A Project For All To Participate In.

[plb]

I'd like to see Ubuntu succeed as much as the next person, but I really believe we need to focus our attention on the issues that really matter. What I mean is, if you look at the major differences between Dapper and Edgy, the only thing that has really changed aside from package updates is upstart. And while this is a good thing, is it really that important? Should all the work that went into that project have been focused elsewhere? Do those few seconds gained matter that much. Moreover, how often do you reboot your computer to even care? Anyway I propose those that are interested in helping out Ubuntu ask Windows users and people new to Linux what there biggest complaints are, what needs to be fixed, or what needs to be done. The thing is, most Linux developers (Ubuntu's included) have likely used Linux so long they have forgotten what it's like to be a newcomer. If enough people are interested in doing this I'll e-mail Mark a link to this thread so he can take a glance.

[Gargamella]

better laptop graphic and wireless chip support (intel for instance)

[chaosgeisterchen]

I have a more or less great suggestion. Let's work hard to make ubuntu fully capable of 64 bit usage. It will be the hell of a lot faster than any other OS on the whole planet.

[EdThaSlayer]

I have a more or less great suggestion. Let's work hard to make ubuntu fully capable of 64 bit usage. It will be the hell of a lot faster than any other OS on the whole planet.

64 bit pcs are the future right?
but sadly it wasnt such a big leap as from 16 to 32 bit pcs...
but yeah! your right!:-k i think...

[Tomosaur]

It's fine saying 'the major updates' when you're only the end user. Big, noticeable improvements are what users want, but there is a LOT of work to be done that the end user probably will never even notice. Most of the programming will go into seemingly minor things which only become noticeable in specific circumstances. Without the little things, there'd be no big differences because nothing would work anyway.

[DoctorMO]

Open source doesn't work like that. people work on what _they_ want to. you can petition them to work on what _you_ want them to work on but at the end of the day the only way you'll move Linux in the direction you believe it needs to go is getting your hands dirty or hiring someone to do it for you.

[Nonno Bassotto]

I agree that it is a good thing if developers focus on what the community needs. The fact is that complete linux newbies aren't the best target to ask. You just have to browse the forum to realize it. Lots of people complain about: hardware support lacking, codec support lacking, not being able to install *put your favorite app here*.rpm just downloaded from the relative site, and so on.

This is just because they don't know how things work on linux. They don't know that lack of hardware support has been discussed many times, but things can't improve dramatically without the help of vendors. They don't know that codecs can be installed with a click from the repos, or using automatix. They don't know that repos exist, so they do what they're used to in windows.

Only when you're a bit accustomed to how things work in linux you can give some useful advice. When you first switch from windows, you will ask for linux to be like windows.

[dca]

...it's better to ask enterprise users... Larger and larger corporations are migrating servers to a Linux-based environment. When offering support for $$$ those would be the people I would ask improvement suggestions from...

[DoctorMO]

those are the people who have the funds to cause development to happen. no matter how good a developer is he's only going to be interested in developing what he's interested in when it comes to his spare time.

The more users that can help developers the better.

[puppy]

there's definitely a lot more to be done regarding wireless support - installing a wireless card can be excruciating and actual wireless performance can be intermittent at best for some. I for one have not been able to get the network manager applet to work *at all*

[shining]

I'd like to see Ubuntu succeed as much as the next person, but I really believe we need to focus our attention on the issues that really matter. What I mean is, if you look at the major differences between Dapper and Edgy, the only thing that has really changed aside from package updates is upstart. And while this is a good thing, is it really that important? Should all the work that went into that project have been focused elsewhere? Do those few seconds gained matter that much. Moreover, how often do you reboot your computer to even care? Anyway I propose those that are interested in helping out Ubuntu ask Windows users and people new to Linux what there biggest complaints are, what needs to be fixed, or what needs to be done. The thing is, most Linux developers (Ubuntu's included) have likely used Linux so long they have forgotten what it's like to be a newcomer. If enough people are interested in doing this I'll e-mail Mark a link to this thread so he can take a glance.

I will have to disagree here. The role of a distrib is limited, they distribute most of the packages, they don't develop them (thus the name...)
However, the init system can be specific to a distribution, and so that's one of the things that can be developped.
If you don't often shutdown your computer, then you should. And a few second does matter.
Note that this is not even done, upstart is there, but the old initscripts are still used, with the upstart-compat-sysv package. I don't believe there is any benefits yet.

[bruce89]

I have a more or less great suggestion. Let's work hard to make ubuntu fully capable of 64 bit usage. It will be the hell of a lot faster than any other OS on the whole planet.

It does :
bruce@Scooby-Doo:~$ uname -a
Linux Scooby-Doo 2.6.17-10-generic #2 SMP Fri Oct 13 15:34:39 UTC 2006 x86_64 GNU/Linux


What I mean is, if you look at the major differences between Dapper and Edgy, the only thing that has really changed aside from package updates is upstart.

What about these - https://features.launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/edgy

[chaosgeisterchen]

Well. Not every application is optimized towards 64bit, ain't it?

[ButtonMasher]

They don't know that codecs can be installed with a click from the repos, or using automatix. They don't know that repos exist, so they do what they're used to in windows.

How about some animated tutorials showing newbies how to do stuff like this? It's one thing to read "Click here and here and here" and it's another to see it on your screen.

Also how about scripts to edit files (like sources) for you? Having a newbie try to "sudo gedit" a complex file could possibly lose them for good.

[DoctorMO]

ButtonMasher I know you can make those kinds of things, but it's not an animation it moves the mouse cursor for you and cliks on things, as soon as you move the mouse you regain control.

[plb]

How about some animated tutorials showing newbies how to do stuff like this? It's one thing to read "Click here and here and here" and it's another to see it on your screen.

Also how about scripts to edit files (like sources) for you? Having a newbie try to "sudo gedit" a complex file could possibly lose them for good.

You mean kind of like a Windows Tour?

[DoctorMO]

plb, no thats a marketing tool.

an interactive help is more what I had in mind, a help page that describes a feature lets say and then it has a link on it which says 'show me'

this would then show the feature in the application. even if that application is bash or gnome it's self.