad would be handy. Also, there is no way to disable the touchpad temporarily after a key is pressed, to stop accidental touches while typing.

  • The default mapping for mouse-button emulation on Apple computers needs to be more useable. F11 and F12 are too far away from the trackpad to be used comfortably on Apple laptops for the third and second mouse buttons. The command (Apple) keys would make ideal second mouse buttons, and the small Enter key next to right-command could make a good third. It may also feel more natural if these buttons worked as modifiers to the main mouse-button, the way control does under OS X. [http://benhourigan.com Ben Hourigan]

  • Wireless LAN support is becoming an issue for more people all of the time. I would love to see Ubuntu be the first single-cd install (since it's difficult to install drivers from the web if you can't activate your net interface!) that accurately identified *and* activated many common wireless NICs including PCMIA and USB. Failing that it would be perhaps just as valuable if Ubuntu were to be associated with the largest database of what wireless hardware works and what doesn't! To the best of my knowledge there is no such database specifically for debian.

  • http://at76c503a.berlios.de/ might provide us with some support for the above USB WLAN devices (Atmel AT76C503/505A in specific). - Brian Jackson

  • Providing an interface for wirless management and support for various authentication protocols (LEAP, PEAP etc. etc.) would put Ubuntu a step forward to being a viable alternative to Microsoft Windows or Mac OS X. -- Terry Dellino

  • Decent Super-Duper [FireWire - IEEE 1394 - iLink] Support. Make [FireWire - IEEE 1394 - iLink] support built-in/embedded so we can install & boot Ubuntu from external [FireWire - IEEE 1394 - iLink] drives!-- Fu Kay

  • Along these lines, it would be nice if MiniDV on Ubuntu "just worked". So, I plug in my consumer camcorder with a IEEE1394 cable, and Ubuntu notices and provides a desktop icon for the camcorder. Double-clicking the desktop icon would launch a program to capture video from the camera -- the Kino program is an excellent GPL'd, GTK-based tool for this. The end user could then use Kino to edit the captured footage. To my knowledge, MiniDV is not protected by patents the way some other video formats are, so support for this could be added to all versions of Ubuntu.
  • integrate prc5x webcam drivers into mainline

  • Complete merging gatos (http://gatos.sourceforge.net/) into x.org and make ATI All-In-Wonder card support out of the box. -- Reviczky Ádám János

  • A central control panel for hardware configuration, where I can configure all of my hardware, tools like for example the KDE Control Center just DON'T do it all.

ALSA and Sound

  • write an alsa driver so I can use my laptop as a phone headset (http://www.soft.uni-linz.ac.at/_wiki/tiki-index.php?page=ProjectBluezHandsfree) SoundBase ( ALSA / OSS configurator and execution) would use Ncurses to select to:

    • Enable / disable and load/unload Oss/Alsa kernel sound modules and restore old configurations (changelog file).
    • Execute alsaconf .
    • Enable/disable the default sound mixer, load/unload alsa/oss mixer and execute alsamixergui.
    • Select the output configuration for popular players (XMMS / Xine...).

    • Configure MIDI (hardware or software SoundFont s, midi default player and midi plugins).

    • Execute XMMS with midi plugin and support.
    • Execute aplaymidi .
    • Execute timidity .

  • Add bluetooth-alsa support for bt-headsets (http://sourceforge.net/projects/bluetooth-alsa/)

  • Add a general multi-band equalizer instead of the actual one band one. Because users have any way to manage sound output directly.

Raid

  • "degraded" RAID1 array install:

    • I run a full RAID1 array for my Linux install. Although the Ubuntu (4.1) install allows the installation of Ubuntu onto a RAID1 array, it seems to require that the RAID1 array be fully online, ie. all component member devices of the RAID1 array are online. I'd like the ability to install Ubuntu to a "degraded" RAID1 array, where only half of the component member devices are available. This would allow me to test out Ubuntu before completely moving to it, by going through the following steps :
      1. Degrade my existing RAID1 array, containing my existing Linux distribution install eg. split out all /dev/hda devices from the existing RAID1 array.
      2. Boot the Ubuntu install
      3. Create a new RAID1 array, listing both the /dev/hda and /dev/hdc devices. However, nominate the /dev/hdc devices as missing.
      4. Install Ubuntu, as per the normal procedure
      5. Test it out to see if I'm happy with the install.
      6. If I'm happy with the Ubuntu install, add the missing /dev/hdc devices into the Ubuntu created RAID1 array.
      7. If I'm not happy with the Ubuntu install, boot into my old distribution, and add the /dev/hda devices that were part of the Ubuntu RAID1 array back into my original, other distribution RAID1 array.
    • The advantage of this method is that it potentially avoids having to restore from backup an existing distribution and personal data if I'm not happy with the Ubuntu installation.
    • I realise that the above install method is somewhat complicated and should be performed by somebody experienced with booting multiple installations of linux on multiple devices. However, it would be far simpler and easier than the method I recently used, where I had to install Ubuntu onto a non-RAID1 disk, create a new RAID1 array after Ubuntu was installed on the other disk, copy Ubuntu to the RAID1 array in single user mode, and then add the original native disk into the newly created array.
    • To sum all this up, a change to the Ubuntu installer to allow degraded RAID1 arrays to be created would make the above short-cut RAID1 installation possible.

Listing "Ubuntu Friendly" Hardware

Create a place on the website that lists hardware that just works with the current version of Ubuntu so that system builders (hobbyists, at least) can save time by just buying "Ubuntu Friendly" (i.e., no-headaches) hardware in the first place. Hopefully, this will simplify the system building process down to:

  1. Order Parts from Ubuntu's (or an approved affiliate's) web site
  2. Assemble Hardware
  3. Install and configure Ubuntu with no headaches (hopefully in under an hour)
  4. Enjoy

Examples of hardware categories include:

  • Complete systems
  • Motherboards
  • Video cards
  • USB devices

The business effect of this will be to establish a hardware brand similar to "Intel Inside" without actually making any hardware. As soon as enough people ask, "Is it Ubuntu Friendly?", you'll have a viable hardware brand. How many people is that? I don't know.

To help with this, create a client application that automatically (as much as possible) collects and submits hardware information to the Ubuntu web site and a server-side app that puts it all together to generate the list. You could sell these parts on the Ubuntu website or collect referral fees from approved affiliates for click-thru purchases.

In the case of partially friendly hardware, it would be nice to see incompatibilities and other gothcas listed in a more consistent way than as done at other Linux hardware sites. pdirezze[at]rogers.com

New/Different Versions of Ubuntu

  • I worked as UNIX system adminitrator for some years. I noted that the thing missing for server configuration is a simple but well integrated configuration management tool installed by the default distribution. A tool that allows to configure the services using minimal informations but with attention for security. It's for that i began to work onto a simple shell script that can help to configure Ubuntu Server services like DNS,DHCP,RADIUS,LDAP,Web and MAIL,IDS,RAID and more other server things...it is a very simple approach but it sets up the server downloading and installing the right packages and then configuring it with a simple text menu. I think this will be really useful to include in Ubuntu distribution, because the script doesn't require any graphic neither than the default provided by server installation of Ubuntu. At the moment i don't have so much time but the tool is at good development point. If someone if interested to this idea can contact at crivalli@gmail.com .

  • A second cd with some new extra packages!

  • An Ubuntu Internet cafe management product - PopeMensa

  • Localized ISO! For example, a Hoary Hedgehog Spanish ISO (apart from the official one) containing:
    • The boot messages written in Spanish.
    • The boot screen adapted for Spanish keyboards (in order to type boot parameters correctly).
    • Localized packages for Spanish: openoffice.org-l10n-es, openoffice.org-help-es, openoffice.org-hyphenation-es, openoffice.org-spellcheck-es, openoffice.org-thesaurus-es, mozilla-firefox-locale-es...
    • Live CD also localized: boot messages in Spanish, boot screen adapted for Spanish keyboards, localized packages for Spanish, localized Windows programs for Spanish (Open Office.org, Mozilla Firefox, etc.).

    • Localized packs of the two CD (the Hoary one and the Live one, as is now be shipped from http://shipit.ubuntulinux.org), with texts in different languages.

  • An easy way to do the previous by the way of costumization as explained in February 2005 Linux Magazine's article Red Hat - Creating a custom installation CD or something like the one it is already done with the Live-CDs

  • Ubuntu Home server: We need an Ubuntu router/firewall server howto. We can use the minimal install instructions to start it. Personally I'd recommend webmin as the primary interface, with that its only a short step away from being like "e-smith". I have a dual nic PC (P2 400) with 10 gig drive and 192 meg of ram that I'm willing to use as a test/documentation helper. I'm willing to submit time and the use of my adsl connection. I'm willing to build, re-build and add/remove hardware fro different solutions (ie, single nic firewall etc) I just need a bit of help in the "howto" dept.any offers of help please send to senectus at the google mail address.

  • I work as an IT adviser for a ministry of a developing country. What would make Ubuntu Really Useful in this organization would be a "backline" product: an UbuntuServer which would handle things like

    • centralized user authentication (Linux and Windows),
    • print services,
    • file services (with version control and maybe webdav),
    • intranet services like a simple wiki/blog (and an interface to the file services above)
    • mail services (optional, at least here)
    • web proxy (with filtering),
    • network services (dhcp, dns, wireless, gateway, routing, firewall, vpn)
    • monitoring (mrtg, snort)

  • Packing even part of these into one easily installable distribution would be very, very valuable. I would be able to deploy a full and unified environment to each department easily. Now i would have Ubuntu on the desktop and Fedora, Mandrake or some other product on the backline. And i still don't know how to handle centralized user authentication on Linux... but that's another story Smile :) -- RobinLauren

  • There has to be a release codenamed 'Freaky Ferret'! --KarianneGrønningsæter

  • Kind of an Ubuntu Media Center would be appreciated by Media Center constructors

Ubuntu Website

  • Provide a space where ubuntu and other linux users can contribute money toward specific features/drivers etc.

  • Some coordination to help with the translation of the actual "Ubuntulinux":http://www.ubuntulinux.org website and any other information, in as many languages as possible, to let the newcomer access easily information about UbuntuLinux in their own languages

  • Given that accessibility is an important goal of ubuntu, shouldn't the website be designed without tables used for layout? 3-column css layouts are possible.

  • A launchpad.ubuntu.com/thankyou website in which it is possible to send a thank you message to the author(s) of a specific free software project, to add one's own signature to an existing thank you, to report success stories, to make a donation Valerio Paolini) reported by EnricoZini

  • Make the RosettaFAQ work better. Motivation: users only go to the "support" section of a site when they are having a problem. RosettaFAQ naturally pair the problem with a solution, and are really the most useful kind of online support. The situations is this, however: 90% of people all share the same 10 or so problems, so adding RosettaFAQ tends to dilute the effectiveness by making it hard to find the RosettaFAQ for that critical 10%. Here is how to fix this: Add a section at the bottom of each FAQ which says "This FAQ solved my problem" with a yes button and a no button. Presumably RosettaFAQ are stored in a database somewhere. Add a column to the FAQ table which is called NumberOfUsersHelped or something like that and stores the number of times someone clicked the "yes" button for that FAQ; also add a NumberOfTimesViewed which is incremented anytime someone views the FAQ. On the support page put a big list of problems which are ordered by NumberOfUsersHelped/(NOW() - date_posted). (Dividing by the age prevents favoring older RosettaFAQ). This way the 90% of people with common problems have their questions answered right there on the support page without having to dig around at all. I did something like this for a commercial software company and it drastically cut down on their number of support calls. The best part is you can easily see which RosettaFAQ are confusing or otherwise not helping people because they are viewed a lot, but no one ever clicks the "yes" button. Once you have this in place you can add lots and lots of RosettaFAQ, it is suprising which are helpful and which aren't. --()

  • Is possibile add http://www.ubuntuitalia.it/forum to this page http://www.ubuntulinux.org/community/forums/document_view ?? It's the official italian forum Smile :) (AlessioFattorini)

  • Divide this page in several smaller. Or add anchors/links in TOC. It is becoming difficult to navigate and edit this page.

  • Some great ideas on this page, but they tend to get lost because this page is so long. I would suggest using the feature request part of bugzilla to submit and vote on ideas that we think are the most important. For example the [http://bugs.kde.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&bug_severity=wishlist&votes=21&order=bugs.votes most wanted feature in KDE right now] is Bittorrent support, and that is going to be put in the next release. -Axiom (a very new kubuntu user)

    • There are a couple of problems with this: 1. is that the bugzilla is going to only have a subsection of the users . 2. Users know what they want, but not how to do it. It is important to make that distinction
  • How about the Ubuntu Weekly Gazette? I know we have the Fridge for nearly daily news updates. But how about something that highlights the best of the news and community contributors? This could introduce people who are currently outside of the Ubuntu community to the 'Human' side of our distro. We could spotlight features. Give a look inside of some of our key contributors lives. And maybe share opportunities that other members are taking to share Ubuntu in their communities, schools, churches, etc.

Training and Certification

  • The easiest way to take the fear out of end-users switching to Ubuntu (via their work or otherwise) is to offer easy-to-read & absorb 'pocket books', outlining the main differences in 'how things work' compared to other products. A 'pocket book' is less daunting than trying to find out the basics from a thick text or manual and simple explanations of what changes in habit or knowledge are required often will make the difference in usage levels of a product. People are adaptable, but end users who "know nothing about computers" will often find even an OS upgrade daunting because 'enhancements' and other changes are not clearly noted, explained or offered with easy-to-follow instructions. To paraphrase the old "hearts & minds" cliche: If you can make an end user comfortable quickly with Ubuntu, power users and companies will quickly follow. - Lynne@robertcollins.net

  • Canonical is well positioned to push for a Python Certification Program - AntonioOgnio

  • See this mail on the subject: http://wingware.com/pipermail/marketing-python/2003-December/005443.html

  • LPI Training materials focused on Ubuntu would rock since there's a version of the exam for apt/dpkg-based distros - AntonioOgnio

  • Ubuntu training on video. MSDN is an example of good use of video training materials. It shouldn't really be expensive to produce a series of Ubuntu training video and distribute them over the net and in DVDs - AntonioOgnio

  • Official Ubuntu Books for end users, power users and developers
  • Ubuntu Linux for Dummies

Media and Marketing: Spreading the word about Ubuntu

  • Two things I've noticed. 1 The release names are great and just screaming out for graphics to go with them. Giving the creatures a "face" would increase curiosity/interest in Ubuntu. 2 Each release has been in a different country, which to me shows Ubuntu is a truly global initiative. So why not incoporate a release creature graphic and location iconic imagery onto t-shirts, posters, wallpaper/backgrounds/themes, postcards, etc, at each release?

    Who knows, in time a "Breezy Badger" t-shirt might become a collector's item? - Lynne@robertcollins.net

  • A you beaut "U Bunt 2" weekly cartoon strip in the Wiki. Any cartoonists in the house? - Lynne@robertcollins.net

  • Sell small stickers (2x3cm) with the Ubuntu/Kubuntu logo say something like "Ubuntu Linux Inside" to replace the standard Windows sticker and promote Ubuntu Linux. You could sell five or ten in small packets for 10-15 euro and use the funds for the development of Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Edubuntu. Or give them away at Computer Shows and thru pc/Linux magazines. jdwijbenga(add)yahoo.com

  • Ubuntu radio program - AntonioOgnio

  • Ubuntu printed magazines - AntonioOgnio

  • Ubuntu T-Shirts!!! - AntonioOgnio

  • Presence at LinuxTag 2005. I made a wiki page for this, called LinuxTag - TimFuchs

  • Ubuntu Logo Suggestion: Medicine Mask - I think the current ubuntu logo doesnt have enough character and is therefore not memorable enough...its nothing compared to a big X, or a colourful flag, which is why I'd like to suggest a new logo that has something todo with the name, the african name. The first time I heard "Ubuntu" I immediately thought how great it was that there was a supermodern technology (ie. linux distro) called something really primitive&old (ie. old african word), an interesting contradiction. How about if the logo reflected the actual name with an african medicine man's mask?? Something everyone associates with tribal africa, but in contrary to past suggestions is not discriminating in any way. It would make this distro much more memorable and interesting through this contradiction! My Wiki: https://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/UbuntuLogoMascotSuggestionMedicineMask

  • What about some Ubuntu contests to make people feel involved in their favourite distribution and also attract more attention from news sites and other users. Some ideas are a Ubuntu Splash Screen Contest (similar to the GNOME one) and maybe a Ubuntu Wallpaper Contest (e.g. like the KDE one) - e.gonzalezsolares@gmail.com

  • A downloadable wallpaper similar to the chocolate one, for Windows users who are stuck with Microsoft (or other Operating Systems) - Aidan

  • I think the t-shirts need to be re-designed to be catchier. For example, a brown or tan t-shirt (like the shade used in the Ubuntu theme) with a small Ubuntu logo with "Ubuntu" in off-white on the breast, front, and on the back, an image for the current release. (ibgeek@gmail.com)

  • One of the biggest markets for Linux in the next year may be the Playstation 3 "gaming console." The ground work for porting Linux to the Cell processor has been laid (see http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS6219524044.html) and Sony has made its interest in Linux clear (http://ps3.ign.com/articles/624/624046p1.html). Sony has sold 100 million PlayStations since the console was released in Japan in 1994, and 70 million PlayStation 2 units since it was introduced in 1999. The above suggests to me that with minimal effort Ubuntu and the PS3 could offer each other significant "added value" at next to zero cost. The market potential for the Linux disto that collaborates with Sony on this (or at least ensures PS3 compatibility) is enormous. -Alex Martinson (alexmartinson@gmail.com)

I put a script into the WiFiHowto that autoconfigures the wlan device to a preconfigured WLAN if it is found when bringing up the device. The script uses the functionality in /etc/network/interfaces and if called on ifup. -- TobiasHunger

  • My suggestion here is about Kubuntu. I do know the difference between Ubuntu and Kubuntu (one includes the GNOME environment while the other one includes the KDE environment) and I agree that it is an excellent idea not to include the two environments by default in the install CDs. But I think the two different names (Ubuntu and Kubuntu) are confusing for newbies, who may think the two products are different distros (when they are in fact the same distro). What do I suggest? I suggest you to use only one name for the two products (Ubuntu) and to distinguish them by adding "version G" and/or "version K", or "G edition"/"K edition". --Alexandre

Live CD + save sessions

  • I love Ubuntu for a fact and it is just great! I am a novice Linux user and I really enjoy trying out new distros on my "extra computer". I recently came across dyne:bolic (http://www.dynebolic.org) Live CD and was just blown away by how different it is. If I were a multimedia artist, that would probably be the distro for me. What I have in mind is an Ubuntu Live CD that would let you easily save settings and files on all kinds of media -- the hard disk, any removable disk, or even to a CD-RW. By this, I mean through a button that you can just click. With the settings safely saved away, you can be assured that everything is how you left it the next time you reboot. I don't know how feasible this idea is but this would surely be handy for those who move a lot.

LiveCD for Secure Exams

I'd like to create an Ubuntu-based live CD for administering secure exams in law (and other) schools.

It should be stripped down and configured to bar certain user actions:

  • bar read access to local drives
  • bar internet access except for transmission of exam
  • offer a stripped down text editor (with administrator option to block cut and paste functions)

It should boot both PPC and x86 laptops and include hardware support for hard drive, video, network (wireless), usb storage. Sound and most peripherals are unnecessary (e.g. no printing, scanning, cd burning).

It should save regular backups of the exam in progress with an option to save locally or to a server.

It should have an easy means for an administrator with little tech knowledge to change basic configuration options and burn a new version. --david[at]altruistek[dot]com

Hardening

Proactive Security

Deploy FORTIFY_SOURCE and/or Exec-Shield to enhance the security of the system. These things, especially FORTIFY_SOURCE, are not very invasive and can prevent the eploitation of buffer overflows, the number one cause of security exploits. These technologies are especially appealing for enterprise deployment, a goal of DapperDrake. Fedora and SUSE already deploy FORTIFY_SOURCE, thus we can assume that any harm which was caused by using it is already fixed by now.

CategoryHardware CategoryHardware

Bash

predefined Aliases

To save "typework" (<--is this correct? sorry I'm from Austria) there shold be Aliases defined in bashrc like alias dist-upgrade='sudo aptitude update; sudo aptitude dist-upgrade' and other often used commands

Ubuntu bandwidth project

It could be nice to let people with ubuntu to give some of their upload bandwidth (few Kbps) to ubuntu itself, in order to be able to have a much greater upload potential. Some sort of small software that you can turn on or off, and that disables automatically when your bandwidth usage goes over 80% of your maximum (so it doesn't slow down users). Files uploaded by users can be automatically checked with a checksum. So, no dirty tricks.

With this bandwidth, ubuntu can provide: distribution CD/DVD, video/multimedia content, e-learning material.

By: simone.brunozzi [.at.] wedoit.us