Hardy Heron Expectations, Ideas?

[adamorjames]

Hardy Heron, the next release! It will have LTS which means 5 years of security and 3 years of desktop support! It will be released around April 2008. What is everyones expectations and ideas for Hardy Heron? What should be worked on first?

[npman]

More emphasis on stability. Less on eye candy.

The network manager still seems to just randomly flake out.

OpenOffice will work wonderfully for months and then just stop. I've had to go to eschew the Ubuntu OOO packages and go to the "official" release and back, just to keep it stable.

It pains me to think about how much better this stuff could have been if not for the huge obsession with shiny windows. I hope that the LTS would concentrate more on the fundamentals.

[cowanh00]

The System -> Preferences menu could do with some clean up. There are just far too many option there. Some could be merged with others. (I know you can manually remove them but they're needed mainly!)

[jlacroix]

A new theme.

More organized menu. (For example, why the heck is Evolution listed in Internet AND in office?)

Focus on fixing bugs.

Make the OS run as fast as possible.

[wpshooter]

Need to get rid of the need to know which, when & how to edit all of these configuration files and have GUI tools for accomplishing the configuration(s) in this O/S.

And even more importantly, need to work on (i.e. come up with some ideas for giving them the incentive) getting all of these software application vendors that write their software ONLY for M/S based system (please don't tell me about the existing alternative Linux applications which are not currently satisfactory substitutes for these M/S compatible software applications) to write a version of their software applications that will run natively in Ubuntu. When this happens, then Ubuntu/Linux will become the DOMINANT O/S on this planet.

Thanks.

[Taku]

yeah totally : more organised menus, and more selective applications-by-default policy.

Improving greatly usplash is a must-be-done thing : too bad to have to go to terminal because it doesn't handle fsck.

Anyway ... hm ... Xorg7.3 for sure.

[X-dark]

Maybe more "on the box" support for more hardware. The idea would be to really be able to install Ubuntu and having it works without any configuration.
Configuration doesn't bother me but it would be more easy for people to switch to Ubuntu if it's painless.

[jrharvey]

I could care didly squat about eye candy any more. Ubuntu already has more that OS X and Windows combined. I would like to see Ubuntu live up to its "it just works" slogan. Don't get me wrong, ubuntu is my favourite but installing fiesty on my girlfriends laptop made me appreciate windows pre installed drivers.

[temcat]

1) Improve boot and login speed that got worse since Feisty. Improve startup time of applications.

2) Fix problems with font rendering in OpenOffice.org.

3) Finish pulseaudio transition.

[bigken]

I read in one thread about system restore which would be great and I would also like to be able to right click a file to print it plus I totally agree with stability and speed instead of the eye candy :)

[AtrejuT]

I'd guess:

- more stability, particularly for a LTS release!
- no big changes in terms of eye-candy. polish compiz in terms of the above.
- energy efficiency would be nice - particularly on laptops. maybe something that makes it easy to follow powertop-suggestions automatically when you unplug your laptop.
- a new human theme maybe? I kinda like the brown though...

[ankursethi]

First of all, I applaud the entire team for a distro using which I can just lay back and do what I want without wrestling with the system.

Okay, why on Earth does Ubuntu need 256MB minimal memory when it uses barely 150-190 MB with stuff like Exaile, Pidgin and Firefox all running at full speed? I have a gig of RAM, so I can install it. But my friend with 256M has to use the text installer because the LiveCD won't boot up on his system. I'm also looking forward to faster boot ups. Boot up speed has improved in Gutsy, but I'm sure Ubuntu could do better.

Another thing I'll appreciate is an official Ubuntu book of some sort, and a programming guide, included by default with the system. This was a common practice in the days of Turbo C++ and DOS, but these days people are underestimating the need for good documentation.

Make Hungry ... erm ... Hardy Heron the best damn distro ever :)

[moixa]

I want some kernel patches to be packaged for easy patching against the kernel source
especially those "unstable" patches, say hdaps disk parking, suspend2, voltage changing and MM etc...

[jpittack]

energy efficiency would be awesome. My battery life is 2 hours and it won't go any higher. If I shut off the wireless and tone down my brightness, I get 2 hours. I would love to see this happen because I know very few people that use a desktop as their main computer. From what I have been hearing, desktops are for games, laptops are for work. Until we conquer the work segment, there isn't much use for trying to work on game boxes.

For those of you that use your desktops professionally, I applaud you. You are more intelligent then my friends.

[moixa]

I want it to have a laptop-install-mode with minimum amount of daemons running by default for powersaving

[LowSky]

Okay, why on Earth does Ubuntu need 256MB minimal memory when it uses barely 150-190 MB with stuff like Exaile, Pidgin and Firefox all running at full speed? I have a gig of RAM, so I can install it. But my friend with 256M has to use the text installer because the LiveCD won't boot up on his system. I'm also looking forward to faster boot ups. Boot up speed has improved in Gutsy, but I'm sure Ubuntu could do better.

Another thing I'll appreciate is an official Ubuntu book of some sort, and a programming guide, included by default with the system. This was a common practice in the days of Turbo C++ and DOS, but these days people are underestimating the need for good documentation.



=First off the Live CD uses your RAM for everything, it doesn't even touch your hard drive. the Live CD cant cache files or use swap space on the hard drive.

As for documentation what do you really need? Everything is a google search away, and theres plenty of it. Back when DOS was king the internet was something that only big universities had access to, and it was only good fo sending small messages. Also it kind of hard to print a book when you release a new edition every 6 months.

[blackaardvark]

I'll second the call for packaged documentation. That would be nice.

A faster boot would be wonderful.

And of course more native big-name 3rd party apps, games even but I know I'm reaching with that wish.

And maybe a program for creating personalised liveCDs so people can spread the good news?

[moixa]

a guest account by default would be nice

[rajeev1204]

Hooray

The first heron thread

:)

[gdp77]

1) Guys, eye candy is good for importing more people in Ubuntu's world. So please stop protesting about it. If u don't want eye candy then don't use compiz fusion. Stay with metacity.

2) Hardy Heron sould be as responsive as possible. Resource management is far better that Windows XP or Vista, but Ubuntu is not as responsive as it could be

3) Ubuntu needs compatibility with mp3 players, cell phones, PDAs, usb tv tuners etc. Everybody uses devices like these and they need to connect these devices with their pc... Guess what : They can connect them with only XP or VIsta.

4) Better printer and Scanner support. (I still can't print with Canon i990 or scan with Canon 4200F)

[Amon_Re]

The same thing i've always wanted, perfect syncing with my PDA & mobile phone.

Heck, easy syncing of calendars/addressbooks/notes between computers running ubuntu too.

[snickers295]

all of the above.
i think ubuntu could use a new default theme because the brown theme really isn't doing it.
gnome control center should be default because browsing through system>preferences is getting frustrating for me.
it is going to be a LTS so stability is impotent.
ease of use (not that ubuntu is easy to use for me but my mom whom has used windows all of her life is about to try linux) .
a new layout for add/remove programs.
i will edit the post if i can think of some more.

[swj]

I don't think we have to worry about stability and features, ubuntu has always delivered.

I would like to see a new theme. The black and orange idea seems interesting. Green would be a another interesting color to work with. I think ubuntu studio and Linux Mint is an example of what the community is capable of...please allow the community to contribute more than just wallpaper.

[GutsyGibbon]

I hope it will be released on April 4th, which is my Birthday.
I don't really expect anything. first I want to see ALL of Gutsy's features.

[snickers295]

I don't think we have to worry about stability and features, ubuntu has always delivered.

I would like to see a new theme. The black and orange idea seems interesting. Green would be a another interesting color to work with. I think ubuntu studio and Linux Mint is an example of what the community is capable of...please allow the community to contribute more than just wallpaper.
black, blue, white sounds nice to me.

[Sunforge]

In order of importance:

1. Eye candy is nice but not productive. Stable eye candy is a must though.
2. Evolution: it works with MS Exchange but needs to be more solid.
3. Gutsy has made big strides with wireless and printer support: I'd like to see that trend continue.
4. Backup and restore. It's the one thing that you get a lot of posts on the forum about: "I've messed up with application x and now I'm in a pickle". It'd be nicer for the average user to have a default application/option that works for them.
5. The new desktop search feature is quite interesting but appears to have caused a few complaints due to suspicions of high processor and disk usage. It'd be nice to tame this one because it's a useful feature.
6. User switching: good idea but needs work for a home user. BTW I really like the notes feature when you've locked a workstation.
7. My holy grail: easier integration with SMB/AD networks. You can read the how to's, edit the files, mangle PAM and get it working but this is more than most people expect to have to do. Crack that one and you've got yourself a winner.
8. There is no 8 but I like even numbers.
9. Or maybe I don't.

[chefweb]

[IDEA]
implementation of
1. HDAPS (harddisk Active Protection System) 2
2. Smapi

[damianvila]

I'd like to see a disk management utility with gparted, smartmontools, etc. integrated.

Better support and management for webcams and tv-tuners.

Mature graphic cards drivers.

More games support.

That's all for now.

[suoko]

easy ISDN cards configuration
I read networkmanager should implement isdn too soon

[steveneddy]

I'd guess:

- more stability, particularly for a LTS release!
- no big changes in terms of eye-candy. polish compiz in terms of the above.
- energy efficiency would be nice - particularly on laptops. maybe something that makes it easy to follow powertop-suggestions automatically when you unplug your laptop.
- a new human theme maybe? I kinda like the brown though...

I agree with everything but the brown. Maybe some forest colors? Some brown but not all brown.

[tkiesel]

And even more importantly, need to work on (i.e. come up with some ideas for giving them the incentive) getting all of these software application vendors that write their software ONLY for M/S based system (please don't tell me about the existing alternative Linux applications which are not currently satisfactory substitutes for these M/S compatible software applications) to write a version of their software applications that will run natively in Ubuntu.

Chicken and egg.

Unless it is reasonably obvious that an appreciable part of their customer base is likely to stop buying their product due to the product being unavailable on the customer's OS of choice, they have no incentive to make a move.

Spending large chunks of money on programming hours to port the application to GNU/Linux must make economic sense before a for-profit company can decide to take that road. To do otherwise would be a betrayal of the shareholders.

To make them see the economic sense, there must be either or both of

a) a large enough customer base on an OS that they don't currently support. i.e. "Please, we want to buy your product!" Case study: Adobe Photoshop
b.) a large enough portion of current customers willing to defect because they are changing their deployed OS. Case study: Every Windows application currently sold if Microsoft doesn't reverese recent PR trends.

The other option is, of course, supporting Wine. If BOTH customers and vendors would support Wine, I think that offers an economic shortcut to broadening the OS compatibility of a Windows-only application. A Windows developer could work meaningfully in tandem with a community/etc Wine developer and quickly iron out bugs in the application's operation under Wine. Broader application availability at a fraction of the cost of on-site porting.

If World of Warcraft can work wonderfully through Wine through sheer developer interest, so can any other application.

:)

As far as goals for 8.04: I want to see further polishing on "ease-of-use" and "just-works" while making everything that Ubuntu is fast and rock-stable. No flashy new stuff in an LTS. Just something that makes people smile and is easy to support for years.

Take care,
-T

[GepettoBR]

Also it kind of hard to print a book when you release a new edition every 6 months.You could release an official book only with the LTS releases. I think that would be a great idea.

Like some people have already said, I think the most important thing to work on for an LTS release is stability. About how that relates to the eye-candy, I think it isn't such a big problem. Gutsy came with a basic version of Compiz-Fusion, and now that it's enabled by default on a major distro, the identification and solution of bugs on C-F will probably pick up a lot of momentum. If the Ubuntu team thought it was stable enough to ship with Gutsy, it'll probably be even safer by the time Hardy comes along.

I also think think that all those nVidia issues need to be adressed, and power management is always good to work on.

[WakkiTabakki]

---> Better support for extra monitors.

I'm using my laptop (GForce 7300Go) with LCD only, external monitor (somtimes as primary and sometime as secondary) an LCD-tv and a normal old tube-tv-monster.

For me, still with Gutsy, its a huge hazzle to get it working... Xorg.conf-fiddle 'til the cows come home, and when it works... don't touch it! And moving from one config to another involves figuring out which of the dozens of xorg.conf-s was working, sudo-copy and reboot... Thats the only situation I long for the ease of windows...


Cheers!
/N

[rustybronco]

Better wired/wireless support, a backup/restore feature to internal-external media as in" the changes you are about to make could corrupt your existing setup, Would you like be able to undo the changes by backing up your system files to an internal-external media?" and a default partition for media (pictures-video-songs) that when it gets near capacity asks if you would like to resize it if possible.

[MikeMLP]

I've actually been pretty well content since edgy. Merge the changes made from upstream, polish up the various guis and scripts, add a few, but that's it. Don't need too much change at this point.

+1 for energy efficiency as a primary focus
I also agree that more documentation is a good thing. I'd love to learn more, but I'm not sure where to go. Perhaps there should be a "required reading" suggestion(s) and subforums for discussion?

Everything else - stability, etc, is already taken as given

[lyceum]

New theme would be nice, better icons, re-define the look.

More integration for propriatary programs, like maybe WINE with a nice GUI (it can stay off Gobuntu)

Better organization for applications, divide up music players (1), video players (2) and programs for editing or creating music and videos (3 and maybe more) same for games, card games, arcade etc...

Better support for phones and PDa's

Better font manager, easier way to load new fonts

I am sure that what ever gets done, it will be great. I ham always impressed by the newest version.

:guitar:

[GhentK]

---> Better support for extra monitors.

I'm using my laptop (GForce 7300Go) with LCD only, external monitor (somtimes as primary and sometime as secondary) an LCD-tv and a normal old tube-tv-monster.

For me, still with Gutsy, its a huge hazzle to get it working... Xorg.conf-fiddle 'til the cows come home, and when it works... don't touch it! And moving from one config to another involves figuring out which of the dozens of xorg.conf-s was working, sudo-copy and reboot... Thats the only situation I long for the ease of windows...
Seconded... except for the fact that I have an ATI Mobility Radeon 9700, but still same principle. :D

Stability, speed, and just-works-out-of-the-box have been mentioned the most because they are the most important -- they are the reason many have switched from Windows. So yes, +1 to improving them.

Also, power-saving (i.e. (greater) control of SpeedStep (and whatever AMD's answer to that is), voltage, and more) is very important; as has been pointed out, many use laptops as their primary systems these days.

[FredB]

I will reply by software versions ;


Latest OpenOffice.org version available when Hardy is released
Firefox 3.0 or at least a RC, if Mozilla Foundation can release it for march 2008.
Gnome 2.22.1
Linux kernel 2.6.25 (or so for march / april 2008)
Gnash to replace fully flash
Java7 :)In term of usability :

As simpler as Gutsy
As light as Gusty if possibleWell, a good Gutsy "son" if I can say so ;)

[desertboy]

Better PDA syncing

[jrharvey]

Originally I wanted to see the flying spaghetti monster in Hardy but now that I think about it I think they should focus more on stability and I could settle for a regular spaghetti monster.

[samuraiCat]

Four things:
1. Fix the long-neglected bugs.
2. Fix the bugs.
3. Better, more intuitive hardware support! Especially for printers.
3. Fix the damn bugs.

[samuraiCat]

Need to get rid of the need to know which, when & how to edit all of these configuration files and have GUI tools for accomplishing the configuration(s) in this O/S.

And even more importantly, need to work on (i.e. come up with some ideas for giving them the incentive) getting all of these software application vendors that write their software ONLY for M/S based system (please don't tell me about the existing alternative Linux applications which are not currently satisfactory substitutes for these M/S compatible software applications) to write a version of their software applications that will run natively in Ubuntu. When this happens, then Ubuntu/Linux will become the DOMINANT O/S on this planet.

Thanks.

Yeah! What wpshooter said!

[jrharvey]

I agree that big name software makers need to start producing for linux and I think in the future they will. I think it may be because of a lack of linux in the workplace. Im not exactly sure but I would think Ubuntu is MOST popular as a home based OS. I do know that as soon as I graduate college I am sooooo using ubuntu linux as my base OS. If I have to I will run emulators for windows apps but I will never connect it to the internet. Putting windows on the internet is like putting a small child in a lion pit.

[samuraiCat]

gdp77 (gross domestic product of 1977?), I cherish you as a peer, but I must emphatically disagree with you on the following points:

1) Guys, eye candy is good for importing more people in Ubuntu's world. So please stop protesting about it. If u don't want eye candy then don't use compiz fusion. Stay with metacity.

First, it is against the very idea of open source to stifle dissent. Please never do that. Second, none of the people I have introduced to it have given a damn about Compiz or Beryl or any visual effects. They want functionality without having to tinker or understand Linux! They want stable document creation and wireless access! If Ubuntu can't give it to them, they go back to paying too much for Vista.

[Lster]

I simply want stability and performance...

[drvista]

1.better laptop power saving (GUI app that does it all in one place and auto power save on battery)
2.boot speeeeeeeed !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! make it fast
3.fix bugs ,fix bugs
4. May be a new app that collect info about ubuntu and test against problems and do fixes by it self automatic ( you know fixes from forums)
5.error coding , so error messages users face get a code that he only serches the web with that code and error message suggest the cause
6.better detection of DPI of x server
7.make ubuntu into 2 cds one is the cd that we have now and other one can only be downloaded by torrent and contains restricted formats like mp3 and codecs that will be fun
8. develop ubuntu movie maker... copy of windows movie maker i guess it will be really fun
9. re organize system preference and administrator into an easy navigation 1 control panel and merge similar tasks in same app like what have been done in gusty by appearance app
10. drag and drop feature is so primitive , when i press on icon it just make the current window on top so i can't drag n'drop like windows xp so plz make drag 'n drop better
11.better hardware support
12.vista like start menu instead on gnome menu but make it better ofcourse but vista all what i need is in one place but make it under categories so we have both tastes
13.redesign os environment and don't stick with gnome default
14.supply gnome defects to make gnome users never look back to kde
15.make a choice of advanced install that compiles kernel from source for the machine so it will be faster but more advanced

[GepettoBR]

Originally I wanted to see the flying spaghetti monster in Hardy but now that I think about it I think they should focus more on stability and I could settle for a regular spaghetti monster.

There's Ubuntu CE and ME, there could be a special Ubuntu FSME, or short Ubuntu PE (Pastafarian Edition)

[jrharvey]

haha yessssss!!!!

[android6011]

1) Networking should work out of the box, hands down, wireless and wired. I know its difficult with restricted drivers, but if something isnt quite right and you dont have networking, its a tough road.

2)I'd also like to see a push towards support for windows applications and virtualization. If Ubuntu could contain very up to date version of wine and virtualbox etc. it would be a lot easier for new users to dump windows all together.

3) As much as I love the eye candy, I would also like to see a bigger emphasis on stability and hardware support. Eye candy is very important so improvements should be made where it will be easy so it doesnt become the main focus

[bethaviv]

First, it is against the very idea of open source to stifle dissent. Please never do that. Second, none of the people I have introduced to it have given a damn about Compiz or Beryl or any visual effects. They want functionality without having to tinker or understand Linux! They want stable document creation and wireless access! If Ubuntu can't give it to them, they go back to paying too much for Vista.

I actually disagree.

Seeing what Linux could do that Windows can't really got me interested (beryl and compiz). As I started learning more about it, I learned about stability, better secuirty and just that it's just better overall.

A lot of people need to 'see' something that looks pleasing or interesting before they're willing to learn more.

If you pass by a clothes shop and it's dimly lit, clothes are on the floor, you're probably not going to shop there. But if you see a store that's lit up, clothes are hanging, everything is organized and looks pleasing, chances are you'll step inside and check it out.

Back on topic...

1) I know 100% driver support is not possible, so I'm not going to ask for it, but I think it's up to the community to pressure these companies to start working with Linux.

2) Now that we have eye-candy implementation out of the way, smoothing it out and polishing it up would be a nice to help Hardy run better. Maybe add ccsm to make tinkering with the effects easier for people who don't know where to look.

3) Keeping all the built in programs/kernels/drivers as up to date as possible (don't need to mention this since Feisty and Gutsy -the only two ubuntu distros i've used- have already proven to do this, you guys are on a roll!)

4) Since there are issues with video drivers, maybe have a way for the installer to see which video card you have and either;
a) Install it automatically
b) Let the user decide (with a "Use Recommended" option).

5) Better MP3 player and cell phone support. I have a Zune and it pains me everytime I have to synch up the device, I'd like to be able to use Ubuntu for everything.

That's all I can think of for now...

[Teneul]

Heh I enjoy the eye candy and use it while being productive but I have to say your analogy is wrong, it is more like having the clothes dancing on the mannequins and the light bulbs a different color in each socket with black lights in the changing rooms ^^

[bethaviv]

Heh I enjoy the eye candy and use it while being productive but I have to say your analogy is wrong, it is more like having the clothes dancing on the mannequins and the light bulbs a different color in each socket with black lights in the changing rooms ^^

True enough, but I would still prefer the store with the dancing mannequins =)

[vapore0n]

my want list:

More and Better hardware support.

Keep up with the eye candy - default theme compares to WinNT.

Be more user friendly - it is still Linux in a fancy shell. This does not attract the average user.

Replace nautilus with something useful

Speed boot-up and hibernation boot

More gaming support - people dont fully switch because of this

Clean up or organize synaptic - everything starts with a k or g, cant find anything unless you know what you are looking for.

[smartboyathome]

I would say that more focus on bugs needs to be done. The theme will stay, as it is WAY better than overused BLUE. >.< Besides, it is all cosmetics. Also, impliment Gobohide!

[snickers295]

Four things:
1. Fix the long-neglected bugs.
2. Fix the bugs.
3. Better, more intuitive hardware support! Especially for printers.
3. Fix the **** bugs.
Yes Hardy Will Be A LTS Release So They Should Work On Bugs a Little More

[snickers295]

I would say that more focus on bugs needs to be done. The theme will stay, as it is WAY better than overused BLUE. >.< Besides, it is all cosmetics. Also, impliment Gobohide!
the brown theme reminds me of poo...

[smartboyathome]

Have you been using Feisty? I know Gutsy didn't choose the best choice for wallpapers (they were all dark brown), but Feisty had ORANGES, which imo isn't the color of poo

[MacUntu]

I'm expecting a conservative version, no new big features. Package updates, increased stability, increased hardware support, UI polishing - in short: a fixing all the problems we will see during the next months with Gutsy. As soon as Hardy gets the 2.6.23 kernel, I will switch... :)

[rybu]

Since this version is largely about stability, why not do a substantial upgrade to the systems that allow users to report bugs?

apport and hwdb-gui could use a facelift.

I'd like to see hwdb-gui report on more features of Ubuntu. Right now it just checks keyboard, audio, video, networking. It should ultimately report on all the essential features of Ubuntu. Things to add: does usplash work. Does the ubuntu-splashscreen show up. Does feature X Y and Z of Compiz work. Is your 2nd display working (if you have one), does Compiz work on it, too? Do all your firefox plugins work properly?

Basically, all the "essential" things that can fail but in failing do not already produce bug reports via apport.

[hakimaki]

My main concern is to speed it up a bit. The last few releases have been getting heavier and heavier (even without the eyecandy)

Also, maybe a laptop geared version or option?

[snickers295]

My main concern is to speed it up a bit. The last few releases have been getting heavier and heavier (even without the eyecandy)

Also, maybe a laptop geared version or option?
your right it is kinda slow.
p.s.
in your avatar your sitting at a ball game, who was playing?:)

[johann_p]

Enough with the eye candy.

Drivers, drivers, drivers, drivers ...

Make it still easier for companies to provide drivers, even closed source ones. Finally make all those devices work with Ubuntu that still do not work or do not fully work: my GPS device, remote control of my digital camera, my mobile phone, my multifunction printer/scanner/fax machine, my TV card, ...
Make it still easier to configure devices -- I often get dozens of choices for which driver to use for a printer or my monitor and there is nothing that tells me why I should prefer one over the other.

And finally: give me error and informational messages when something does NOT work. Ubuntu often just silently fails and it is very hard to figure out what is going on (e.g. with WLAN).

[snickers295]

Enough with the eye candy.

Drivers, drivers, drivers, drivers ...

Make it still easier for companies to provide drivers, even closed source ones. Finally make all those devices work with Ubuntu that still do not work or do not fully work: my GPS device, remote control of my digital camera, my mobile phone, my multifunction printer/scanner/fax machine, my TV card, ...
Make it still easier to configure devices -- I often get dozens of choices for which driver to use for a printer or my monitor and there is nothing that tells me why I should prefer one over the other.

And finally: give me error and informational messages when something does NOT work. Ubuntu often just silently fails and it is very hard to figure out what is going on (e.g. with WLAN).
you are right.
i guess i don't really care about the impotent stuff because everything for me worked out of the box.

[smartboyathome]

My main concern is to speed it up a bit. The last few releases have been getting heavier and heavier (even without the eyecandy)

Also, maybe a laptop geared version or option?

I would say Xubuntu's role is coming into play now more than ever as it is becoming one of the best options for comptuers with low memory. If you have low memory, I would say focus on that.

[sasquatch74]

I would second, or third, the value of energy efficiency. If Ubuntu could make your computer a lean, green, operating machine - it could go a long way with the rising energy conscious generation.

[Xanatos Craven]

Compiz Fusion by default in Kubuntu... or at least fix all the bugs and other inconsistencies in compiz-kde. <.< I know full well that 8.10 (or Hardy+1) will have KDE4's built-in compositor, but that's a whole year from now.

[GepettoBR]

Everyone mentions the system getting bloated over the last releases but my Feisty LiveCD runs faster than my Harddrive install of XP. Isn't this more a matter of tweaking and configuring your system rather than stripping it down from the install?

8. develop ubuntu movie maker... copy of windows movie maker i guess it will be really fun

Indeed, Linux lacks a good video editing system (Adobe Premiere and AfterEffects, VirtualDub and AviSynth are my only ties to Windows as of now). However, I don't think copying the buggy, flawed and excessively simplified Windows Movie Maker would bring us anything good. Whenever I see that ugly GUI I feel like it's a software designed for eight-year-olds and it insults my intelligence. Celluloid (http://celluloid.sourceforge.net/About.html) is worth looking into, though. It's FOSS, multi-platform and based on AviSynth, a very powerful video manipulation technology. No useable versions have been compiled yet, but the project looks very promising.

[hardyn]

some work on improved battery management.

enable wireless power saving modes with drivers that support them.
enable laptop-mode when installation on a laptop is detected.
perhaps gui the above?

maybe as a community we could lean on ATI, Nvidia, Intel, Neuvous to implement GPU throttling like they do with in the windows drivers.

[FredB]

My main concern is to speed it up a bit. The last few releases have been getting heavier and heavier (even without the eyecandy)

Also, maybe a laptop geared version or option?

Heavier and heavier ? 2 Gb for Edgy, 2.2 Gb for Feisty. Maybe 2.5 for Gutsy.

Really heavier ?

[snickers295]

Everyone mentions the system getting bloated over the last releases but my Feisty LiveCD runs faster than my Harddrive install of XP. Isn't this more a matter of tweaking and configuring your system rather than stripping it down from the install?



Indeed, Linux lacks a good video editing system (Adobe Premiere and AfterEffects, VirtualDub and AviSynth are my only ties to Windows as of now). However, I don't think copying the buggy, flawed and excessively simplified Windows Movie Maker would bring us anything good. Whenever I see that ugly GUI I feel like it's a software designed for eight-year-olds and it insults my intelligence. Celluloid (http://celluloid.sourceforge.net/About.html) is worth looking into, though. It's FOSS, multi-platform and based on AviSynth, a very powerful video manipulation technology. No useable versions have been compiled yet, but the project looks very promising.
if your looking for a video editor i'm pretty sure Ubuntu Studio (http://ubuntustudio.org) Has A lot of stuff like that

[Flandry]

Between this (http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=878) and the follow-up test that showed both current versions of windows blowing Ubuntu away when it comes to power consumption, i would say that better optimization of power management is in order.

Battery drain is priority one for me on my laptop. It doesn't matter how spiffy an OS is, if it's going to give me 15 minutes less battery life, i'll stay away.

Does anyone have any idea why Gibbon fared so poorly?

[snickers295]

Between this (http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=878) and the follow-up test that showed both current versions of windows blowing Ubuntu away when it comes to power consumption, i would say that better optimization of power management is in order.

Battery drain is priority one for me on my laptop. It doesn't matter how spiffy an OS is, if it's going to give me 15 minutes less battery life, i'll stay away.

Does anyone have any idea why Gibbon fared so poorly?
gibbon was supposed to be more power efficient then the others.
well computers are made for windows, linux is made for computers so us linux users will have to sacrifice some things to get computers made for linux someday...

[hardyn]

Between this (http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=878) and the follow-up test that showed both current versions of windows blowing Ubuntu away when it comes to power consumption, i would say that better optimization of power management is in order.

Battery drain is priority one for me on my laptop. It doesn't matter how spiffy an OS is, if it's going to give me 15 minutes less battery life, i'll stay away.

Does anyone have any idea why Gibbon fared so poorly?

right out of the box ubuntu does nothing for power management, with the exception of CPU throttling.

'laptop mode' may be enabled manually, but it is a little convoluted.
power saving modes are that are available with certain wireless drivers (ipw2200) are difficult to employ, even manually.
there is no GPU throttling provided my the major GPU vendors. (and its worse with the open source drivers)

there is no major reason, but there are bunch of little reasons.

[Linducker]

Eh!

Do you think ubuntu should include a more creamy theme.

[Mr. Dude]

Well if they want to make it as easy as they can, they could try something like SUSE's YaST, but better. And maybe Framebuffer support like Gentoo, so it is pretty =]

Hopefully, by the time it comes out, ATi etc drivers will be much improved so we'll all have better performance and easier setup.

New theme would be nice, something like backgrounds for panel and kicker, so it doesn't look as bland.

Maybe altering the installer to ask the user which DE they would like to install, if they are using the NET installer, or DVD.

[snickers295]

Well if they want to make it as easy as they can, they could try something like SUSE's YaST, but better. And maybe Framebuffer support like Gentoo, so it is pretty =]

Hopefully, by the time it comes out, ATi etc drivers will be much improved so we'll all have better performance and easier setup.

New theme would be nice, something like backgrounds for panel and kicker, so it doesn't look as bland.

Maybe altering the installer to ask the user which DE they would like to install, if they are using the NET installer, or DVD.
you are right they should work on gnome control center and get it to work like Yast does on suse and panel does need a makeover.
i would like to be able to choose from gnome and kde at setup because i have not seen kde in a long time:)

[Zdravko]

I simply want stability and performance...

Nice thought.
Expectations: I expect this to be the Ubuntu version that I will use in 2008.

and ideas for Hardy Heron? Do it slowly but strongly.

What should be worked on first? Performance! It must fit in a 700MB CD and it must run perfectly smoothly on a 256MB RAM machine.
Don't even dare to change graphic stuff. It is already bloated with useless animations and 3d effects! I want a working OS, not a singing one!

[Flandry]

right out of the box ubuntu does nothing for power management, with the exception of CPU throttling.

'laptop mode' may be enabled manually, but it is a little convoluted.
power saving modes are that are available with certain wireless drivers (ipw2200) are difficult to employ, even manually.
there is no GPU throttling provided my the major GPU vendors. (and its worse with the open source drivers)

there is no major reason, but there are bunch of little reasons.

I read that a new tickless standby mode was part of the kernel in this release, and that was expected to reduce power consumption. The bit about wireless drivers is certainly a viable explanation for some of the difference. GPU throttling is marginal even under windows for me, sadly.

well computers are made for windows, linux is made for computers so us linux users will have to sacrifice some things to get computers made for linux someday...

I don't think that's a valid excuse. :P With the exception of some peripherals and gadgets like the wireless mentioned above, power saving features shouldn't be any less possible with linux.

I would be interested in seeing those tests done after enabling laptop mode. I'll suggest that.

[snick525]

In order of importance:

1. Eye candy is nice but not productive. Stable eye candy is a must though.
2. Evolution: it works with MS Exchange but needs to be more solid.
3. Gutsy has made big strides with wireless and printer support: I'd like to see that trend continue.
4. Backup and restore. It's the one thing that you get a lot of posts on the forum about: "I've messed up with application x and now I'm in a pickle". It'd be nicer for the average user to have a default application/option that works for them.
5. The new desktop search feature is quite interesting but appears to have caused a few complaints due to suspicions of high processor and disk usage. It'd be nice to tame this one because it's a useful feature.
7. My holy grail: easier integration with SMB/AD networks. You can read the how to's, edit the files, mangle PAM and get it working but this is more than most people expect to have to do. Crack that one and you've got yourself a winner.



I agree with all of these but I would especially love to see better SMB integration.

[phision]

* SMB working better

* Something better than Nautilus

[Vadi]

I'd like to see an envy-like thing for wireless.

In my experience, wireless got worse. Yes, odd, dumb, but it was bad in fiesty and got worse here. And a laptop with wireless that ubuntu can't work with = non-ubuntu laptop.

Thankfully I managed to fix my problem, but this still means a lot of non-techincal, and not so interested yet people will be put off.

Otherwise, Ubuntu does everything great already. Well, Fiesty already did too..

[Peterix]

I would like to see a nice new icon chooser for nautilus/gnome instead of the default file open dialog. Hunting for the pixmaps folder isn't really great.

[mathiraj]

A GUI tool for configuring as NIS/Kerberos client (like fedora's authconfig) please..............

A gui tool for configuring sound

A gui mount tool like http://www.simonzone.com/software/guidance/mountconfig-1.png

[GepettoBR]

if your looking for a video editor i'm pretty sure Ubuntu Studio (http://ubuntustudio.org) Has A lot of stuff like that

It does, and compared to iMovie and Windows Movie Maker some of them are really good. Unfortunately, when put up against the top commercial software for Windows and MAC, like Adobe Premiere and Sony Vegas, they lose really bad in terms of power and options.

When Celluloid comes out, judging by it's being based on the very lightweight-yet-versatile AviSynth, it may be eligible for inclusion in a Linux distro install, but for the time being, Kino (http://www.kinodv.org/) or Cinelerra (http://cinelerra.org/) would fill the gap just fine.

[ButteBlues]

I want to see PolicyKit and PackageKit integrated fully.

[Mr. Picklesworth]

Wow, Gepetto, Celluloid (celluloid.sourceforge.net/) looks awesome! Too bad it's a MacOS app, though. (Or has that changed?)
Ah well, we may see a GNOME port within our lifetimes. The magic wand tool sounds really clever, and this is apparently close to release. It's supposed to coincide with Leopard, and their web site has recently changed to show "Nothing to see here", so it can't be far off..


Sorry, this is kind of an insane mega-post, but here are some of the random thoughts I have been writing up in Tomboy:

My wish list for Ubuntu features within the next 50 years. I realize this is far more than Hardy Heron could pack in, so I'm only really wishing for an eighth of these within the next 6 months. If any more, I will be ecstatic. If any less, I will not be too upset. Actual fixes deserve more attention for this kind of release. Consider this food for thought; maybe someone can make sense of them and think of more manageable chunks for these that can be worked towards:

First-run welcome / tutorial / basic user preferences! The perfect addition to any LTS release :)
I'm slowly working on this myself, and should have it presentable in a month. (The thought was that, if it hasn't been done yet, something fancy, scriptable and extensible must be expected; thus, I went a bit overboard). One cool feature I have living so far is a sort of conversation tree, where the user is shown certain features based on little forms he fills out. Many things the user does there do stay, so I'm taking the opportunity to encourage customization; it is going to show the Appearance preferences in some cases, and when that happens, people can change their background and theme to whatever they want, really easily.
I should probably put up a blueprint...

Drop Nautilus' role as the desktop background window. I have never understood what arbitrary thinking has this happening in desktop environments, but it is wrong. The file manager should be an interface that goes where you tell it to go, so it should indeed be able to go on the desktop. However, the desktop background itself should, by default, be handled by a different program entirely. I'm not thinking it should do much other than integrate with the file manager, mind. Baby steps, here...
The main goal would just be to trim down and straighten up the uses of Nautilus.

Compositing-aware gksudo, for the fading background effect.

Tracker tags / Nautilus emblems integration. Would take some fiddling, since Tracker's tags are very open-ended compared to regular tagging systems. May have to be just a one-way relationship; Nautilus' Emblems could be redone to fit Tracker.

Packages in repositories holding example content and document templates to fit certain roles. User Templates directory should also contain a symlink to a global Templates directory, to accomodate this.

Tracker (if it remains default) used as the search engine for every officially included search box. This would most importantly include Help & Support, gnome-app-install and Synaptic. Complex (user-submitted?) tags for packages in gnome-app-install, allowing for more advanced searches such as "image editor with CMYK".
Deskbar searches should also pull these up. (Tracker could index these various global resources just like everything else).

Nicer looking, Ubuntu-style Help & Support theme.

Evolution split into a bunch of smaller applications. (Not an Ubuntu feature, but it is much much much needed; the thing doesn't do much integration between its components, so nobody will miss much).

Categories in Gnome-app-install should precisely mirror how applications appear in the main menu. I'm not well versed on deb packages yet, but I believe they work with the .desktop entry standard, right?

Folding@Home in the repositories!

Really Easy setup of home servers and advanced home networks. (Maybe Hardy+1, since it's a really Insane feature :P). People these days go through computers like candy. It's crazy! We geeks know how useful an 8 year old clunker with Ubuntu can be, but they don't. Let's make it easy for them to find out, by offering an easy and rewarding infrastructure such that one can set up all kinds of services on their home networks, for example file synchronization servers and safe, crash-proof centralized data storage. Have it equally easy to get those into secure Internet-facing services, visible to friends and family (with the appropriate warnings). The gain is that people get use out of their old computers instead of throwing them out, which is a very wasteful practice. The piles of wasted computer equipment is going to get some media attention soon, so it would be cool to have Ubuntu as the answer...
Sharing local data with friends and family is a neat way to escape the insane centralization (with a billion centers) of social networking stuff. Think of this like a phone number; with a system that is sufficiently secure, trusted parties can "call you" via computers and IP addresses to access globally shared data and send messages via a networking infrastructure. It's really not much harder than a phone number. (Dynamic IPs get in the way, but if the trusted computers keep in touch, it's fine. That could be done by a machine pinging trusted ones when its IP changes, and via centralized services such as email). That would need an iron-clad security system, mind...

There is a really cool thing where a local machine can be accessed by hostname.local; make this known! For example, where host name is set when Ubuntu is installed, visibly append ".local".

Really easy local network / local machine collaboration features (also potentially Internet-facing?):
-Symlinks to global directories for things such as high scores in games!
-Simple data sharing via the right-click menu.
-Portable users. (Possible for the OS to know that Joe on foo-desktop is the same guy as User on joe-desktop). Leads to easy, secure synchronization and collaboration features.
-LibNotify over the network, assuming a user recieving a notification on one machine is the same as on another.
-User messaging should not just be in gnome-screensaver, but across the desktop and the network. Many programs should offer to send messages to other users; for example, gksudo could detect when a user does not have sudo privileges and instead of just giving up, offer to ask an administrator to run something for the user. (Similarly, Gnome-app-install could offer to send a message to an administrator, asking to install a particular package).
Evolution mail / calendars / tasks across users; built in lightweight groupware server. When a user is created, his contact info appears in Evolution. Evolution should be able to send messages to users via a local messaging infrastructure.

[EricMattessich]

I'm quite new to Ubuntu but one thing I have noticed is that it doesn't have the anywhere near the program base to complete with windows. That also includes drivers.... getting programs development companies to produce Linux versions of there software is top on my list. Once you have that its like a huge chain reaction, word will get out, more developers will come to help with the cause and Ubuntu will progress for the better for everyone.... and I also second what Mr Picklesworth is saying... centralized information servers is the way of the future, and Ubuntu should be on the forefront....

[vishnumrao]

I would like to see Avant Windo Manager, installed by default on Hardy Heron. I have it installed on my Gutsy machine. My friends were pretty impressed by the eye candy especially by Avant, something they thought existed only in the mac world. Now both my friends want to try Gutsy. I believe better eye candy will lure people to try linux. Many might go back to windows but there will certainly be some converts.

Here is my suggestion: Install Avant Window Navigator. https://launchpad.net/awn

[Spenser_Gilliland]

Honestly, I know its horrible but in order to gain momentum, I think the Online Desktop should be integrated with Facebook. I have to many friends that use this to communicate. If we produce the premier desktop for use with Social Networking. We will have done something BIG. This is one of thoose things that would be a Killer App. I honestly think sometimes as Linux Nuts we think to small focusing on our current issues instead of looking into the future. The future is Social Networking, let's beat everyone else to the punch.

From a geek point of view I really want to see Avahi, PulseAudio, and Xorg continue there excellent advances. I'd also like the radeon/radeonHD driver support my ATI 200m in 3D.

[unixhead]

Fix bugs, add Ruby on Rails and Django configurations to server versions currently offered (like mail server, etc). Support more hardware, fix problems with ******* dual-head on widescreens.

And *do not* put new (less than a week; KDE 3.5.8 this time) packages to the repo 2 days before LTS release. Test them a little bit, Ubuntu developers, people are sick and tired of wrestling damn Ubuntu bugs that are still there even after more than 10 submissings to Launchpad.

And can you hear me alright, Ubuntu developers? Fix headphones problem with Intel HDA soundcards, this time you forgot to compile the kernel with modules that Feisty had (and headphones worked perfectly fine out of the box).

And did I say that Ubuntu is damn buggy? Hardy is a good mark to turn things around. Go for it.

[drvista]

And can you hear me alright, Ubuntu developers? Fix headphones problem with Intel HDA soundcards, this time you forgot to compile the kernel with modules that Feisty had (and headphones worked perfectly fine out of the box).
i agree with u totally as i had to install windows only to be able to use my headphone after people on irc channel didn't help me at all

[w3stfa11]

Get the new AMD drivers in there and test them well!

Firefox 3.0

Integrated support for ODF

new theme, blue and black like ubuntu studio
http://blog.sckyzo.com/wp-content/screenshot-desktop.png

[adamorjames]

i agree with u totally as i had to install windows only to be able to use my headphone after people on irc channel didn't help me at all

I just used a kernel that was older, I think from Tribe 5. I didn't have a headphone problem though. I had a soft sound problem. Yeah, I have HDA Intel. It was kernel 2.6.22.10 which i think was from Tribe 5, that worked for me.

[dpar]

The ability to remaster your install.

[jsmidt]

1. Stabilize Compiz and X.org.

2. Improve Power Management.

3. Improve networking and wireless.

4. Improve hardware support.

5. Make this LTS *extra* stable all around.

6. Increase speed and reduce bloat as much as possible.

[GoHabsGo]

Kudos for Gutsy !!!!

1 - Bugs fixing !
2 - Power Saving
3 - Performance
4 - GUI for mouse buttons configuration.... please....
5 - Better VPN support
6 - Avant Window Navigator included by default (It impresses people )

[JooSpocks]

It would be immensly helpful if there was more help documentation included with the OS that is relatively easy to find and sift through for a novice user. Wine out of the box would be cool, though if Ubuntu is to stay as a single CD with LiveCD function, I imagine it becomes pretty tough to start throwing more and more packages onto that iso.

I personally would like to see more softmodem support out of the box (or at least the scanModem utility) but I understand the Ubuntu team's viewpoint on non-open software and drivers.

[elanthis]

But my friend with 256M has to use the text installer because the LiveCD won't boot up on his system.

The LiveCD installer was the stupidest idea of all for Ubuntu. I have trouble getting that piece of crap to boot and successfully finish installing on old and new machines alike. Sure, having an installer in the LiveCD is neat and all, but the default installer that is recommended to new users should be one that actually freaking works, like the old pre-LiveCD installer.

How many potential users does Ubuntu miss out on because someone tries the LiveCD and never gets the stupid thing to boot? 99% of people aren't going to file a bug report - they're jsut going to write it off as crap and not look back. Especially first-time Linux users.

Aside from its general flakiness, the fact that it is so slow and needs so much extra memory than a regular install is just more reason that the LiveCD installer should be either scrapped or least become the new "alternative" installer while something more traditional but stable is used.

I can install some other Linux or BSD distros in less time than it takes for the LiveCD to boot on some of the machines I have here. Fast machines with lots of RAM, at that.

The LiveCD itself really isn't even that useful. I mean, why the hell is Evolution on the LiveCD? It takes way too much configuration (which can't be saved) and is way too resource intensive. With the pervasiveness of web mail, it just isn't that useful on a LiveCD at all. Really, having anything more than a terminal and a web browser is just rather pointless in a LiveCD environment. And pulling the "but people want to try out all parts of Ubuntu" line makes no sense - anyone who is using the LiveCD experience to judge Ubuntu or Linux in general is going to come away with a sour taste in their mouth that a real install wouldn't give them.

if Ubuntu is really that interested in letting non-Linux users try out Linux, they'd get WAY better mileage out of shipping an Open Source VM + a VM image (like VirtualBox) with a .EXE installer. The test system would run faster, and the user could use his real apps while trying to installer Ubuntu using the flaky hangy/crashy installer codebase Canonical has shipped for the last three releases.

Ubuntu might be the best Linux I've had on my machine in a long time, but it's useless to new users if they can't get the damn thing installed.

[gruvsyco]

some possibilities:

for the power conserving guys:
http://gfreqlet.sourceforge.net/

for wireless (maybe):
http://wicd.sourceforge.net/

[SjRaptor]

I'm sorry if these have been covered, (i haven't gotten around to testing Gibbon)

* Get hibernate working
* Better power management for laptops and power savings
* Increased security, privilege separation. Vista is able to run programs under different user accounts/roles. Give me an easy way to do that, (not referring to sudo)
* Give me the option to choose what programs I want during OS installation. After installing the OS, I spend quite a bit of time removing useless programs and games I never use. I prefer using the shell over any interfaced tool, so maybe specify in the description/name whether it's got a gui or not.

* Lastly, help fix my problem (in my sig??) -- might also be a problem with ATI, but ahhhh. it drives me nuts

[paulle]

mouse-configuration-GUI

grub2

[jarlath]

The most critical problem I've ever had with Ubuntu (and it's a rare event) is that an update corrupts my system in some way. This has only been an issue for me with kernel and graphics related updates.

I'd like to have an update 'rollback' facility to let me return to my previous state. I'm guessing that the old packages could be kept from the last update and make this rollback application aware of how to remove the latest updates and reinstall the old packages.

Aside from that, I'd like to have more stability.

[loell]

The most critical problem I've ever had with Ubuntu (and it's a rare event) is that an update corrupts my system in some way. This has only been an issue for me with kernel and graphics related updates.

I'd like to have an update 'rollback' facility to let me return to my previous state. I'm guessing that the old packages could be kept from the last update and make this rollback application aware of how to remove the latest updates and reinstall the old packages.

Aside from that, I'd like to have more stability.

i second :) , this is the advantage of small distro communities, where there is less update or none at all.

[frabcus]

Find out the top 10 laptops used by Ubuntu users.

Fix ALL the bugs for ALL the hardware on ALL of those laptops. Everything should work - wireless, external monitors, card readers, built in cameras, suspend, hibernate. Everything.

If a laptop proves too hard because of too many absent or broken proprietary drivers, then ditch it and pick the next one in the list of popularity.

Have a page on ubuntu.com which shows all these laptops for which Ubuntu "just works", and have links to buy them from manufacturers (where possible with commision to Canonical). Do not worry about preinstall, it doesn't matter. What matters is certification that the hardware "just works".

Promote "it just works laptops" on the front page of ubuntu.com

[DFreeze]

Ok, I'll bite. Here's my list of wannahaves:

- fix not working touchpad (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.22/+bug/131362) on my laptop
- fix HDA sound problem (bugs a lot of laptops, with no sound or low volume sound)
- more integration of systemsettings (like the appearance item in Gutsy)
- stabilise the heck out of the code
- visuals and sound need a serious overhaul
- suggest to install Wine, the moment someone clicks a .exe (or similar)
- ...

[Zdravko]

I'm quite new to Ubuntu but one thing I have noticed is that it doesn't have the anywhere near the program base to complete with windows. That also includes drivers.... getting programs development companies to produce Linux versions of there software is top on my list. Once you have that its like a huge chain reaction, word will get out, more developers will come to help with the cause and Ubuntu will progress for the better for everyone.... and I also second what Mr Picklesworth is saying... centralized information servers is the way of the future, and Ubuntu should be on the forefront....
Yes, drivers and commercial applications should run on Ubuntu too!

Fix bugs, add Ruby on Rails and Django configurations to server versions currently offered (like mail server, etc). Support more hardware, fix problems with ******* dual-head on widescreens.

And *do not* put new (less than a week; KDE 3.5.8 this time) packages to the repo 2 days before LTS release. Test them a little bit, Ubuntu developers, people are sick and tired of wrestling damn Ubuntu bugs that are still there even after more than 10 submissings to Launchpad.

And can you hear me alright, Ubuntu developers? Fix headphones problem with Intel HDA soundcards, this time you forgot to compile the kernel with modules that Feisty had (and headphones worked perfectly fine out of the box).

And did I say that Ubuntu is damn buggy? Hardy is a good mark to turn things around. Go for it.

Yes, I second that!

Get the new AMD drivers in there and test them well!

Firefox 3.0

Integrated support for ODF

new theme, blue and black like ubuntu studio
http://blog.sckyzo.com/wp-content/screenshot-desktop.png
Firefox 3 should and must be in Hardy Heron!

1. Stabilize Compiz and X.org.

2. Improve Power Management.

3. Improve networking and wireless.

4. Improve hardware support.

5. Make this LTS *extra* stable all around.

6. Increase speed and reduce bloat as much as possible.

Yes, I adore the 6th point!

The LiveCD installer was the stupidest idea of all for Ubuntu. I have trouble getting that piece of crap to boot and successfully finish installing on old and new machines alike. Sure, having an installer in the LiveCD is neat and all, but the default installer that is recommended to new users should be one that actually freaking works, like the old pre-LiveCD installer.

How many potential users does Ubuntu miss out on because someone tries the LiveCD and never gets the stupid thing to boot? 99% of people aren't going to file a bug report - they're jsut going to write it off as crap and not look back. Especially first-time Linux users.

Aside from its general flakiness, the fact that it is so slow and needs so much extra memory than a regular install is just more reason that the LiveCD installer should be either scrapped or least become the new "alternative" installer while something more traditional but stable is used.

I can install some other Linux or BSD distros in less time than it takes for the LiveCD to boot on some of the machines I have here. Fast machines with lots of RAM, at that.

The LiveCD itself really isn't even that useful. I mean, why the hell is Evolution on the LiveCD? It takes way too much configuration (which can't be saved) and is way too resource intensive. With the pervasiveness of web mail, it just isn't that useful on a LiveCD at all. Really, having anything more than a terminal and a web browser is just rather pointless in a LiveCD environment. And pulling the "but people want to try out all parts of Ubuntu" line makes no sense - anyone who is using the LiveCD experience to judge Ubuntu or Linux in general is going to come away with a sour taste in their mouth that a real install wouldn't give them.

if Ubuntu is really that interested in letting non-Linux users try out Linux, they'd get WAY better mileage out of shipping an Open Source VM + a VM image (like VirtualBox) with a .EXE installer. The test system would run faster, and the user could use his real apps while trying to installer Ubuntu using the flaky hangy/crashy installer codebase Canonical has shipped for the last three releases.

Ubuntu might be the best Linux I've had on my machine in a long time, but it's useless to new users if they can't get the damn thing installed.

Good idea! Get rid of the LiveCD! Viva la Alternative!

I'm sorry if these have been covered, (i haven't gotten around to testing Gibbon)

* Get hibernate working
* Better power management for laptops and power savings
* Increased security, privilege separation. Vista is able to run programs under different user accounts/roles. Give me an easy way to do that, (not referring to sudo)
* Give me the option to choose what programs I want during OS installation. After installing the OS, I spend quite a bit of time removing useless programs and games I never use. I prefer using the shell over any interfaced tool, so maybe specify in the description/name whether it's got a gui or not.

* Lastly, help fix my problem (in my sig??) -- might also be a problem with ATI, but ahhhh. it drives me nuts

Yes, well said.

mouse-configuration-GUI

grub2
No more GUI improvements! I am sick of this bloat!

Find out the top 10 laptops used by Ubuntu users.

Fix ALL the bugs for ALL the hardware on ALL of those laptops. Everything should work - wireless, external monitors, card readers, built in cameras, suspend, hibernate. Everything.

If a laptop proves too hard because of too many absent or broken proprietary drivers, then ditch it and pick the next one in the list of popularity.

Have a page on ubuntu.com which shows all these laptops for which Ubuntu "just works", and have links to buy them from manufacturers (where possible with commision to Canonical). Do not worry about preinstall, it doesn't matter. What matters is certification that the hardware "just works".

Promote "it just works laptops" on the front page of ubuntu.com

I second that!

[6205]

For 8.04 LTS please replace that stupid Rhythmbox with Banshee Music Player with better internet radios and great iPod support. Replace too primitive gnome-bt-download with Deluge Torrent, replace default, very basic CD burning with GnomeBaker app and if possible speed up that damn slow F-Spot photo manager.Maybe Nautilus should be replaced with speedy Thunar and most important - please focus more on speed, stability and bugfixing...eventualy postpone release to 8.06 to ensure superior quality witch will blown away Vista SP1.

Of course continue to improve migration assistant, easy codec instalation and restricted drivers manager and maybe including BUM and SUM managers could be very usefull...Optional advanced installation with detailed package selection would be nice and maybe a DVD version with all laguage packs should be available too, but that is notting really wanted...But i don't need GNOME 2.22.0 for Herdy, better would be 2.20.3, maybe with newest Evelotion, even if i personally use Thunderbird. Also Firefox 3.0 propably should be included and hopefully Compiz at last in 0.8 stable version...

In artwork should be also made some changes >>>

Current folder icons are ugly, i would rather preffer something like KDE 4 Oxygen icons in orange colors + new Human icons for Music, Photos and Videos folders.
Also please clean up and remove all, really ALL those UGLY old gtk icons and replace them all with tangoized, tangerine or Human versions - this things are killing me :-) and Evolution with new tangoized GNOME icons with old GTK icons looks very very inconsistent...and trash icon sucks :( Maybe new metacity shoud be made, something like new GNOME 2.20 "gummy" theme in orange-brown colors, with silver-metallic trash, something like first trash icon in Dapper icon suggestions and also progress bar and some other elements of Ubuntulooks are too much orange...and trash icon sucks :(

Maybe it sounds like too much criticism, but those are my personal suggestions and Ubuntu is anyway the best linux distro and i am sure that 8.04 will be excellent...

[Zdravko]

OMG! There are still people out there willing GUI stuff. But I want only stability and security.

[loell]

OMG! There are still people out there willing GUI stuff. But I want only stability and security.

you seem to have a misconception that more gui is more fat and bloat, while there is little truth to that, it is usually more of code inefficiency of the underlying desktop environment and the GUI toolkit,

for more information on the linux bloating desktops, watch , Desktop on a Diet (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2856531066533504890&q=desktop+diet&total=9&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1)

[Zdravko]

Nope. You are the one who misunderstands me. I am a software programmer and I can assure you that the more graphics you put in an application the more resources it needs!

[loell]

i am kiddie script coder, and i can tell you that gtk can use a fairly small amount of memory with those icon graphics that you are talking about.

[Zdravko]

Then try to run this application on my computer with only 256mb of RAM!!!

[loell]

i already did that a long time ago ;)

and i found out, the hard way, that it was never about graphics per se , and that its more of the UI toolkits that the desktop environments it uses.

[Zdravko]

Yes, exactly. These nasty UI toolkits!

[snickers295]

i agree that all of these fancy graphic stuff like compiz and all of these GUIs are a waste of space but is it as bad as windows vista?
i think everyone likes at least a little eyecandy right?
i like some eyecandy but not more then i use like combiz or beryl. because if you want awesome graphics go watch a 3d movie or buy vista for $300.00.

[Zdravko]

I don't like eyecandy.
Soon Ubuntu will look like Vista!

[nystire]

Doubtful that it will look like Vista. However, new users need the "flashy" graphics. Most of them are coming from Windows and as such they are scared senseless of the command line. If we want more people to start using Linux as their main OS then we need the graphics. It's as simple as that.

[Zdravko]

Not really. With your logic Ubuntu will become the new Vista.
New user must learn to use their PCs for work, not just for fun. Command line? I've hardly ever used it in the past few years. We don't want more people, but the best OS!

[loell]

yet if you also want people to stay, you must also make it lite.
truly, making it fancy and flashy while making it lightweight as a feather, is a very hard thing to do, very hard almost, but possible.

[Zdravko]

loell (http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=44017), then what are you waiting for? Start coding! We have only 6 months to go.

[nystire]

The problem being that most users don't acually "work" on their computers. They use them for what you call fun: games, web-surfing and email.

You have your ideas as to what Ubuntu must become. I have mine. Other people have their own. There is no real "one way".

[benton]

ActiveSync, to sync my Windows Mobile Smartphone with Ubuntu.

;)

[Zdravko]

The problem being that most users don't acually "work" on their computers. They use them for what you call fun: games, web-surfing and email.

You have your ideas as to what Ubuntu must become. I have mine. Other people have their own. There is no real "one way".
Then we have to find out the compromise?

[loell]

loell (http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=44017), then what are you waiting for? Start coding! We have only 6 months to go.

:lolflag: , i don't have to, just use and alternative desktop shell/ environment,

that could run fast on 256 MB ram.

say EDE , xpde cough* , or better yet Enlightenment DR 17

[Zdravko]

Never heard of these.

[regomodo]

tidy up of layout and emphasis on speed/keeping it light. I'm finding each release to be more and more "bloated".

Less emphasis on eye-candy and better handling on how to get dvd codecs. For me getting the dvd codecs wasn't automatic and i had to add the medibuntu repo.

Possibly instead of just installing everything at the start a selective install would be better. At least the option to do so. This would mean you don't have to install braille/bluetooth/wacom support from the off. It would still be on the cd but not installed by default.

Hardware support? Keep at the same rate. It's doing fine imo.

[Zdravko]

Yes, a selective install wizard would be nice.

[loell]

Never heard of these.

man/dude , one of these days, you should try those, you're missing a lot ;)

[Zdravko]

Hmm. I need more recommendations. And I have no Hardy Heron yet :(

[waspinator]

1. A control panel rather then a list of preferences/settings. (should be easy)
2. compizconfig-settings-manger installed by default (shouldn´t be too hard)

and most importantly for me, but probably not so important for the rest

3. Tablet PC support. - that means, pen input / automatic screen rotation / biometrics

[glotz]

More emphasis on GNU/Linux users, less on windows users.

[Zyphrexi]

ubuntu apps for power users, while ubuntu is getting really easy to use for the average user, some of us who actually like getting dirty with our OS miss the connectivity there. Honestly when they started adding the restricted manager and stuff like that, I kind of started freaking out. (I had to tweak a workaround to get the proper driver working, after fighting with restricted manager for two months)

So, perhaps a skill level? Easy to use seems to be synonymous with lack of control, I feel like I have less control over my system than I used to. So it would be nice to have different modes.

For instance, the update-manager is simply annoying to me, since it requires continued user interaction, even though it's recommended (supposedly) to use the update-manager to dist-upgrade, I can't help but feel that apt-get is simply a far smoother method. I'm sure there is a way to update the repositories in a way where all my extra repos would not interfere (my repo list has a lot of junk in it)

I don't know how much the system has changed, so I don't know if I should be afraid to use apt-get.

basically, more power for guys like me, though the hardy thing makes it sound stable.

EDIT: oh right, and a new theme...

[Robstarusa]

How about the following?

1) The first 5 minutes after installing gutsy (Granted, it's a beta...this might be fixed?) I installed the restricted drivers. The eye candy is not too bad and not overdone. I enabled dual monitors, rebooted, and.....black screen with a white mouse cursor.

I had to roll back to my old xorg.conf and only can use single monitor. Any ideas?? This is a showstopper especially since dual monitors are so common these days.

Graphics chip: 7600GT on an everex XT5000T.

2) How about vmware SERVER freeware? This is a pain to compile and get working. Can we add this as a package. Is it a package somwhere? Am I missing this ?

3) how about a nice utility to schedule filesystem snapshots (via LVM?) or other backup methods ? (bacula client? amanda ?). Backups are something n00bs REALLY need hand holding through and they are very important.

4) How about having my sound work out of the box? I never got it working, ever, on feisty or gutsy. It "detects", the volume isn't muted, but at the same time I can't get any sound and get errors when sound files are played.

5) How about suggestions for n00bs on upgrades that can improve their performance? Faster disks, cpu, memory, simple things.

6) I would highly encourage NO integration with facebook or myspace or other social networking sites until an interface API is worked out.

7) How about SOME replacement for nautilius? It's simply terrible. I use it as little as I can get away with. I hate expanding, scrolling, expanding scrolling.

8) Hopefully we can include OSS ati, 3d accelerated drivers during the next release (I will not own an ATI card until it has drivers at least as good as nvidias)

9) How about built in help on getting wine to work with games? Is this possible?

10) How about a CoW filesystem standard? (yes I know I'm dreaming) :)

11) How about a desktop/developer version with stuff like subversion, eclipse, etc installed by default? You can also give a choice of compilers, IDE's, etc. The developer version should have effects/eye candy turned off by default until it works with multiple monitors.

[bethaviv]

How about the following?

1) The first 5 minutes after installing gutsy (Granted, it's a beta...this might be fixed?) I installed the restricted drivers. The eye candy is not too bad and not overdone. I enabled dual monitors, rebooted, and.....black screen with a white mouse cursor.

I had to roll back to my old xorg.conf and only can use single monitor. Any ideas?? This is a showstopper especially since dual monitors are so common these days.

Graphics chip: 7600GT on an everex XT5000T.


Have you tried using the older nvidia drivers?

4) How about having my sound work out of the box? I never got it working, ever, on feisty or gutsy. It "detects", the volume isn't muted, but at the same time I can't get any sound and get errors when sound files are played.

What sound device do you have?

9) How about built in help on getting wine to work with games? Is this possible?

Wine develops their own stuff from what I've heard, also there is always new games coming out... the best way to get help (and more efficiently) is to go the WineHQ. To build up their resource and help list would time a lot of time... because everyone's situation may be different (ie: computer hardware).

[SarahKH]

Better bluetooth. The Dell 355 module seems to be really hit & miss (miss, miss in my case). But realistically that'll be kernel drivers.

The default partition scheme is dumb. Very dumb. One huge part and then a smaller logical for swap. I realise 'everything together' is very Windowsy but it makes upgrades/installs a right pain. It'd be better, IMHO, to grab 5GB - 10GB for the main system, the usual 2xRAM for swap and then dump /home on everything left. I realise you can do this by going manual in the installer but...

The eye-candy level is A-OK. Drop the latest versions of fusion in and your done.

[justin whitaker]

Like a bunch of others have said: stability.

And give Kubuntu some help getting KDE4 out the door.

[justin whitaker]

ubuntu apps for power users, while ubuntu is getting really easy to use for the average user, some of us who actually like getting dirty with our OS miss the connectivity there. Honestly when they started adding the restricted manager and stuff like that, I kind of started freaking out. (I had to tweak a workaround to get the proper driver working, after fighting with restricted manager for two months)

So, perhaps a skill level? Easy to use seems to be synonymous with lack of control, I feel like I have less control over my system than I used to. So it would be nice to have different modes.

For instance, the update-manager is simply annoying to me, since it requires continued user interaction, even though it's recommended (supposedly) to use the update-manager to dist-upgrade, I can't help but feel that apt-get is simply a far smoother method. I'm sure there is a way to update the repositories in a way where all my extra repos would not interfere (my repo list has a lot of junk in it)

I don't know how much the system has changed, so I don't know if I should be afraid to use apt-get.

basically, more power for guys like me, though the hardy thing makes it sound stable.

EDIT: oh right, and a new theme...

You can bypass all of that stuff and just use the console. All of those wizards and GUis just makes it easier to do everything that you can do via the console...I ignore them, mostly.

[GepettoBR]

Wow, Gepetto, Celluloid (celluloid.sourceforge.net/) looks awesome! Too bad it's a MacOS app, though. (Or has that changed?) Celluloid started out as a MAC OSX-only app (The final push for begining the project was the announcement that the next version ov AviSynth will also run on OSX) but the developing team decided to make it cross-platform a few weeks later.

As for the rest of your post, +1.

I'd like to have an update 'rollback' facility to let me return to my previous state. I'm guessing that the old packages could be kept from the last update and make this rollback application aware of how to remove the latest updates and reinstall the old packages. Great idea! Something akin to Windows' System Restore (which was Microsoft's best idea ever, since It's needed on an hourly basis) would not only help users who need a rollback, but also make us feel safer in general while using the OS. Something in the lines of "even if I screw up badly I won't have to reinstall".

For 8.04 LTS please replace that stupid Rhythmbox with Banshee Music Player with better internet radios and great iPod support. Replace too primitive gnome-bt-download with Deluge Torrent, replace default, very basic CD burning with GnomeBaker app and if possible speed up that damn slow F-Spot photo manager.Maybe Nautilus should be replaced with speedy Thunar and most important - please focus more on speed, stability and bugfixing...eventualy postpone release to 8.06 to ensure superior quality witch will blown away Vista SP1.

Of course continue to improve migration assistant, easy codec instalation and restricted drivers manager and maybe including BUM and SUM managers could be very usefull...Optional advanced installation with detailed package selection would be nice and maybe a DVD version with all laguage packs should be available too, but that is notting really wanted...But i don't need GNOME 2.22.0 for Herdy, better would be 2.20.3, maybe with newest Evelotion, even if i personally use Thunderbird. Also Firefox 3.0 propably should be included and hopefully Compiz at last in 0.8 stable version...

In artwork should be also made some changes >>>

Current folder icons are ugly, i would rather preffer something like KDE 4 Oxygen icons in orange colors + new Human icons for Music, Photos and Videos folders.
Also please clean up and remove all, really ALL those UGLY old gtk icons and replace them all with tangoized, tangerine or Human versions - this things are killing me :-) and Evolution with new tangoized GNOME icons with old GTK icons looks very very inconsistent...and trash icon sucks :( Maybe new metacity shoud be made, something like new GNOME 2.20 "gummy" theme in orange-brown colors, with silver-metallic trash, something like first trash icon in Dapper icon suggestions and also progress bar and some other elements of Ubuntulooks are too much orange...and trash icon sucks :(

Maybe it sounds like too much criticism, but those are my personal suggestions and Ubuntu is anyway the best linux distro and i am sure that 8.04 will be excellent...+1 on all that, as long as they don't use Helix Banshee. The regular version is immensely better - But keep Amarok in Kubuntu, though.

Not really. With your logic Ubuntu will become the new Vista.
New user must learn to use their PCs for work, not just for fun. Command line? I've hardly ever used it in the past few years. We don't want more people, but the best OS!We want both, actually. I wouldn't be afraid of Ubuntu becoming "the next Vista", though. Compiz-Fusion is a totally different direction in eye-candy than Windows is taking (and if I may say so it's already lightyears ahead of Tiger, which is lightmonths ahead of Vista). There's a way to have the cake and eat it - cleaning up the codes will allow for a larger ammount of eye-candy and an increase in performance, as well as remove a few bugs. For an LTS release, reviewing the code and removing the unnecessary parts (there's always junk data after a few updates) is a must.

The default partition scheme is dumb. Very dumb. One huge part and then a smaller logical for swap. I realise 'everything together' is very Windowsy but it makes upgrades/installs a right pain. It'd be better, IMHO, to grab 5GB - 10GB for the main system, the usual 2xRAM for swap and then dump /home on everything left. I realise you can do this by going manual in the installer but...GNU/Linux puts everything in the same filetree, but if someone new to GNU/Linux dualbooted with Windows, wouldn't that confuse them as to why there are so many partitions? If this became the standard partitioning method for the install, then it would be nice for the installer to explain in simple terms why it's doing it like this. The explanation can be very baseline, since more advanced users will already know that and will probably tweak the partitioning anyways.

Once again, the Holy Trinity is Speed, Stability and Compatibility.

[atlfalcons866]

Kde4

[atlfalcons866]

Ext4

[The Grum]

1) Right-click to mount iso images
2) Sound juicer to rip to MP3 without having to manually install gstreamer ugly-multiverse first.
3) Tidy up the screen resolution selection. Have it choose a sane default, not the highest it can find and give a graphical way to set a resolution for the login screen
4) Input hotplugging.
5) Leave compiz alone. The default visual effects are pleasant and not too flashy. A simple config app would be nice, but not essential.

A few features would be ok, but this release should be about bugfixes, stability and polishing whats already there.

[Björn]

Simple way to mount isos.
A better bitorrent client.
All screen configuration tools in one gui.
An easy(er) way to install restricted and ugly codecs.
And i like the system restore idea.

:KS

/Björn

[Zdravko]

Once again, the Holy Trinity is Speed, Stability and Compatibility.

I like this sentence.

[GepettoBR]

I like this sentence.

Use it at will, there's no copyright :lolflag:

[Zdravko]

Use it at will, there's no copyright :lolflag:
Thanks! :guitar:

[siucdude]

I dont' know everyone, I have been using my pc with h/upgrades every few months but the same hard drive since dapper, I have always used the alpha repos to untill they are done, and I got to say, I used to have stability problems but with feisty and gutsy i had none. I still don't.

I am what most would call a anti linux because i install ubuntu once in 2006 and have not changed it since!!!!!! I love it!!

[apu95]

Gutsy works awesome on my laptop =) There's a few things I'd like to see though:

- Mobility tools
It'd be really nice to have a special section for laptops. One that will let me customize the max frequency that my CPU can run at, the minimum freq, creating power profiles, etc.

- Easier bloat cleanup
I use Ubuntu but also Windows. I have Office in Windows already, so I don't need to have Openoffice. Right now in Gutsy, I haven't been able to uninstall it, because Synaptic tells me that removing it will also remove the Ubuntu-Desktop package. It'd be nice to be able to remove anything that I don't want, without having the whole system depend on it.

- VMWare Issues
There's an issue with VMWare, when running XP as a guest. When plugging in a USB device, VMWare doesn't recognize it because Ubuntu is mounting it in a different way that other Linux distros. This makes it impossible to use XP-only devices while in Ubuntu.

[Zdravko]

Remove OO!

[bethaviv]

Linux: Because rebooting is for adding new hardware

Your sig says a lot about Linux too =)

[Mr. Picklesworth]

you seem to have a misconception that more gui is more fat and bloat, while there is little truth to that, it is usually more of code inefficiency of the underlying desktop environment and the GUI toolkit.
Indeed. Actually, a lot of these GUI configuration improvements can be done without the addition of new programs, or even new widgets. A lot of the time, one option can safely change two things. I can't think of any examples off the top of my head, but I know they do exist.

That, and GNOME's underlying libraries make configuration tools miraculously easy. Just a few dictionaries and a Glade file, and you quickly have an advanced configuration tool that ties directly with gconf. If the key is changed in the gconf editor, the widget instantly changes with it in the config tool :)

Finally, extra, trivial little config tools do not need to be directly exposed in the control center, or even the menu. They can have detailed .desktop files, thus be findable by desktop search tools such as Deskbar, and be occasionally linked to from other programs, but they do not need to visibly take up space.


On that topic, one reasonable wish-list thought from me:
A streamlined Users & Groups admin tool. At the moment, one sets a user's main group in the User settings, but to add that user to any more groups he has to go to Manage Groups. It's rather confusing, and could do with something tidier and smarter. (Setting Default / Mandatory gconf keys for users could be tied in with that, too, since at the moment the feature is somewhat difficult to work with).


Yes, exactly. These nasty UI toolkits!Hey, do not dis GTK! It is the one GUI toolkit that justifies its existence by unprecedented accessibility, but some people just don't see it. Change the font size and gasp at how well everything scales. (The only exceptions in the default install being Firefox and OpenOffice, because they are dumb). Change the language, and notice that nothing gets cut off, and even right-to-left languages work properly.

[Vadi]

I don't like eyecandy.
Soon Ubuntu will look like Vista!

System - preferences - appearance - visual effects - none

Thanks, and stop attempting to ruin it for everybody. Most people very much appreciate the productivity gains that Compiz brings (scale plugin, group tab windows).

[Mr. Picklesworth]

I think that window tabbing in Compiz is pretty weak, compared to Fluxbox's. Maybe some day we will see Metacity and Compiz adopting the same functionality. It would be pretty cool!

[carlosqueso]

1. Early feature freeze, which should yeild
2. On time release, which will allow a
3. Solid Hardy +1

Let's not do what we did with Dapper, and try to put too much in an LTS release. Get it stable, and save the cool new innovations for hardy+1

[zhanglini]

According to my survey, 40% of the people are having trouble when they install Gutsy, need to reduce it down to <10% (maybe 1%?) if we want Linux to be "for the masses"!!!
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=579746

[Zdravko]

1. Early feature freeze, which should yeild
2. On time release, which will allow a
3. Solid Hardy +1

Let's not do what we did with Dapper, and try to put too much in an LTS release. Get it stable, and save the cool new innovations for hardy+1

Nope. Dapper was a great success! It is the best Ubuntu version so far. Hardy must be even better.
Dapper was postponed to give it a finer look. I don't want any new innovations in any further version after Hardy. Hardy will have them all.

[amlucent23]

In order of importance:


4. Backup and restore. It's the one thing that you get a lot of posts on the forum about: "I've messed up with application x and now I'm in a pickle". It'd be nicer for the average user to have a default application/option that works for them.


7. My holy grail: easier integration with SMB/AD networks. You can read the how to's, edit the files, mangle PAM and get it working but this is more than most people expect to have to do. Crack that one and you've got yourself a winner.


I personally Think these are the two MOST important ideas mentioned here. I have alot of ideas on these two things as well.

- I think there is enough room on the desktop cd iso to squeeze in a 'officail ubuntu' open source ghost imaging application. Not only one that will run through the gui once the OS is installed (to create backups) but also one that will run off the CD to restore a image when everything gets fubar. Think of the possibilities, after a update it could prompt the user if he wanted to make a incremental backup. It could have various options to always create a backup after a security patch or never (if the user lives dangerously).

- If anyone has ever tried to deploy Ubuntu into a business with existing MS technologies it is a nightmare to do correctly. SuSE has done a very good job with this (especially in SLED 10, there technique is documented and GPL. Im sure its just a script... just copy it). It automatically does everything for you all you need supply is the FQDN and a account with privileges. This is a key to seeing Ubuntu grow in corporations and businesses.

Alternatively, Active Directory (MS) has a lot of easy gui tools for advanced user directory operations that are well documented. This maybe out of scope but if Ubuntu wants to be taken seriously in the enterprise community they should make LDAP very easy to manage like this. There may already be tools like I am suggesting but I am not aware of them.

[Masterizaak]

Better than 7.10 :lolflag: I think there are more posts of help then in when fiesty was the newest. I cant even start it up :(, I also expect good support, eyecandy (not too much so its has a high risk of crashing but enough to enterain u on boring moments :guitar:) and a better xserver

[smartboyathome]

Remove OO!

Why? OpenOffice.org is the best office application for Linux to date, and that isn't going to change anytime soon.

[bethaviv]

Why? OpenOffice.org is the best office application for Linux to date, and that isn't going to change anytime soon.

OO is a staple... unless Microsoft stops charging for Office and releases a Linux version that will never change... well... maybe not even then, but having a large suite like Office available on Linux would diffinately get people thinking about switching.

[bakster]

Not-ubuntu-specific:

Huge GNOMEimprovements.Biggest proplem is, of course, Nautilus.It's still slow and because of that the whole GNOME evniroment feels a bit unresponsive.It has only two view modes(thunar has three) ,and the list view has a lot "usability bugs"(must use keyboard as much as mouse).Text-besides-icons view should be introduced.Not to mention restore from trash,editable toolbars,.....list goes on and on.
Fix gnome-session.There should be some nice splash(proges) screen,and servces should be loaded asynchronous.
Better multimedia support.Gstremer improvements(better support for multimedia formats,libdvdcss support).Compiz bug-fixes (auto turn off/on when running fullscreen 3D apps).

ubuntu-specific:

Better default apps.Brasero as default burning app.Maybe replace rhythmbox with banshee?New,much-improved artwork:grub and boot splash screen ,wallpaper, icons, theme,panels etc.Improve menu bar or replace it with something else (preferences and admistration menu is a complete mess).They should be grouped in submenus (see Fedora) or ,even better, organize similar tasks (keyboard,keyborad shortcuts,mouse,..) like new appereance menu.New Admin GUI tools:firewall settings,GRUB,FSTAB.PPPOE connection settings,RAID
Pulseaudio as default sound server.Further kernel improvments (stuff like CFS MUST be included),even better hardware detection and restricted drivers managment.Improvements in current "ubuntu-features" : tracker. bulletproof-X etc.Most inportant:Hardy has to be stable and fast.

[Wynne G Oldman]

I think Hardy Heron should concentrate mainly upon compatibility with hardware. One of the biggest problems for Linux users is getting drivers for their hardware. This has got to be one of the biggest issues as to whether people use Linux, or not. Now that Ubuntu is becoming so popular, there should be more effort made to put pressure on manufacturers of hardware, to provide drivers for it, and if they won't, Ubuntu should strive to support as much hardware as possible. I know that Ubuntu probably supports more hardware out of the box than Windows, but without hardware manufacturers not providing their own, it needs to go that extra mile. I love Gutsy, but it only seems to work well with 2 out of 4 of the computers that I've installed it on. Fortunately, my PC is one of those that it works fantastically well on!:)

[greg_g]

- Easier bloat cleanup
I use Ubuntu but also Windows. I have Office in Windows already, so I don't need to have Openoffice. Right now in Gutsy, I haven't been able to uninstall it, because Synaptic tells me that removing it will also remove the Ubuntu-Desktop package. It'd be nice to be able to remove anything that I don't want, without having the whole system depend on it.


"ubuntu-desktop" is a meta-package. What that means is that if you installed a server (no GUI at all) all yo