If you had power at Canonical.... [Archive]

ExSuSEusr

June 16th, 2012, 03:09 AM

If you could make up to three decisions at Canonical what they be?

For me:

Given the popularity of certain things "Linux" - I would have many of these things included in the distro. For instance. Conky, a working GUI based theme manager (not Gnome-Tweaks either). Some of these items are used by an enormous part of the community yet aren't included.

I actually hate conky with a passion. It is the most unfriendly, convoluted mess of an addon that I've ever seen. BUT - it works. And when it works it works well. You just need a PhD in programming to use the damn thing. So, given its popularity why not include it as part of the distro? A clean version with a working UI? As well as themes and other apps that are extremely popular. Can't remember if Cairo-Dock is already included or not.

MisterGaribaldi

June 16th, 2012, 03:43 AM

Oooh ohhh oh... the only way I'm playing this game is if I can come into Canonical HQ looking like this:

http://i2.listal.com/image/516351/600full-charles-cooper.jpg

And, for my three commands (because, let me tell you what, I'm not walking into some British outfit like that and not making 'em shake a little), here we go:

1. Spin off a separate division of the company solely focused on non-computer devices, such as smartphones and tablets; and along with that, realize you need to also show some style and by that I mean you gotta put the sizzle on the steak, like what Apple does with their marketing.

2. Put money behind three killer apps: a world class media program to compete with iTunes; a world class word processing app that competes with Word (if necessary, this could be a fork of LO Writer); and third a world class app for writing software for Linux in general and with optimizations for Ubuntu, because whatever capabilities there are that Canonical is trying to build in with Gnome 3 and Unity, they have to be able to be fully leveraged easily.

3. Pick one set of frameworks each for non-multimedia graphics, for multimedia, and for screen sharing / remote app running / etc. (like you have with X11 and X.org), build them up and refine them to the utmost, and most importantly: stick with them.

I think I'd be pretty good with that.

KiwiNZ

June 16th, 2012, 04:00 AM

I would concentrate on the SOHO and medium to large Enterprise sectors maximizing revenue potential and become profitable. Managed Services, Cloud and consultancy would
get emphasis.

I would look at profit potential in the consumer sector and close non profit generating divisions.

Paqman

June 16th, 2012, 07:39 AM

Collect underpants
...
Profit! (ie: sell the company to Amazon and retire to the Bahamas!)

http://www.airtransportinc.com/images/bahamasphoto1.jpg

fatality_uk

June 16th, 2012, 10:30 AM

Oooh ohhh oh... the only way I'm playing this game is if I can come into Canonical HQ looking like this:

http://i2.listal.com/image/516351/600full-charles-cooper.jpg

And, for [i]my three commands (because, let me tell you what, I'm not walking into some British outfit like that and not making 'em shake a little), here we go:

1. Spin off a separate division of the company solely focused on non-computer devices, such as smartphones and tablets; and along with that, realize you need to also show some style and by that I mean you gotta put the sizzle on the steak, like what Apple does with their marketing.

2. Put money behind three killer apps: a world class media program to compete with iTunes; a world class word processing app that competes with Word (if necessary, this could be a fork of LO Writer); and third a world class app for writing software for Linux in general and with optimizations for Ubuntu, because whatever capabilities there are that Canonical is trying to build in with Gnome 3 and Unity, they have to be able to be fully leveraged easily.

3. Pick one set of frameworks each for non-multimedia graphics, for multimedia, and for screen sharing / remote app running / etc. (like you have with X11 and X.org), build them up and refine them to the utmost, and most importantly: stick with them.

I think I'd be pretty good with that.

Pretty much what he said :)

3rdalbum

June 16th, 2012, 11:31 AM

I'd patch the GTK file open dialogs to integrate Unity's file searching capabilities into programs.

I'd also start encouraging and funding the creation of modern, attractive, usable and touch-friendly programs for Linux.

And until they are ready, I'd implement compatibility with Android applications, so Ubuntu tablets can run with Android programs (which are already touch-friendly, modern and usable).

x-shaney-x

June 16th, 2012, 11:56 AM

Make ubuntu sexy:
Follow Apple's lead and design a limited range of hardware - a desktop PC and a couple of laptops.
Make people want the hardware and make ubuntu work perfectly on the hardware and people will take to the OS.

hakermania

June 16th, 2012, 06:13 PM

1) Make Unity less heavy
2) Re-add everything that was usable, like a launcher creator application
3) Better promotion for good free applications
4) Tablet/smartphone development boost
5) Better Power Management

alexfish

June 16th, 2012, 08:02 PM

can only think of 2

An Ubuntu pad + Something for Children

TheNessus

June 16th, 2012, 08:09 PM

Make the unity dash forget.

I hate it when I click on the Dash and woops, the last search I made an hour ago is running and all sorts of things appear. And what if I don't want to re-do my search from an hour ago? and what if I don't want to run any search at all? why does unity keep my search? I'd make the dash start clean.

this and many other bugs I already mentioned in many other ways before.

Primefalcon

June 16th, 2012, 09:01 PM

1. (reason: security): allow the option for a fail-safe delete password, encryption is great, but having the option of entering a 2nd safe password which would delete all encrypted volumes and present the user with an apparently nothing to hide files would be nice, not just for illegal stuff either, but stuff like company secrets would be easily protected this way or government dissidents and so forth.

2. Bring back he netbook remix interface for netbooks (it was just plain cool, even on the desktop)

3. well not much else canonical is petty much rocking with their direction tbh

forrestcupp

June 16th, 2012, 09:21 PM

1. I'd hire Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie to star in a line of commercials promoting our free OS.

2. I'd change the official colors to puce and chartreuse.

3. I would make a rule that the community's individual complaints will be immediately addressed, down to the point to where whenever someone else has a different opinion than one that has been already addressed, it will be changed again, immediately. And I would create a venue where people's complaints can be posted and addressed in real time.

MisterGaribaldi

June 16th, 2012, 09:29 PM

One of the earlier desktop backgrounds for Ubuntu featured three naked people with their arms interlocked in a circular pattern. Maybe if we had a little more 'o that... ;)

alexfish

June 16th, 2012, 11:19 PM

One of the earlier desktop backgrounds for Ubuntu featured three naked people with their arms interlocked in a circular pattern. Maybe if we had a little more 'o that... ;)

Don't mind that,

Just make sure the bits are covered. :popcorn:

MisterGaribaldi

June 17th, 2012, 02:41 AM

Heh... little 1s and 0s with clothes over top of them... interesting concept.

wolfen69

June 17th, 2012, 02:44 AM

Collect underpants
...
Profit! (ie: sell the company to Amazon and retire to the Bahamas!)

http://www.airtransportinc.com/images/bahamasphoto1.jpg
I like this idea!

wolfen69

June 17th, 2012, 02:46 AM

One of the earlier desktop backgrounds for Ubuntu featured three naked people with their arms interlocked in a circular pattern. Maybe if we had a little more 'o that... ;)
Except I don't think that was an official desktop wallpaper from canonical. However, It was nice. ;)

ExSuSEusr

June 17th, 2012, 01:52 PM

Since I only used one of my three "things" I'll add my second one now.

I would do something about the update = breaking issue. Maybe institute some type of testing before the release of the updates.

I know and realize that Ubuntu is free for us and it's hard to really complain - but when you rely solely on something - it shouldn't be subject to constant breakage.

I spend a weekend tweaking and setting up my laptop - I had everything working smoothly - it was nice - very nice. I was going to take it to work to show it off.

Then the update.

Now none of my wine programs work.
Firefox has all kinds of problems with crashing.
Compiz broken.
Cairo-Dock? The applications I have as shortcuts wont load.
The Windows "Hot Key" to launch the dash doesn't work.
and all kinds of other issues.

So, yeah, something needs to be done about the updates. I would put some serious focus in solving these issues and not releasing an update until I was sure it was stable.

Lucradia

June 17th, 2012, 03:06 PM

ikt

June 17th, 2012, 03:11 PM

I would concentrate on the SOHO and medium to large Enterprise sectors maximizing revenue potential and become profitable. Managed Services, Cloud and consultancy would
get emphasis.

Indeed, I would like to see an obscenely easy SMB email/LDAP/calendering/wiki/file sharing install wizard type of deal.

ExSuSEusr

June 17th, 2012, 04:49 PM

I'd rename the Ubuntu GNOME / Unity editions to "Ubuntu Tablet Edition" because both GNOME 3 and Unity make more use of tablet interfaces than anything. Then, I'd get the normal ubuntu to actually be Xubuntu, by integrating the Xubuntu team into the Ubuntu team. (Similar to how Mojang dealt with Bukkit.)

Then we'd all be happy again, until Canonical decides to smother XFCE with a tablet / touch interface *sigh*

I like the Unity interface. I know it's better suited for a tablet - but *I* think it's actually quicker to navigate even on a desktop. Gnome 3 is terrible IMHO - it's sluggish, slow and bulky and not navigation friendly - well not as friendly as Unity.

nothingspecial

June 17th, 2012, 06:22 PM

The thread poses an interesting question.

If it turns into yet another Unity Thread, that would be a shame because Unity threads are really, really boring.

Linuxratty

June 17th, 2012, 07:07 PM

* Fix the stuff people have been complaining about for years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sh-cnaJoGCw

* Provide a version of Unity for point and clickers with nested menues.

* Zoom feature in Unity would be fixed so it never crashes.(this really needs to be fixed.)

* Keep Fallback..it works perfectly with Compiz.

* Big,friendly buttons at start up that enable one to choose the desktop of the day.

* Make Nivida get it's act together and fix the blooming video drivers.

* Advertise major big time.

* Pre installed..Yup,has to happen. Most people are not going to burn a disk and install it.

However, I would also add that Canonical is the true "culprit" here in that they've brought this controversy upon themselves, and thereby they've dropped it squarely into your laps to have to contend with here on UF. So, don't blame us!

This is true..And a certain company's new de is getting the same reaction from outraged users. Said company are also blaming the users cause they are not falling all over themselves with anticipation. What's really interesting is the powers that be are even using the exact same words:"fear of change" cause users are not pleased with the new spin on the desktop.
Reading the blogs and such on this topic is like taking a time machine back to the original release of Unity.

AllRadioisDead

June 17th, 2012, 08:18 PM

I like the Unity interface. I know it's better suited for a tablet - but *I* think it's actually quicker to navigate even on a desktop. Gnome 3 is terrible IMHO - it's sluggish, slow and bulky and not navigation friendly - well not as friendly as Unity.

If you think that Gnome Shell is slower and more bloated than Unity then you obviously haven't used it before. It's far more responsive, and the layout is much more useful. You don't have to go digging through through a bunch of useless stuff to get to your apps.

forrestcupp

June 17th, 2012, 09:19 PM

I'd rename the Ubuntu GNOME / Unity editions to "Ubuntu Tablet Edition" because both GNOME 3 and Unity make more use of tablet interfaces than anything.
I'm a Gnome Shell user, and I actually think it would be horrible on a tablet. It makes use of "hot corners" too much, and those work better with a pointer than a touch screen.

MG&TL

June 17th, 2012, 09:37 PM

If you think that Gnome Shell is slower and more bloated than Unity then you obviously haven't used it before. It's far more responsive, and the layout is much more useful. You don't have to go digging through through a bunch of useless stuff to get to your apps.

...which of course depends upon your definition of "useless". "Features" is the way I'd have put it. :)

I would keep doing exactly what they're doing, but pour a bit more money into artwork. I think we need a new theme for the sake of it every so often, it keeps things fresh. Maybe still around the orange/earth/purple theme.

arvevans

June 17th, 2012, 09:54 PM

Roll Back to a non-UNITY environment
Roll-back to Gnome-2
Add individual workspace control over what task bar configuration and what icons are visible on the individual workspace screens. For instance, on my workspace labeled "CNC" I only want to see CNC related applications and CNC-related Icons.
Bring hardware support up to where it can handle most of the popular N-type WiFi hardware.
Make kernel modules dynamically loadable and un-loadable. If a kernel module is not being used it should unload itself to preserve CPU speed and efficiency.
Test each new release on both old and new hardware to insure that an up-grade is not actually a down-grade because it dramatically slows down the system.
Fix the defective color schemes that were introduced with Ubuntu Release 12.04
Make sure that boot times on new releases are no longer than boot times were with the prior release.

KiwiNZ

June 17th, 2012, 11:54 PM

MisterGaribaldi

June 18th, 2012, 12:46 AM

So you would wind back progress, not a good business model.

Sometimes, it's not progress, Kiwi. I can think of a few historical examples of "progress", but I don't think I will mention them here.

KiwiNZ

June 18th, 2012, 03:46 AM

Finding new is better than regressing

AllRadioisDead

June 18th, 2012, 04:03 AM

Sometimes it's possible to move forward in the wrong direction. Sometimes you need to wipe the slate clean and try something new.

KiwiNZ

June 18th, 2012, 04:11 AM

Sometimes it's possible to move forward in the wrong direction. Sometimes you need to wipe the slate clean and try something new.

If in fact they have moved in the wrong direction. The current direction of the Desktop development is the right one.

AllRadioisDead

June 18th, 2012, 04:33 AM

If in fact they have moved in the wrong direction. The current direction of the Desktop development is the right one.

I wasn't referring to anything specific. Although, there are quite a few areas in which Unity needs to improve upon. There are a lot of users submitting feedback and Canonical just isn't listening.
I think user feedback is a core part of progress.

Linuxratty

June 18th, 2012, 04:39 AM

Sometimes, it's not progress, Kiwi. I can think of a few historical examples of "progress", but I don't think I will mention them here.

Oh whatta shame!:):popcorn:

KiwiNZ

June 18th, 2012, 05:37 AM

I wasn't referring to anything specific. Although, there are quite a few areas in which Unity needs to improve upon. There are a lot of users submitting feedback and Canonical just isn't listening.
I think user feedback is a core part of progress.

Canonical will be listening to feedback, they may not always agree with that feedback.

gnusci

June 18th, 2012, 05:41 AM

Nothing, they are doing a great job!

Drenriza

June 18th, 2012, 06:23 AM

Nothing, they are doing a great job!

This made me lol.

Ubuntu is a decent OS, yes. But is this in my opinion thanks to Canonical? Noooo this is because of the user community behind it, which adds a huge amount of code, fixes to the OS and then tests it.

Also Canonical is not (in my opinion) working hard enough for the standard programs in Ubuntu.
For example Flash, and then i get answers like "Thats because it's under some bla bla law that makes this impossible". My answer, fix it. Make a deal with Adobe do what it takes i don't care.

Just fix it.

And i have not yet heard Canonical put money into a Word processing program like Libre Office yet. Do it for god sake, and put money into to Gimp so their can be some major decent apps for what all users need in their work day.

Just for starters.

KiwiNZ

June 18th, 2012, 06:43 AM

This made me lol.

Ubuntu is a decent OS, yes. But is this in my opinion thanks to Canonical? Noooo this is because of the user community behind it, which adds a huge amount of code, fixes to the OS and then tests it.

Also Canonical is not (in my opinion) working hard enough for the standard programs in Ubuntu.
For example Flash, and then i get answers like "Thats because it's under some bla bla law that makes this impossible". My answer, fix it. Make a deal with Adobe do what it takes i don't care.

Just fix it.

And i have not yet heard Canonical put money into a Word processing program like Libre Office yet. Do it for god sake, and put money into to Gimp so their can be some major decent apps for what all users need in their work day.

Just for starters.

They should concentrate on their own profitability first and foremost.

Drenriza

June 18th, 2012, 07:00 AM

They should concentrate on their own profitability first and foremost.

And making your OS more attractive to others is one way of doing so.

mastablasta

June 18th, 2012, 09:13 AM

1. sell PC (desktops), notebooks and tablet at reasonable price/quality/performance with Ubuntu preloaded. laptops/netbooks/tablets would have good battery life. provide good support for those preloaded systems.
2. drop Gnome and move to KDE as main DE (though maybe less native applications they are better than Gnome natives). it is also more flexible it seems - nebtook interface, tablet interface with multitouch... also in my opinion even if you wanted Unity (unified interface over all platforms) it would also be possible to do it in KDE.
3. support independent game developers that develope high quality games (i mean inovative games) with high quality graphics. this would then be used to showcase the power and options in linux. project should eventually be able to finance itself or at least to return most of invested funds. due to companies backing & profitable nature any future project might be able to get other sources of funding.
4. activelly support office programmes. actually for the most part all they need is better MS office compatibility. and maybe a few "missing" features.

x-shaney-x

June 18th, 2012, 10:15 AM

1. sell PC (desktops), notebooks and tablet at reasonable price/quality/performance with Ubuntu preloaded. laptops/netbooks/tablets would have good battery life. provide good support for those preloaded systems.

That has been done. The problem is, as I mentioned in a previous post, I think people have to WANT the hardware.
That is it needs to be something by a major manufacturer like Samsung (System76 are great but certainly aren't sexy and most people would have never heard of them).
Or something ubuntu branded that can compete with Macbooks, in design at least.

forrestcupp

June 18th, 2012, 12:21 PM

Finding new is better than regressing

New Coke vs. Coca Cola Classic? :P

But I agree with you about the new direction of the Desktop Environment ... I think. ;)

mastablasta

June 18th, 2012, 02:35 PM

That has been done. The problem is, as I mentioned in a previous post, I think people have to WANT the hardware.
That is it needs to be something by a major manufacturer like Samsung (System76 are great but certainly aren't sexy and most people would have never heard of them).
Or something ubuntu branded that can compete with Macbooks, in design at least.

Really? cannonical sold them? haven't been with Ubuntu for so long i guess... or is this about cheap not so good low quality dells? System76 are a bit expencive and it is especially expencive to get them to Europe.

Speaking of Sexy... i see some Asus laptops here come prelaoded in dual boot android+windows 7. also a nice and interesting solution.

anyway i think if cannonical would offer them at a good price people that are looking for good ubuntu experience would buy them. but like i said the price needs to be a nice one and quality good. instead you have many posts in hardware section "will this notebook run Ubuntu good". and even if it will run good there is no guarantee that is will run just as good on next Ubuntu iteration. If cannonical would be behind it they would have to make sure before new release that it runs fluently and stable on it. not that wi-fi key is not working anymore for example.

mint box is a nice idea.

which reminds me item

5. - > swtich to 1 year release cycle and try to solve critical bugs before next release. stable software (e.g new stable thunderbird) would be pushed (updated) into release as it comes.

Lucradia

June 18th, 2012, 03:35 PM

2. drop Gnome and move to KDE as main DE (though maybe less native applications they are better than Gnome natives). it is also more flexible it seems - nebtook interface, tablet interface with multitouch... also in my opinion even if you wanted Unity (unified interface over all platforms) it would also be possible to do it in KDE.

KDE is not a netbook friendly DE (Unless you specifically make a netbook shell for it, and strip out all the non-netbook features, like the panel). KDE has a horrible native browser (though, GNOME does too. Midori even outshines the two, and it's for XFCE.) By default, KDE's switch workspace keys aren't user-friendly, and would have to be changed to be similar to GNOME's. KDE also takes up more memory / processor power than the other DEs iirc. KDE's movie editors are less user-friendly, and KDE's messenger is horrid in comparison to Pidgin and Empathy.

That said, netbooks are dead with tablets honestly. (My netbook barely runs Fedora + XFCE, much less GNOME. I only keep it in case I need a new router. Since new laptops are starting to go without ethernet too soon. Most routers won't allow you into the admin interface over wireless by default. Macbook Pro's new edition has no ethernet at all (http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/06/bye-ethernet-port-hello-retina-openforum-talks-new-macbook-pros/).)

Paqman

June 18th, 2012, 03:45 PM

5. - > swtich to 1 year release cycle

Gnome's cycle is six months, so for a Gnome-based distro aligning to that makes it a lot easier from an interoperability standpoint.

and try to solve critical bugs before next release.

You think they don't do this?!? If you want less bugs in the release, help out with testing.

stable software (e.g new stable thunderbird) would be pushed (updated) into release as it comes.

That would be a rolling release. There are rolling release distros, but Ubuntu isn't one of them. There have been some changes lately that have relaxed this a little, and you will now get updates for your kernel and browser for example.

Paqman

June 18th, 2012, 03:47 PM

new laptops are starting to go without ethernet too soon. Most routers won't allow you into the admin interface over wireless by default. Macbook Pro's new edition has no ethernet at all (http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/06/bye-ethernet-port-hello-retina-openforum-talks-new-macbook-pros/).)

There's been a bit of an outcry about that, and IIRC they have relented and will be shipping it with a dongle. That's a nasty clunky solution IMO, I'm really hoping other manufacturers don't follow suit.

Lucradia

June 18th, 2012, 03:49 PM

That would be a rolling release. There are rolling release distros, but Ubuntu isn't one of them. There have been some changes lately that have relaxed this a little, and you will now get updates for your kernel and browser for example.

And if you want a deb / apt distro that does roll. Debian has a rolling-style release called experimental. (But if you want Semi-rolling, as in, more stable, less updates: debian-testing)

sanderella

June 18th, 2012, 07:39 PM

If I had power at Canonical, I would target Ubuntu more at old people who are retired. It is exactly what we need - cheap, simple, safe, self-healing, easy to use. :KS

lykwydchykyn

June 18th, 2012, 08:12 PM

I'd look into buying zentyal and rebranding it as a small-business/home server respin. AFAICT they have nothing product-wise aimed at SMB users.

I'd also figure out what could be done to get SAMBA4 shipping.

Can't think of a third one; they're already attempting to do anything else useful I could think of.

arvevans

June 18th, 2012, 11:41 PM

Going to something that works and meets user needs is not "rolling back progress"...it is progress itself.

The recent move to big icons on a small screen is "rolling back progress" to where we were many years ago with 12 inch monitors and big icons that were necessary because our video cards did not have resolution enough for large displays and small icons. Back then we had limited icon-based activities because there was only room for a few of the most used applications to be represented by on-screen glyphs.

As Linus said: "Fork This Mess!". Canonical should probably consider forking the development process so it can support cell-phone functionality with one development path, and large screen industrial strength users with the other development path.

If Canonical cannot bring itself to restore lost functionality, then some other distribution developer probably will take advantage of the situation. This may be an opportunity for Mandrake, Red Hat (Fedora), Open Suse, or someone similar to grab a large chunk of the Linux user base.

arclance

June 19th, 2012, 01:08 AM

And if you want a deb / apt distro that does roll. Debian has a rolling-style release called experimental.
I believe you mean unstable.
Experimental is for the testing of possibly very volatile (i.e. destroy your computer) packages.

Perfect Storm

June 19th, 2012, 09:21 AM

This turned into another unity-bashing feast.

Thread closed.

Perfect Storm

June 19th, 2012, 09:33 AM

Cleaned the thread and re-opened.

No bashing/hating/ranting, if you're looking for express your hate against unity/canonical please do it on your own personal blog/twitter/facebook etc.

Adrian98

June 19th, 2012, 12:37 PM

Well I am still thinking about the power of canonical! :KS

3rdalbum

June 19th, 2012, 12:45 PM

I'm sorry to say this, but after reading this thread of suggestions I'm glad none of you have power at Canonical. Things like "Write more drivers" and "Let's go back to Gnome 2" and "Let's fix this bug" are really quite lacking in imagination and vision.

Okay, some of the ideas were alright in a practical sense. But generally, the ideas here were the equivalent of saying "If I had a million dollars for a day, I'd repaint the lounge room".

Have some fun! Let's hear some more wild, out-there ideas!

Paqman

June 19th, 2012, 12:58 PM

lento_

June 19th, 2012, 02:06 PM

1. Get the hardware right. Do a deal with a hardware supplier to produce a small range of computers which (a) look really good and (b) have an installation of Ubuntu optimised to work out of the box. It needn't be a big range - perhaps just a cheap and an expensive laptop and a cheap and an expensive desktop.

One of the big advantages that Apple have is that they just work. OK, so they don't all of the time, but for the most part they do, and that's because Apple are controlling the hardware as well as the software. If Canonical could team up with another company to make a it just works computer which also looks nice, then it could go a long way to making Ubuntu more mainstream.

2. Get the software right. Pick a few applications which do those things the users want to do most, and concentrate resources on improving them. A word processor, a media player and organiser, a graphics management and editing programme, a file browser etc.

There are some good programmes out there, but their development is fairly independent of Ubuntu's. Ubuntu heavily relies on them being good though. Canonical can put lots of time and effort into improving Ubuntu, but it's just a platform to run other programmes on. If those programmes are not seen as being as good as the alternatives then the platform they run on may not seem so appealing.

That's not to say they good. Many programmes like The GIMP are great, but with a bit of a development and financing push then maybe they could become not just Linux-alternatives but real market leaders.

3. Get compatibility right. Users want to be able to plug their MP3 player or camera into the computer and have it just work. They want their graphics card to work without needing to fiddle around on the command line. They want to be able to easily join networks. It won't be easy, but putting more of an effort into getting drivers written and even forming partnerships with hardware suppliers may improve the reputation of Ubuntu.

pelle.k

June 19th, 2012, 03:54 PM

1. polish the UI to the point it freakin hurts your eyes.
2. squash bugs. and trust me, there's quite a few of 'em.
3. ditch unity. make gnome3/kde4 awesome. i mean awesome!

4. make damn sure ubuntu works 100% out of the box on certain hardware (say a specific series of dell notebooks, or what have you).

Lucradia

June 19th, 2012, 05:06 PM

I believe you mean unstable.
Experimental is for the testing of possibly very volatile (i.e. destroy your computer) packages.

Some packages can only be obtained in experimental though (IE: latest Mozilla Firefox, branded, if I recall, as well as the most up to date iceweasel.) These don't play nice with unstable.

arclance

June 19th, 2012, 06:12 PM

Some packages can only be obtained in experimental though (IE: latest Mozilla Firefox, branded, if I recall, as well as the most up to date iceweasel.) These don't play nice with unstable.
I have never heard of any problems with using the experimental iceweasle in unstable that weren't related to it being a alpha or beta version.
The Debian Mozilla Team has a page to show people how to use the iceweasel from experimental correctly. (http://mozilla.debian.net/)

Other packages may not play nicely though, quoting the Debian FAQ (http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-faq/ch-ftparchives.en.html)

Experimental is used for packages which are still being developed, and with a high risk of breaking your system. It's used by developers who'd like to study and test bleeding edge software. Users shouldn't be using packages from here, because they can be dangerous and harmful even for the most experienced people.
Unstable is described this way.

The `unstable' directory contains a snapshot of the current development system. Users are welcome to use and test these packages, but are warned about their state of readiness. The advantage of using the unstable distribution is that you are always up-to-date with the latest in GNU/Linux software industry, but if it breaks: you get to keep both parts :-)Debian rolling release distros like aptosid (http://aptosid.com/) and siduction (http://siduction.org/) track unstable not experimental.