hopefully as we work through 2013 toward 14.04 LTS we can put a little polish on a few rough spots

  • networking: when we have trouble where is the break? I think we could add some wireless link status data to the networking tab that is available from System Settings. It should report: Signal Strength: Good, Marginal, Poor. And error rate. The fundamentals are: (a) can the kernel communicate with the card and (b) can the card communicate with the router. If you have (a) & (b) you should be able to link into your router and interrogate the status of your ISP uplink.
  • Samba/Home Networking. This remains a trouble area. As we are looking for wider acceptance of Ubuntu into the computing community we should recognize the need for home networking. And NO: we do not want to use the cloud.
  • AppArmor,-- this should come standard for the programs that need it most: Firefox and Thunderbird. to install a plug-in user should need to set AppArmor to complain; install the plug-in and return AppArmor to enforce.

I'm coming up on 1 month since switching my primary workstation to Ubuntu. yes: to some extent we have to hoe our own corn. But I expect that, when I leave the nanny-state. Hopefully I have control over what my 'puter is doing. In the nanny state I knew I didn't have any idea what was happening. I think open-source software is the key. When the "cards are on the table" it's harder to deal seconds.