FrankNiedermann
Frank Niedermann
Email/Jabber: MailTo(fbn@thelogic.org)
My impressions to Ubuntu Breezy 5.10 RC1
I've only written down topics that are not that good as they could be in my opinion. Everything else is already perfect 
I know that some points are more Gnome related than to Ubuntu but I stick them all togheter here.
apt sources: First thing every user should do is changing the sources from CD to http or ftp to include security updates (and universe/multiverse if wanted) - couldn't this be automated in any way? Maybe many users will forget that or some may even not know about that. At least a note in the Firefox start page would be nice.
New packages popup: After updating the new apt sources I was looking at the package-changelogs until the popup "new updates are available - want to see them?" popped up. If I click on "show me updates" another update manager window opens. The popup should not do anything (not even pop up!) if synaptics or the update manager is already running.
Firefox icon on panel: The Gnome icon on the panel next to "Applications" got replaced with the Ubuntu logo - looks great. Why not replacing the IMO not so nice looking blue Firefox logo with the original Firefox logo?
Keyboard layout window: The window for changing the keyboard layout could be sized more comfortable:
[http://frank.niedermann.name/stuff/choose-keyboard-layout.png]
I know this window is resizeable but why is it that small by default?
Font size: Default Monospace font is too big in comparison to the other fonts:
[http://frank.niedermann.name/stuff/gedit-font.png] Also in Firefox text areas.
Search in add to panel window: I tried to add the Terminal icon to the panel: Gnome panel / add to panel / Application launcher -> now the search bar isn't working anymore. Also if I type something into the searchbar and hit return a new "frame" (is it called frame? or widget?) gets created:
That looks a bit weird and isn't usefull
NTP packages: Clicking on "Periodically synchronize clock with internet servers" on the Time and Date Settings window will ask me if I want to install NTP packages. After completed installation I click again on "Periodically syncronize ..." and again the question comes up if I want to install NTP packages (they are already installed!). Selecting install NTP packages does nothing so I'm stuck here until I close the Time and Date settings window an re-open it again.
About Ubuntu page in Firefox: The default start page in Firefox is the About Ubuntu page. I think it would be more usefull for new and unexperienced users to have some information about how to get some basic things done and where to get/find help (forums, irc, wiki). Some links are already in the section Participate in Ubuntu but I think users searching for help don't read the topic about how to participate ... nevermind - just an idea that could easily be improved.
Image viewer: There are two image viewer installed: gThumb Image Viewer (description: "View and organize your images") and Image Viewer (description: "View different types of images"). Do we really need two image viewer? If gThumb can also view different types this application can handle all tasks related to image viewing. gThumb looks a bit more complicated in comparison to eog but if it would be possible to change the default view to Image view (View/Image or ALT+3) it would look as easy:
And it's not possible to load the next/previous image with space or page up / page down in eog, gThumb does this very nice.
Playing audio files: The default Totem window looks a bit clumsy while playing audio files:
The video section is not usefull while playing audio files (I don't see a way how to disable it) and the playlist size is too small. Would be better just to display needfull things while playing audio files:
Rhythmbox may be too complex as default audio player but what about a compromise like Eina: [http://bolgo.cent.uji.es/proyectos/eina#shots Eina screenshots]
Gnome menus: The Gnome menus are growing (especially the System part) and this makes it more and more difficult to find the right application fast. Would be nice if the menus can be sorted in some kind, at the moment the items are sorted alphabetically which makes this structure for example:
- System / Administration
- Synaptic Package Manager Time and Date Update Manager Users and Groups
- System / Administration
Time and Date has nothing to do with the installed packages, Synaptic Package Manager and Update Manager do so they should be together.
Own network (SMB) share: I tried to share my home folder (System / Administration / Shared Folder) with Samba. Installation did fine but if I click on add in Shared folder settings window and choose path: Home the home directory of user root got selected:
Would be better to select the user's home directory (/home/fbn in my case). If I now try to access this share from a WinXP workstation I see the host description and domain I've chosen in general windows sharing settings but if I try to access the host it asks me for authentication. I tried my local Ubuntu user (fbn) but that does not work. As long as there is no way to define user access permissions to the shares they should be browseable by everyone without user/pass authentication.
Keyboard usage on Gnome windows: It is possible to close some Gnome windows with the escape key (example: System / Preferences / Keyboard shortcuts) and it's not possible with many other windows (example: System / Preferences / Keyboard). Also the return key does not always belong to the OK button if there is one (example: System/ / Administration / Users and Groups). This is kind of annoying (at least to me) because I got used to it in another (better) way on another OS (Windows) where I can do much more with the keyboard instead of moving one hand to the mouse for just one simple action (like closing a window or approving a ok-message).