How to we make Ubuntu more usable?
- Accessibility - screen readers, magnifiers, etc. Accessibility of a platform is one of the requirements for adoption by a lot of governments and corporations. What can we do to improve it?
- How about speech recognition? (Like Vista, Mac OS X, Opera, etc.)
- Better new-to-Ubuntu tutorials? Help people go through things like setting up an email account in evolution, how to install plugins, how to install packages from the repository, etc. It could be put someone unobtrusive but easy to find so it wouldn't bother experienced users who hate popups.
- If we made the tutorials wiki-based, but well organized, etc by Ubuntu, then we might find a way to include high-quality documentation without having to have a huge documentation team.
- It would be neat if there was some sort of downloadable flash like tutorial that shows users what to click by highlighting the buttons, and then actually has them try it out inside the tutorial. It would take too much effort though...
I would suggest to place an icon on the desktop that opens a dedicated wiki page. But AFAIK there are a couple of other ideas concerning this idea, like UbuntuBeginnerTutorial and UbuntuWelcomeCentre.
- Dyslexia is one of the most common problems, making it harder for people to get involved.
[quote]According to the latest dyslexia research from the National Institutes of Health, dyslexia affects 20 percent of Americans (and about the same percentage of people in other countries.) (source http://www.bartonreading.com/dys.html )[quote]
- Spellcheck and autocomplete options in almost every text-area input would be nice.. Maybe in Gnome?
- Make a "Windows Compatibility Mode" a preference option, setting Ctrl+Alt+Del to open the System Monitor, setting .doc as the default format for Open Office.org Writer, etc.
- I don't think that changing the action of Ctrl-Alt-Delete is really a compatibility issue, these keyboard shortcuts should be changeable easily (graphically) by the user to do anything they want. I think a better idea might be a kind of "Check for Windows compatibility" tool which can be used on, for example, USB drives or just regular folders. It could check for and add "filename extensions" which Windows needs, sort out characters which will not work on Windows, such as colons in filenames, and there should be an option (and the default should be off!) to convert any OOo, Abiword, etc. files to their equivalent for Microsoft Office (the default should be off since "Windows compatibility" does not mean "Microsoft Office compatibility" and therefore Free Formats should not be discarded when they are perfectly usable on Windows thanks to Openoffice, Abiword, etc.). If done at all then this should make it clear that Windows is an incompatible system with many restrictions placed on it's users, rather than the common belief that Ubuntu (and other GNU/Linux systems) are "incompatible" simply because they are not allowed to implement certain undocumented, non-standard technologies. -- Warbo
Ok, "Microsoft Compatibility Mode". Users don't care about the philosophical implications of software settings, they just want things to be familiar and work. Most computers run Windows, it's a fact, and most computers with Windows do NOT run OpenOffice. In a school or corporate environment, Office is the standard, and office does not read OOo files. I like Ubuntu and OOo, but people are not going to think well of Ubuntu/Linux if their work isn't able to be read at school/work. There should be an option to enable MS compatibility.
That's exactly what I said, but I added that it should be turned off by default. It is one thing to support users who use proprietary file formats, but it is quite another to support (as in, advocate by making default) the formats themselves. Maybe there should be three setting, 1) Do nothing to the files (for OpenOffice users, etc. Remember, OpenOffice for Windows is included on the Ubuntu Desktop CD), 2) Convert to PDF so at least they can be read by most people, 3) Convert to M$ Office to make them editable -- Warbo
Remember that OpenOffice.org has an option to save in Microsoft formats by default and that there is now an ODF converter for Microsoft Word.
- It would be good to make this an option in the installer, so new users don't run into situations where all of a sudden they find out the format isn't compatible. Most people don't think about file formats, so they wouldn't think to look to change the setting. Say someone takes their essay to school to print it, but it's unreadable by MS Office. Plus, the user accounts at school are limited, so no conversion is possible on the spot. It would be good to have a checkbox in the installer, explaining the pros and cons of enabling Microsoft Compatibility Mode.
- I don't think that changing the action of Ctrl-Alt-Delete is really a compatibility issue, these keyboard shortcuts should be changeable easily (graphically) by the user to do anything they want. I think a better idea might be a kind of "Check for Windows compatibility" tool which can be used on, for example, USB drives or just regular folders. It could check for and add "filename extensions" which Windows needs, sort out characters which will not work on Windows, such as colons in filenames, and there should be an option (and the default should be off!) to convert any OOo, Abiword, etc. files to their equivalent for Microsoft Office (the default should be off since "Windows compatibility" does not mean "Microsoft Office compatibility" and therefore Free Formats should not be discarded when they are perfectly usable on Windows thanks to Openoffice, Abiword, etc.). If done at all then this should make it clear that Windows is an incompatible system with many restrictions placed on it's users, rather than the common belief that Ubuntu (and other GNU/Linux systems) are "incompatible" simply because they are not allowed to implement certain undocumented, non-standard technologies. -- Warbo
- Enhance the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog, allowing for the user to create keyboard shortcuts that run programs (already able to do this through gconf) and to choose the default music player
Allow copying and pasting of images from Firefox to OpenOffice. ~kewldude606
- Don't clear clip board after application closes, unless the data on the clipboard is large in which case prompt the user. ~ kewldude606
- Second. This is very annoying! ~ Stephan
- Pop up notifications when the user has plugged in/removed a USB device. This should be able to be configured, and may need to be attached to an applet.
It would be great if one can mount .iso-Images and other Images that can be mounted with a right click -> mount on the desktop
- Configure Super-L key (Windows key) to open the Applications/K menu menu by default in GNOME/KDE and Ctrl+Alt+Del to open the system monitor.
- At the very least, configure Ctrl+Esc to do this. (The Windows key may not be intuitive for a non-Windows OS.)
- If you try to delete a directory or file, which you do not own or try to view a directy which the user is not allowed to, please ask for the sudo password instead of giving only an error message under GNOME and KDE. If you try to empty the trash bin with a file or directory in it the user has no write permission for, you don't even get an error message.
Make imwheel a part of main and a dependency of ubuntu-desktop and kubuntu-desktop. Then create an easy way to configure extra mouse buttons.
- After using Alacarte, restart the gnome-panels (killall gnome-panels). It's almost always necessary after menu changes, and it would be very convenient.
- GUI overview over all installed packages (with ability to search them) including the possibility to uninstall them.
- A desktop application to report feature requests (and also bugs). The more and more non-computer-literate people choose Linux, we have to leverage they insights, we have to find out what they think, what is the best, and what is the worst. Although we already have many sites for this, these people are not used to edit wikis and post bugs. So we have to give them the possibility in their usual computer environment: the desktop. It can happen that these feature request would be of low quality, but this does not mean that they are meaningless. Simply, they would not be clear enough to be considered by the developers. So it is not enough if the application sends the request to bugs.launchpad, but we need also a couple of non-developer-power-uses (like myself), who are willing to revise these requests, clarify them for the developers, and submit them finally at launchpad. Of course there is a lot of small details to be considered here, and I would be happy to see you suggestions!
- Preload main menu at startup, the menu takes too long to open the first time.
- The Services Application (services-admin) has dbus in its list. If you deactivate dbus, the application crashes and you won't be able to relaunch it without using the console (manual restart of the dbus service ( sudo /etc/init.d/dbus start )). If dbus isn't activated in the Services Application, the Usability of Ubuntu is restricted (Internet doesn't work, HAL service fails at boot, etc... ). I think, the dbus service should be removed from the list in services-admin because it causes problems for beginners.
Install supported packages directly from a web-page
I raised this Idea for Edgy, some of you thought it was a good idea, so I'm raising it again, hope it catches better.
We now have gdebi that helps installing private "deb"s for example by clicking the deb file on Firefox, and choosing to "open it with Gdebi".
I would like to improve this feature by creating a special xml format that includes a set of packages to install, Clicking a link or a button inside the webpage will download the xml, open it with a add/remove software, and install all the packages listed in it (after getting an approvement from the user and the password).
This will be a nice addition to the "add/remove software" utility, the use cases are varied, for example :
1. It is an easy way to let people download a supported software from it's web home-page without sending the user to another installation program. The user clicks on a button inside the homepage, but actually behind the scenes, the software is downloaded from the main repository using apt.
2. For webpages like ubuntu-guide, or any online guide. instead of giving long command-lines to cut and paste, it can supply buttons that will do the job easier.
3. Webpages that will serve as replacements to programs like Automatix and EasyUbuntu, with sets of recommended packages to just click and install.
LinuxMint is trying to accomplish something similar with MintInstall. More details can be found here: http://www.linuxmint.com/wiki/index.php/Linux_Mint_Newsletter_Issue_10 . Since LinuxMint is based on Ubuntu, it would make sense to coordinate efforts lest they are doubled.
Maemo (the debian based system used on the nokia 770 and n800) has a single click install file format. http://hildon-app-mgr.garage.maemo.org/install.html -- SamTygier
A Firefox plugin could be developed for this purpose (maybe integrate it with apt or dpkg directly). I'm willing to help out if we can put together a small team of developers. -- MartinAlbisetti
OpenOffice
1. Full integration of Thunderbird adressbooks as adress source. -- Greenhunter
nautilus-sendto
1. A functional version: which works with icq and thunderbird contacts. -- Greenhunter
2. Other places (users selection). ex. all mounted FS or removable devices, nautilus bookmarks etc. -- Greenhunter
3. Don't show me "sendto evolution" and not having an account in evolution. -- Greenhunter
Thunderbird
Thunderbird needs a much better integration in Ubuntu.
1. Full integration of Thunderbird adressbooks as adress source in openoffice. -- Greenhunter
2. nautilus-sendto doesn't work with thunderbird. -- Greenhunter
3. beagle isn't indexing thunderbird mails nor lightning calendars. -- Greenhunter
4. deskbar applet has no autocomplete of thunderbird contacts. -- Greenhunter
Mount .iso files with Nautilus
In Ubunu there is no graphical way of mounting .iso files. Nautilus should provide a context-menu entry that lets you mount .iso files.
* Nautilus "Create Document" should be filled with relevant templates for the software installed (eg. OpenOffice documents, GIMP images, Inkscape SVGs, etc.), or else possibly hide that option when nothing other than "Empty File" is available.
Copy/Paste like root
Ubuntu needs have an option to be able to copy/paste files and directories with root privileges.
Tabbed browsing in Nautilus
I'd like to see tabs in Nautilus, just like in Konqueror. They make moving files much easier. Split view like in MC or Dolphin would be nice too. -- AzraelNightwalker
Hiding unused icons in system tray
KDE and Windows can hide unused tray icons to save panel space. Gnome can't. I'd like to see that feature in Gnome. -- AzraelNightwalker
Clipboard enhancement
Don't clear clipboard after application closes, unless the data on the clipboard is large in which case prompt the user - idea that was submitted for Feisty.
Nautilus copy queuing
The ability to que set number of files being copied simultaneously, when a new file is selected to be copied at the same time a current file is being copied it will be qued rather then having another copy dialog window popping up. See DesktopTeam/copy_queing
Preferences menu options sorted
The Gnome preferences menu could be sorted to submenus, just like in Fedora 7.
a better helpcenter for kubuntu
It would be nice to have a better helpcenter for kubuntu similar in some way to ubuntu helpcenter. For home page: welcome to help center, common questions, can't find answers, how to contribute . For the Contents pane(on the left hand side of the window), a direct access to tasks (adding aplications, files, folders and documents, internet...etc) --guillaume
Open Terminal Here
I know XFCE (Xubuntu) has this feature. Right-click on a window and select "open terminal here." It would help and be better over using "cd" and "ls" over and over again to get to where you want to be.