Your chance to feed the Ubuntu Brain(storm)

Ubuntu has launched a new site - Ubuntu Brainstorm - where anyone can submit and vote on ideas for the popular Linux distribution. It's a bit like Dell's Ideastorm (which, perhaps not coincidentally, led Dell to start offering Ubuntu systems for sale).

The difference here, however, is that it is the Ubuntu community that will take the feedback and build a better Ubuntu, rather than submitting ideas into a corporation which will weigh its quarterly objectives against the community's ideas. This is yet another way that Ubuntu continues to demonstrate its community credentials.

It's a way to give even non-developers like me a chance to make an imprint on Ubuntu.

[TimBowden]

Matt, given you're a harsh critic of Linux on the Desktop, what's your top 10 list of improvements you'd like to see? What would it take to make Ubuntu (or any other distro for that matter) your #1 choice for everyday working environment?

For my own part, I've got a few minor issues, but none that come anywhere near making the alternatives more desirable. Perhaps I'm just not into multimedia enough (or whatever else it may be) or maybe I just know enough to make it fit my needs without too much fussing but for the life of me I can't see how the current crop of desktop linux offerings doesn't work.

[Matt Asay]

I'll have a better idea after I give it a spin. Lenovo is sending me a laptop and I'm going to strip Windows from it to install Ubuntu. (Yes, I know I can dual boot, but I really don't like Windows, though I did used to like Windows 2000 quite a bit.) Give me a week and I'll be posting my thoughts.

[TimBowden]

Just pondering the issue a bit more, the problem from a vendors POV is the first 30 minutes after first switch on are supposed to be "golden". On typical linux desktops (ok, not all), the first 30 mins are spent discovering you can't do mp3's/flash//whatever and installing multimedia etc from non-free repos due to licensing concerns. Ubuntu now does a much better job of this, but it's still an issue. I've never considered the first 30 mins particularly special myself (I'll be buggered if I'm going to leave things set up to their defaults), but apparently in retail it's a given. I guess so long as FOSS multimedia has legal clouds it's a real problem for vendors that needs to be addressed.

[PACSferret]

Ubuntu is emphasising the outdated notion that Open software is all about programmers - getting quality feedback from end-users is a key differentiator between Open and proprietary !when its done properly! Ubuntu is showing the rest of us how to do it properly.

[PACSferret]

Another thought - If Canonical includes Brainstorm into Launchpad it'll quite possibly tip me over the edge to move into launchpad.

[Vadim_peretokin]

I'm not sure what do you exactly mean by that - possible brainstorm for launchpad projects? Launchpad is already integrated in brainstorm, and brainstorm really is a place for all those "me too!"'s that clutter up bug reports.

@ TimBowden: That's a valid point, but, I think differently. Firefox already gives options to install flash & java right away, and the media player does tell you to install codecs and points to the downloader (although that could be improved).

The graphical effects however do make up for the initial "wow!", and the full "work-ablity" (ie, word processor, browser, im client are all installed and ready to go) out of the box do compete for the 30 min impression rather well.