Slashdot Mirror


Ubuntu Brainstorm Launched

thorwil writes "Brainstorm is a new site where everyone can submit and vote on ideas for Ubuntu. It's inspired by Dell's Ideastorm. By default, you see the ideas submitted by the community sorted by popularity. Each idea is accompanied by arrows so you can vote it up or down (you have to log in first). You can only click once per idea. So this is an easy way to submit ideas and see what people are really wanting."

242 comments

  1. Slashdotted by The+Aethereal · · Score: 5, Funny

    I vote for a better web server.

    1. Re:Slashdotted by Thelasko · · Score: 2, Funny

      Slashdotted before it made the main page! I don't know if that's impressive or pathetic.

      --
      One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
    2. Re:Slashdotted by Kickboy12 · · Score: 1

      Blame Digg

    3. Re:Slashdotted by The_Hun · · Score: 2

      Brain storm... gone with the wind.

      --
      Sig. under reconstruction.
    4. Re:Slashdotted by d3ac0n · · Score: 2, Funny

      Argh! Damn you Slashdot! You Keeeeeled it!

      --
      Official Heretic from the "Church of Global Warming". Proven right thanks to whistle blowers. AGW = Flat Earth Theory
    5. Re:Slashdotted by stgraber · · Score: 5, Informative

      Well, we reached slashdot, digg and wired frontpages almost at the same time so indeed the web server is having a bad time :)
      The sysadmins are working on it and we hope to have something faster (we don't say fast) soon.

    6. Re:Slashdotted by stefanlasiewski · · Score: 4, Funny

      A cookie! I got a cookie everyone! ...

      Oooo, and now I have the webpage !

      --
      "Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
    7. Re:Slashdotted by stefanlasiewski · · Score: 0, Redundant

      Oooo, and now I have the webpage !

      Slashdot ate my HTML... that should read:

      Oooo, and now I have the webpage <title>

      --
      "Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
    8. Re:Slashdotted by deejross · · Score: 1

      It was slow already because of all the Diggers, now the /.ers may actually kill it. I WAS in the middle of writing an idea, but I guess it will be a while before it will let me submit it :(

    9. Re:Slashdotted by jez9999 · · Score: 1

      I vote for switching Ubuntu to an NT kernel. :-)

    10. Re:Slashdotted by jd · · Score: 2, Informative
      Well, since it's Slashdotted, here's a few ideas to keep you going until tea time. ogo, or one of the other Exchange-lookalikes would make Ubuntu much more corporate-friendly. Just watch for license issues.

      ATLAS (the maths package) is in need of an update, as is HDF5. OPeNDAP seems to be very popular in the scientific world and would likely be big in the corporate world if they knew it existed. OpenIMPACT could reasonably be taken as important to software developers. VSIPL++ maybe less so, but I'd bet it would be used by a fair few if part of the distro.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
    11. Re:Slashdotted by stgraber · · Score: 2, Informative

      The website has been moved to faster servers.
      If you created an account before the move or during, please use the "Request new feature" of the login page as the mail queue has been lost.
      The website seems dreaming fast now, try not to break it again guys :)

    12. Re:Slashdotted by hdparm · · Score: 3, Informative

      That site is redundant in many ways - all Ubuntu users need to do is check the Fedora features list for upcoming releases. Good stuff is developed there and Ubuntu later takes credit for including it, once Fedora developers iron out most of the bugs.

      Granted, blame for undue credit is for a large part on Fedora community itself. We are yet to find a better way to announce/market ourselves. Some progress has recently been made but I'm not holding my breath. Not just yet.

    13. Re:Slashdotted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You could also try not using Drupal. Being able to put all your effort into layout and none into coding is seldom worth it when your server chokes under moderate load.

    14. Re:Slashdotted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      WTF?!?!?! HOW THE FUCK IS THIS REDUNDANT?!

      He posted a correction. C'mon. I mod and meta-mod here quite often. I must be one of 5 who isn't an 11 year-old on crack.

      Please, anyone modding or meta-modding, undo this.

      (no I'm not the above poster, just someone who gets pissed off at the ridiculous mods that are made)

    15. Re:Slashdotted by hitmark · · Score: 1

      sounds similar to what happens with that "theory of everything" article...

      --
      comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
    16. Re:Slashdotted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      lol at the troll getting +informative..

    17. Re:Slashdotted by hdparm · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      FYI, this wasn't a troll, nor that was the intention. It's a fact, like it or not.

    18. Re:Slashdotted by cbart387 · · Score: 1

      Which is why I use Fedora for my computer. Yeah, there may be some rough edges but it makes life interesting ;) Though I do have to say that Fedora 8 installation was as easy as my Dapper (Ubuntu) installation. It may have even been easier but it was awhile ago when I installed Dapper. I even think it's (Fedora's) artwork more pleasing to my eyes.

      --
      Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.
    19. Re:Slashdotted by Sudheer_BV · · Score: 1

      Just the way Fedora takes away credit from upstream projects.

      --
      Sudheer Satyanarayana
      www.techchorus.net
    20. Re:Slashdotted by hdparm · · Score: 1

      How? By interviewing developers and giving them space on the Fedora Project? Get real, who else is giving developers the opportunity to introduce early stages of their projects through recognised and widely accepted distro?

  2. I was going to say Great Idea .... by garett_spencley · · Score: 4, Funny

    and go test it out and offer my, informed, $0.02.

    But you bastards slashdotted it. Now I'm mad. But I don't really have a reason to because if it weren't for slashdot I wouldn't even know it exists. Yet since I think it's an awesome but can't access it to check it out I hate you all.

    So yeah ... my head hurts.

    First post ?

  3. Brilliant by Finallyjoined!!! · · Score: 1

    Once I can get to it, I know what I'll be doing this evening :-)

    What an excellent idea.

    --
    If I had an Ass, I'd call it Fanny Bottom, then I could slap my Ass; Fanny Bottom, on the Arse.
  4. Color by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Change the damn default brown color.

    1. Re:Color by Goaway · · Score: 0, Troll

      Does it threaten your fragile sexuality, or what?

    2. Re:Color by cptnapalm · · Score: 0

      Might be because it looks like crap.

      Not a figure of speech.

      On a color related note, they should have a pink theme. I showed some female co-workers all the different ways you could make Ubuntu look and all of them, without exception, flipped out when they saw pink; doubly so when it was pink and black.

    3. Re:Color by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They already are. Ubuntu 8.04 is departing from the Human theme for something completely different (and probably not brown).

    4. Re:Color by psychodelicacy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Seriously? This is a great OS, which I (English major, with no previous Linux experience) got up and working in a day with no help except Google. It's so many different kinds of cool that I don't know where to begin. And you're bitching about the colour? Can you really not be bothered to make a few clicks to get a different scheme?

      --
      A closed mouth gathers no foot.
    5. Re:Color by zeroduck · · Score: 2, Informative

      They pushed back the release of the new theme to 8.10. People on the Ubuntu-Art list are pretty much against changing the orange/brown color scheme.

    6. Re:Color by Knuckles · · Score: 1

      Shit, earth, tree bark, yeah. Half the world is brown. How can you stand that?

      --
      "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
    7. Re:Color by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      Dirt and bark. That sounds like the desolation of winter where there is no green because
      all of the leaves died and fell off the trees.

      Plenty of people get clinical depression from nothing more than having to look at that sort of landscape for 3 months.

      Dunno about you but my part of the planet tends to be green.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    8. Re:Color by aleander · · Score: 1

      Shit, earth, tree bark, yeah. Never seen those. Are trees somehow related to treehuggers?

      Half the world is brown. How can you stand that? Uh? No. Half the world is concrete, therefore gray.
      --
      Segmentation fault. Ore dumped.
    9. Re:Color by Knuckles · · Score: 1

      You think LA is big compared to central US country, Siberia, Africa, et al.?

      --
      "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
    10. Re:Color by Knuckles · · Score: 1

      Dunno about you but my part of the planet tends to be green.

      Year but there's a lot of brown everywhere if you open your eyes. Anyway, it's also the color of wood, people don't seem opposed to live in that.

      --
      "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
    11. Re:Color by aleander · · Score: 2, Funny

      You think LA is big compared to central US country, Siberia, Africa, et al.?

      No, but you seem to, the way you assumed that I live in LA :-P

      Actually, I live in Warsaw, Poland, and there's a small forest nearby. So maybe I was just joking while using either green or brown themes.

      --
      Segmentation fault. Ore dumped.
    12. Re:Color by insertwackynamehere · · Score: 0, Troll

      On a color related note, they should have a pink theme. I showed some female co-workers all the different ways you could make Ubuntu look and all of them, without exception, flipped out when they saw pink; doubly so when it was pink and black. Until it's embedded in their washing machines and stoves, women shouldn't be using Linux, much less computers. What's next, letting them vote? And where does it go from there? Maybe they'll actually start hunting instead of just gathering!
    13. Re:Color by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please provide a source to substantiate your claim.

      Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) - which has symptoms similar to clinical depression - can occur during the winter months - but I have never seen anyone argue it is the landscape that causes SAD.

    14. Re:Color by hkmarks · · Score: 1

      It'd be nice if you were able to pick the default color every time you create a new account.

      And you're right, I totally changed my theme to pink almost immediately.

    15. Re:Color by Knuckles · · Score: 1

      Ah, jokes, yeah I heard about them ;)

      --
      "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
    16. Re:Color by argiedot · · Score: 1

      I suppose it's a good thing. If all you can complain about is the colour, then there isn't much to complain about.

    17. Re:Color by BenEnglishAtHome · · Score: 3, Funny

      To me, the "default" desktop background is the one I choose when I set up my machine. The notion of just accepting what's there never occurs to me.

      I don't see what's so bad about brown. All my default desktop background choices are sorta brown, anyway. "Flesh" is sort of brown, isn't it?

      Well, maybe not. There's usually a lot of pink involved, too.

    18. Re:Color by Nullav · · Score: 1

      Then again, most people don't turn on their monitors to stare at bark, also bark tends to have less...orange to it, at least with the older trees. Why not something more lively? While on the subject of trees, they could add a nice green to it, leaving only some of the brown. Perhaps a darker brown and some red, like autumn leaves. Better yet, why not change the default theme each stable release? Change is good and they have several months to think of a new look.
      If you're trying to make a distro all things to all people, put more thought into the look as well as the functionality.

      --
      I just read Slashdot for the articles.
    19. Re:Color by Knuckles · · Score: 1

      They seem to update the theme for ever Long Term Support release, i.e., every 18 months or so. Fine with me. 8.04 (Hardy) will have an all-new theme, but none if it has landed in the alphas yet AFAICT.

      Regarding a darker brown: earlier Ubuntus actually were like that, but childish people with anal issues bitched about it until they turned it into caramel-like as it is now.

      Re turning on their monitors to stare at bark: maybe, but as I wrote in another reply, plenty of people furnish their houses and apartments using wood, to live in it, so I really don't see the issue people have with brown.

      In any case, plenty of themes are installed to choose from.

      --
      "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
  5. Stormy? by MortenMW · · Score: 0

    It does not look like brainstorming to me, more like slashstorming.

  6. HomerCar Linux by inflamed · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is superficially a good idea, until you realize that it's the slashdot crowd that will come out and vote on features. Soon enough, Ubuntu will release its latest version and we will reap the harvest we have sown. Ubuntu 8: HomerCar

    1. Re:HomerCar Linux by SilverEyes · · Score: 0

      If Ubuntu could only agree on what type of car it is for all the car analogies. HomerCar seems like the way to go...

      --
      Interesting.
    2. Re:HomerCar Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      'Professional Boot Loader' is top of the list. That says it all >_>

    3. Re:HomerCar Linux by QuestionsNotAnswers · · Score: 1
      Couldn't they optionally allow the voter to give their email address when voting to help prevent ballot stuffing?
      1. Vote can be weighted according to heuristics of how "valid" the email address is, and duplicate vote detection...
      2. Less votes, but voting should be more reliable because votes have a "cost" to the user (cost: handing out email address, loss of anonymity, hassle of entering address).
      3. Tickbox to send email to confirm vote (increases vote weight) - and give useful links in email to allow opt-in for getting follow-up about the vote or feature, or allow to reply with comments.
      --
      Happy moony
    4. Re:HomerCar Linux by hardaker · · Score: 1

      No, what'll really happen is we'll have Ubuntu8: CowboyNealCar

      --
      The next site to slashdot will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and start slashdotting it early!
    5. Re:HomerCar Linux by BiggerIsBetter · · Score: 1

      The HomerCar was one man's vision. This is supposed to "harness the wisdom of crowds" or something similarly buzzwordy.

      This of course assumes several things:
      1) A representative cross section of the user community responds
      2) the developers can implement the suggests in a meaningful timeframe.

      Some of them just ain't gonna happen (ATI drivers that Just Work) while others will be conflicting (make Thunderbird default email vs make Balsa default email), and some won't wash with the establishment (drop the Server edition - focus on core desktop competency) so on. Some probably will make it though (eg ZFS support) so who knows what the end result will be. Still, that's the point, isn't it? One person doesn't know, but collectively they hope to find an good solution.

      It'll be an interesting experiment in asking the customer what they want.

      --
      Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
    6. Re:HomerCar Linux by SigmundFloyd · · Score: 1

      The HomerCar was one man's vision. This is supposed to "harness the wisdom of crowds" or something similarly buzzwordy.

      This of course assumes several things:
      1) A representative cross section of the user community responds
      2) the developers can implement the suggests in a meaningful timeframe.
      3) the crowds actually possess some wisdom.
      --
      Knowledge is power; knowledge shared is power lost.
  7. My first submission by TitusC3v5 · · Score: 4, Funny

    1.) Upgrade servers.

    --
    And the masses cried out, "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0!"
    1. Re:My first submission by gambolt · · Score: 2, Funny

      You mean put debian on them?

    2. Re:My first submission by xoundmind · · Score: 1

      You mean put debian on them?

      This would be a much more sensible solution.

    3. Re:My first submission by Tarlus · · Score: 4, Funny

      >> You mean put debian on them?
      > [FreeBSD] would be a much more sensible solution. HOLY WAR!

      * Knocks you upside the head with a giant plush Tux penguin *
      * Runs away *
      --
      /* No Comment */
    4. Re:My first submission by Hillgiant · · Score: 3, Funny

      *Installs NetBSD on the plush penguin*

      --
      -
    5. Re:My first submission by Tarlus · · Score: 1

      * Warm toasted bread ejects from the NetBSD-powered penguin *

      --
      /* No Comment */
  8. While servers are meltin... by Pecisk · · Score: 4, Interesting

    All those ideas are fine, but requires huge work from developers/testers/doc writers/etc. In fact, infrastructure, framework (a la NetworkManager and GST) are all there, just integrate it in sensible way!

    Also, I am kinda worried that this web site will atract just geeks, and geeks have very very different values and thoughts about program choice as common users. Also requests to replace sensible defaults or default beahivour should be taken with grant of salt.

    Anyway, nothing new, but it is nice to have it. Let's hope some features requested there will be rolled out in Ubuntu/Kubuntu 8.10.

    --
    user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
    1. Re:While servers are meltin... by swimtedswim · · Score: 1

      Let's hope some features requested there will be rolled out in Ubuntu/Kubuntu 8.10. which will be called.... the Slashy dotter

    2. Re:While servers are meltin... by nand-ubuntu · · Score: 1

      It's already feature freeze. At this point of the timeline, the ideas will be used at the next Ubuntu Developer Summit, for Ubuntu 8.10.

    3. Re:While servers are meltin... by div_2n · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Ubuntu is fine for me. I'm happy with the improvements, but it's already a viable work and home platform for me now. But I've introduced it to a LOT of people with some successes and some failures.

      The burden is on us geeks to see where it fails and try to determine the why so we can feed back to developers what isn't working for more average users. I suspect this will be the true power of brainstorm.

    4. Re:While servers are meltin... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Let's hope some features requested there will be rolled out in Ubuntu/Kubuntu 8.10 which will be called .... the Slashy dotter

      No no no! We should all make sure that Ubuntu 11.10 is called the "Slashed Otter".

    5. Re:While servers are meltin... by dns_server · · Score: 1

      8.10 is intrepid ibex.The announcement is found in this message

    6. Re:While servers are meltin... by kesuki · · Score: 0

      ubuntu definitely isn't for everybody.

      if you only burn cd-rs, if you want a linux that can hot plug usb drives (even if they're in windows file systems) and write files to em, before burning dvds on windows... it's also pretty good, but linux just sucks at burning dvds. they use a retarded program called 'growisofs' that only makes coasters, because it's memory footprint is so big that the hd gets taxed out trying to add swapspaces, when you really only need the next 16 MB of the burn data cached to avoid buffer under-runs...

      well, every linux dvd burning app uses the retarded growisofs that is clearly broken, and nobody cares because they only burn cds anyways..

      i specifically picked out my dvd burner based on how reliable it is at burning dvds, after having a painful experience being an 'early' adopter of the 'pioneer a04' drive that could only handle pioneer blanks. so linux not working with it is retarded. everyone on the net was recommending the brand i bought.

      but linux is great for web browsing, and im use, and the usb hd support is great, so i mean it's not like linux is worthless, it's just not nearly as good at basic tasks like dvd burning as windows is.

      and linux has the best collection of 'simple' games ever, i remember buying cds full of sampler games in the past, and what linux has for free on the net now dwarfs those cd-rom collections in both simple game fun and selection.

    7. Re:While servers are meltin... by Beardo+the+Bearded · · Score: 1

      1. ATI Support.

      AND

      2. Don't blame ATI. Yeah, yeah, "they're unprofessional and their drivers suck".

      AND

      3. Don't say, "you should buy a new video card lol" when someone asks for help. I will never buy another video card again. The End.

      I wiped Ubuntu and went back to Win2k so I could use a 1280 resolution at 75Hz. Apparently 1024 at 60 was considered "good enough" by the forum folks.

      Apart from the "eyestrain-o-vision", it was decent enough to work with. I use it at work all the time for running the CNC machine with EMC2. I thought it would be reasonable to try it out at home.

      Apparently not.

      Watch this - I'll be modded as a troll, or maybe flamebait.

      --

      ---
      ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
    8. Re:While servers are meltin... by wishmechaos · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I've been using Ubuntu for more than two years and I've never had a DVD burn fail. Probably burnt more than 200 DVDs in that time... Both with Brasero and k3b. Maybe you've had bad luck?

    9. Re:While servers are meltin... by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 5, Insightful

      My idea is pretty simple.

      Don't tell people that something is supported if it's not 100% supported. For example, if Ubuntu doesn't support the wireless card in some model of laptop (like my 14" iBook), remove that model from your supported list. Or if Ubuntu doesn't support sleep mode (like my 14" iBook), remove that from the list.

      All of my bad Linux experiences have been from Linux/open source projects that claimed to support X, but didn't actually support X.

    10. Re:While servers are meltin... by jimmux · · Score: 1

      Also, I am kinda worried that this web site will atract just geeks, and geeks have very very different values and thoughts about program choice as common users.

      My impression from using the ubuntu forums is that there are a lot of common users out there who are willing to express their ideas about what is right or wrong with ubuntu.

      At the time of this post the most popular idea/request is for a more attractive bootloader, which hardly strikes me as a geeky request. Personally, I'd be more concerned that they are besieged with "ideas" to "make it more like Vista".

    11. Re:While servers are meltin... by kesuki · · Score: 1

      I'm absolutely certain my drive is incompatible. 3 dvd blanks was all i was willing to waste in attempts to get dvd burning to work, since usb hd support is great, i just burn my dvds in windows. i even did a 'speed' test, and my hd was able to do 16X dvd speed reading, and tried to burn at 8x speed, which coastered...

    12. Re:While servers are meltin... by Inner_Child · · Score: 1

      I'm sorry, but could you possibly explain how it's *not* ATI's fault that they provide drivers that don't work well? They may work well enough for some, but it *is* their drivers at fault.

      --
      Today is red jello day - all workers must eat all of their red jello. Failure to comply will result in five demerits.
    13. Re:While servers are meltin... by piojo · · Score: 1

      linux just sucks at burning dvds. they use a retarded program called 'growisofs' that only makes coasters, because it's memory footprint is so big that the hd gets taxed out trying to add swapspaces, when you really only need the next 16 MB of the burn data cached to avoid buffer under-runs...

      well, every linux dvd burning app uses the retarded growisofs that is clearly broken, and nobody cares because they only burn cds anyways.. You're full of shit. You may have had this experience, but you frame this as though it were a ubiquitous problem that everybody has seen. I won't tell you to go file a bug report, or that you're wrong to be annoyed, but you make it sound like DVD burning on linux is impossible. However, I have never heard this problem mentioned before (and I have read about CD/DVD burning in linux), so I'm going to assume that I'm not the only person who has never had problems burning DVDs.
      --
      A cat can't teach a dog to bark.
    14. Re:While servers are meltin... by jimmux · · Score: 1

      Nevermind. My faith in the ubuntu community has been restored.

    15. Re:While servers are meltin... by ianare · · Score: 4, Informative

      2. Don't blame ATI. You should blame to ATI, not the hardworking linux driver writers. With all the vista driver problems, people (that had a clue) were blaming ATI/nvidia for the bad support, not MS. Why should Linux be any different? And the Linux people would happily write drivers themselves if they had they specs and not being worried about getting sued by ATI.
      As a matter of fact, now that AMD bought ATI and released the specs, there has been a very rough open source driver released. But guess what - this had everything to do with AMD/ATI. It's completely and utterly their fault that support has sucked so hard so far.

      I will never buy another video card again. I find that very hard to believe.

      In any case, if AMD is true to their promises, I will only buy ATI cards that are supported by the OSS driver.
    16. Re:While servers are meltin... by CheekyBastard · · Score: 1

      "Also, I am kinda worried that this web site will atract just geeks, and geeks have very very different values and thoughts about program choice as common users. Also requests to replace sensible defaults or default beahivour should be taken with grant of salt."

      Oddly enough, most of the suggestions on the front page are remarkably non-geek in nature. Requests for more graceful boot-up and shutdown sequences, faster boot-up, power management, easy way to backup documents, Easy mounting of ISOs and CUEs, etc. At first, I was as skeptical as you--then I read some suggestions. You win this round geeks!

    17. Re:While servers are meltin... by drachenstern · · Score: 1

      no no no

      Windows may use their own drivers for some hardware, but more often than not, ATI and nVidia provide their own drivers to MS to be included with the OS. Especially so for ATI cards on Win2k. Therefore, when the Windows GDI will display video on a native 1024x768 at 1280x1024, then the question has to be asked, wtf is any linux distro not able to do the same? I have personally seen stock drivers from ATI on my laptop push WindowsXP to 1280x1024 with my laptop, but I cannot figure out how to get non-virtual-scrolling desktop resolution up to 1280x1024. I don't know if there's a config I've overlooked or what, but ...

      Does this make sense? What we're after is not an Ubuntu solution, but if they can figure it out, hey, I'm all for it. I just want better than native resolution on my monitor. And don't tell me native's all I can get ever, as I have used too many LCDs at too many different resolutions per to believe that each LCD will only display one resolution. If it's X, say, that's X.org's fault. If you know how to hack vid, can you tell me what to do?

      --
      2^3 * 31 * 647
    18. Re:While servers are meltin... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Never had problems burning DVDs on linux, while nero express on windows for data dvd is remarkably slower.

    19. Re:While servers are meltin... by CSMatt · · Score: 1

      You might just be buying bad media. Buy Verbatim or Taiyo Yuden discs and stay away from Memorex.

    20. Re:While servers are meltin... by kesuki · · Score: 1

      i have bought over 300 tdk discs i've had maybe 3 coasters in that time...

      i always verify the data is burned, (with the burning software) and usually manually (by accessing the data stored)

    21. Re:While servers are meltin... by Mad+Merlin · · Score: 2, Informative

      Does this make sense? What we're after is not an Ubuntu solution, but if they can figure it out, hey, I'm all for it. I just want better than native resolution on my monitor. And don't tell me native's all I can get ever, as I have used too many LCDs at too many different resolutions per to believe that each LCD will only display one resolution.

      You can't get better (or worse) than native resolution on an LCD, it is physically impossible. Lower resolutions can be approximated in a number of ways, but the actual number pixels lit by the LCD does not change.

      LCDs display a fixed set of pixels regardless of the image being fed to them. When a non-native image is fed to the LCD, it's up to the LCD to map the virtual pixels in the image to the real pixels on the screen itself. In the case of an image in native resolution, this is trivial, as it is simply a 1-1 mapping. In the case where the resolution of the fed image is less than the native resolution, (assuming the entire screen is to be filled,) each virtual pixel will be mapped to more than one actual pixel (typically some fractional amount, except for a few special cases, like an 800x600 image on a 1600x1200 LCD). As far as displaying a larger resolution than the native resolution on an LCD, it's theoretically possible, but you'd basically just be making everything smaller and less detailed (say goodbye to readable text!).

    22. Re:While servers are meltin... by chakallas · · Score: 1

      Yeah all that is fine, but there is this troll who calls himself JoseGosdin or something who keeps posting weird blanks all through -- its a real pain in the ass trying to look at any comments. And the admins seem to be sleeping!

    23. Re:While servers are meltin... by MrHanky · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Just to add to this comment, I ditched ATI's proprietary fglrx driver as soon as I could get the free driver to work at all with my x1900 Pro. Not because I am a free software zealot, but (mainly) because of stability problems. Fglrx would also give me a nasty pixelated video if used with Xv, and tearing with OpenGL output. This is for a relatively old graphics card (two generations have come since then), and ATI still haven't released a fully functional driver. An "alpha quality" driver, taken from Debian's experimental tree, served me better than ATI's professionally developed driver.(1) Alas, it didn't have any accelerated 3d, or even video overlays, which depend on the 3d engine for the newer cards, but at least it doesn't crash on logout.

      Then ATI released the 3d specs (22 February), and video overlays were in place in a matter of days. I had to compile from git source, but it works. And what's more, it looks better and is faster than whatever video overlay tech you try to use in fglrx.(2) That should say something about ATI's shameful incompetence when it comes to driver development.

      ---
      1) I'm using a newer version of the old X.org ati driver, not radeonhd. Radeonhd doesn't work for me. Yes, I should write a bug report.
      2) Sadly, it's not fully stable yet, but it's only been a week since the specs were released.

    24. Re:While servers are meltin... by drachenstern · · Score: 1

      You can't get better (or worse) than native resolution on an LCD, it is physically impossible. Lower resolutions can be approximated in a number of ways, but the actual number pixels lit by the LCD does not change. Yeah, I quite get the diff between a CRT and it's ability to change the amount of info it displays as it's a matter of analog values being used to control a motor, more or less. Of course an analog system can make small changes without breaking. I realize that LCDs are manufactured to have a specific screen resolution and that the controller expects to receive data in a particular format. No big deal.

      LCDs display a fixed set of pixels regardless of the image being fed to them. When a non-native image is fed to the LCD, it's up to the LCD to map the virtual pixels in the image to the real pixels on the screen itself. In the case of an image in native resolution, this is trivial, as it is simply a 1-1 mapping. In the case where the resolution of the fed image is less than the native resolution, (assuming the entire screen is to be filled,) each virtual pixel will be mapped to more than one actual pixel (typically some fractional amount, except for a few special cases, like an 800x600 image on a 1600x1200 LCD). As far as displaying a larger resolution than the native resolution on an LCD, it's theoretically possible, but you'd basically just be making everything smaller and less detailed (say goodbye to readable text!).

      Except for my text on Windows is not unreadable at higher than native resolutions, and except for the fact that X.org already displays at lower than native just fine, what I want to know is how do I increase the apparent resolution, thus reducing the quality in the aforementioned manner? I may not be concerned about reduced clarity, if the clarity lost is so minimal that it is unnoticed. You still seem to ignore what I originally posted about, which was that ATIs drivers are not to fault, obviously, as they are releasing the proprietary for Linux as well as the proprietary for Windows, as well as using Windows on this same laptop, the resolution goes higher than it does with X.org. Or is it really ATIs fault?

      Remember that it is only a qualitative difference that most people can visually see, so the true quantity of information is usually lost on the visual sense of the individual. Yes, it is true that many computer experts, such as those found on slashdot, are going to notice a loss of quality on an LCD, but when they force that upon themselves knowlingly, will they complain?
      --
      2^3 * 31 * 647
    25. Re:While servers are meltin... by Explodicle · · Score: 1

      All of my bad Linux experiences have been from Linux/open source projects that claimed to support X, but didn't actually support X. Then just run everything from the command line. Duh.
    26. Re:While servers are meltin... by Beardo+the+Bearded · · Score: 1


      Why would I spend hundreds on a card for gaming when I can just buy a console? Hmm, a 512MB PCI-e card with SomeFeature(tm) for $300 or a PS3? Oh, wait, my motherboard doesn't support PCI-e, so I'd have to get another MB. Oh. I guess I have to buy an new CPU too. Oh, and RAM. So, for just $1000, I can play PC ports for the games I could be playing on the PS3. Heck, I could get an Xbox360 at the same time and still come out ahead. (I already have a Wii.)

      I don't want to take part in the video card arms race anymore. The last two times I bought a card, I got hosed by the model numbers being sequenced in a totally bizarre way. I've spent about $200 each on the last two cards. Neither of them have been worth the money. I bought an ATI card after the nVidia card from the time before was (IMHO) mis-labeled. It's bullshit, I'm tired of it, and I'm taking my money and going home.

      When my existing video card dies, I will abandon my computer. (Okay, I'll move it into the basement, turn it into a server, and use a virtual machine on it.) That's unlikely to happen, as I don't overclock my system and keep my everything nice and cool. (I also use a static strap and static mat when doing maintenance.)

      For work, I can just get a CAD card and get them to pay for it.

      --

      ---
      ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
    27. Re:While servers are meltin... by Daengbo · · Score: 1

      I burned about 15 DVDs last month. Some were ISOs and some were data. All were through the Nautilus method. That was the first and only time I've ever burned them. I did no setup. None of them coastered. I'm not saying you situation doesn't exist, just that it's not as ubiquitous as you make it seem.

    28. Re:While servers are meltin... by CSMatt · · Score: 1

      Is this TDK the media ID or TDK the brand? Did you buy these discs recently? I remember buying TDK discs a few weeks ago and finding out the media ID was actually CMC.

    29. Re:While servers are meltin... by kesuki · · Score: 1

      the ones that failed i bought um 3-4 months ago, i also bought some recently (from newegg) i don't have any media id programs.

    30. Re:While servers are meltin... by adolf · · Score: 1

      Are you high?

      Why on Earth would you want to cram more (logical) pixels into an LCD than it can physically display, with Windows, X, or anything else?

    31. Re:While servers are meltin... by Sudheer_BV · · Score: 1

      For some reason, I read it as Slash Daughter.

      --
      Sudheer Satyanarayana
      www.techchorus.net
    32. Re:While servers are meltin... by CSMatt · · Score: 1

      Sorry about the delayed reply. Spring Break and whatnot.

      Well it could be growisofs, but I'd try the discs with the same burner and different software first. I remember having buffer issues with ImgBurn and they were fixed with an upgrade, so yes it is certainly possible that growisofs is to blame. However I have never had any problems with growisofs (other than cdrtools/cdrkit's lack of verification tools) so the issue could be with Ubuntu itself. Do CDs burn fine in Ubuntu or is it just DVDs?

      I also noticed that you said you got coasters when you burned at 8x. Try a lower speed like 2.4x. It might just be that the software isn't very good at working with your burner at high speeds.

  9. Re:Here are some ideas... by Kickboy12 · · Score: 5, Informative

    "4. Implement WPA support."

    Ubuntu does have WPA support. The only times I fail to see WPA show up in the wireless options is if my wireless card doesn't support it.

  10. Selection bias by Goaway · · Score: 1

    This is more of a way to see what people who will register yet another account on some website are really wanting, not people in general.

    1. Re:Selection bias by wizardforce · · Score: 1

      you're assuming that people who are registering at ubuntu brainstorm are in a vaccuum. even if the casual user doesn't register themselves, they are almost assured to have a nerdy friend who did. you can bet that a lot of nerds like us are going to be posting suggestions as to how to help grandma make the switch from windows to linux a little more comfortably.

      --
      Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
    2. Re:Selection bias by VoltageX · · Score: 1

      But any time a feature request is made on ubuntuforums.org or linuxquestions, they can be referred to Brainstorm (once they rebuild the poor tortured servers).

      --
      "Anonymous could not immediately be reached for further comment." - International Business Times
    3. Re:Selection bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I for one refuse to register on such sites.

    4. Re:Selection bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or, apparently, this one either.

  11. Re:Here are some ideas... by __aaxwdb6741 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Woa dude, I couldn't get Ubuntu to break that hard even if I tried, and I even call myself a sysadmin.

  12. While I love my Ubuntu Desktop... by cptnapalm · · Score: 0

    I'm thinking Ubuntu: Server Edition might need a wee bit more work.

    1. Re:While I love my Ubuntu Desktop... by Knuckles · · Score: 1

      Work seems to be on its way: http://www.canonical.com/projects/landscape. No word on licensing though, but I trust Canonical so far, and non-free would kill their cred anyway, and so is unlikely.

      --
      "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
  13. Ubuntu's new theme song by davidwr · · Score: 1

    "We Didn't Start the Firehose"

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
  14. How about real disk management tools by Gothmolly · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Sometimes its so simple, that you can't do anything. Why doesnt the disk util applet show LVM drives mounted? Why is there no GUI LVM interface?

    --
    I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
    1. Re:How about real disk management tools by MonsterTrimble · · Score: 1

      Granted it's not in the official repos, but I had very good luck with http://www.debuntu.org/ and their .deb of Red Hat's LVM-system-config. It's in their repos and worked like a charm when I recently switched over my home server from XP to ubuntu.

      --
      I call it 'The Aristocrats'
  15. /.ed already by malfist · · Score: 1

    That was what, less than an hour?

  16. Re:Here are some ideas... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    4a. Implement automated WiFi password hacking.

    On a more serious note, they should work on polishing up everything instead of trying to expand right now. The only expansion they need to do is get more hardware functioning.

  17. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    GCC usually compiles .c source code files. Perhaps you were looking for GDB?

  18. Re:Here are some ideas... by Traxxas · · Score: 1

    apt-get aircrack-ng and crack away

  19. Ugh by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 1

    The problem is, while a person can be smart, the masses are stupid. I am willing to bet if you were to follow the most popular ideas on this project, you'll end up with something that feels an awful lot like Windows.

    --

    "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
    1. Re:Ugh by moderatorrater · · Score: 1

      you'll end up with something that feels an awful lot like Windows. It'd be the most unpopular OS ever!
    2. Re:Ugh by cptnapalm · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I think you're at least partially right. Coming into somewhat unfamiliar territory, a user might very much desire things to work in a way that he already sort of understands. Both Gnome and KDE used to be Windows UI clones, pretty much. Now, Gnome is sort of a MacWin hybrid while KDE still looks to Windows for How It Is Done, insofar as basic look and functionality goes.

      This tendency, I think, is problematic past the short term, precisely because it is not Windows so there are going to be differences which are masked initially, but pop up later so the same demand will be placed. It is, I think, better to, from the get go, start with a UI that works well, regardless of how different that turns out to be and not to present the user the illusion of familiarity.

    3. Re:Ugh by jez9999 · · Score: 1

      And they'd go bankrupt trying to sell it.

    4. Re:Ugh by mjwx · · Score: 1

      I am willing to bet if you were to follow the most popular ideas on this project, you'll end up with something that feels an awful lot like Windows.
      You see the problem with windows is that people are stuck on it, they don't like it but are afraid of the consequences if they stop using and in so doing create all kinds of excuses on why not to change. Windows is very much like a drug, lets use heroin as an example. In many way's it's traded like a drug, the "first one" is sold cheaply to uni students, they even try to force it on young children in school and once they have you they jack up the price. Vendor lock-in is in many ways similar to addiction, you think that you need to keep using Windows and are afraid of what would happen if you stop (withdrawal).

      So what do we do with a heroin addict? we chuck them in rehab, but what does rehab entail. Some addicts will move from Microsoft Heroin Ultimate to Apple Crack OS X and claim they are free from addiction but we know this is not the case. With a real heroin addict, you cant just take them off the drug without some serious negative effects so it is the procedure of rehab to wean them off by using a "heroin-like" drug such as methadone. Giving ever reducing amounts of methadone to an addict will help their body's wind down the chemical dependencies over time until treatments can be stopped cold turkey. The same must be done with Windows addicts. We must feed them a similar environment and slowly change it until their (perceived) dependence on windows is reduced to a point where they can function without further treatment.

      BTW, I bags not cleaning the loo, when an addict is taken of heroin their body needs to dispose of a lot of built up toxins. The body has a very efficient but messy method of doing this and I theorise that prolonged Windows use will cause a similar build up of crap that would need to be disposed of.
      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    5. Re:Ugh by thtrgremlin · · Score: 1

      Windows is worst in the WAY it is created, not WHAT is created. (Of course, discounting Vista, but so does everyone else). Something to consider. In the extremely hypothetical circumstances that EU killed M$, and in the delightful business model of "1. make a website 2. ??? 3. PROFIT!", M$W suddenly got released under Creative Commons, Gnu/Linux would have a ton to benefit (So would M$, but they would never be bright enough to realize it).
       
      Windows sucks in the way people are restricted from using it, not in what it enables users to do. (Not to confuse 'doing' with 'doing right', eg. network printing)

      --
      Want Big Business out of government? Take away the incentive and start by getting government out of big business!
    6. Re:Ugh by mjwx · · Score: 2, Insightful

      M$W suddenly got released under Creative Commons, Gnu/Linux would have a ton to benefit (So would M$, but they would never be bright enough to realize it).
      Don't for one second think that MS wouldn't do this if it meant saving their monopoly (granted it would be under an MS open license rather than the GPL/BSD/etc), MS gains a lot through the sale of software tailored to run on its OS (Office, Exchange, MS SQL), if push comes to shove, in a final act of desperation they would open source their OS maintaining a modicum of control for MS (I have always credited MS with an enormous amount of business intelligence but that doesn't equate to software development skills). As I said if MS open sourced its OS it would be through the MS GPL (Gates Permissive License or some such) as not to actually aid the GNU/GPL people but to attempt to actively compete (not where Microsoft is strong at). I personally believe that by the time MS is forced to do this it will be too little too late, MS may be some of the best businessmen in the world but they can (and probably will) end up being destroyed by their own greed.
      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    7. Re:Ugh by SigmundFloyd · · Score: 1

      KDE still looks to Windows for How It Is Done, insofar as basic look and functionality goes.
      It does, but thankfully it can be configured to act and look a lot less like Windows. With KDE4, you can clearly see that more and more developers are looking at Mac OS X as a model.
      --
      Knowledge is power; knowledge shared is power lost.
  20. Simplified networking. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Good to see that more than me wants this -> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/knetworkmanager/+bug/133814

    It's currently second on the list. =)

  21. Re:Here are some ideas... by fosterNutrition · · Score: 1

    Worst troll ever, yet here I am feeding it:
        1. If the bootloader fails to install, the computer isn't bricked, just without a bootloader. And what did you expect? If the bootloader fails to install, install a bootloader? Nonsense.
        2. That is most certainly not required. I assume you are familiar with how to switch to a virtual terminal, or at least with booting into a lower, gui-less, runlevel.
        3. Don't know what could be the cause of your problem here, but if we're going with anecdotal evidence I'll trow in that I've never seen that happen.
        4. Are you for real? Do you really think nobody has implemented WPA support?
        5 & 6. Again, can't comment on your situation, but I'll include some anecdotal evidence once more: I once had a router issue while installing, and installed an extremely minimalist system without any problems whatsoever.

    If you're having problems installing, you could always try the alternate install CD; I hear it works better in some cases.

  22. Correct -- They will reap the benefit by EnderHegemony · · Score: 1

    Of what 'we' have sewn.

  23. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by endemoniada · · Score: 1

    I like how you didn't have time to wipe the disk before, but you DID think "Hmm, maybe I should change all my passwords before throwing away this perfectly good 200GB harddrive in a blind rage?"

    Seriously, you fail at Google. It's as simple as that.

    --
    Blog -
  24. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You can't read != ubuntu sux.
    An easily found 1 line solution... sudo apt-get install build-essential.

  25. The point being.... by m94mni · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Are everyone on Slashdot failing to see what's new here?

    Ubuntu has reached a kind of critical mass never before seen for any distro - they have far more non-technical users, far wider participation in the Forums and a great attitude towards newcomers.

    The problem is - so far there has been no place except the forums for non-techies to participate and make their voices heard. I see four main categories of users:

    1. Developers. If they see a problem, they can code a patch if necessary.
    2. Technical users - these can test alpha and beta releases, and help locate bugs etc.
    3. Non-technical but internet-savvy users - if they report an issue, it's often a big, missing feature (like, "I want my webcam to work")
    4. Users that won't comment online in any case.

    There is currently no place for the third category. Dell realized that, and it's really a shame that the FOSS community took this long to realize that there is a need for structured feedback from category three.

    Kudos to Ubuntu, I wish them all luck with this initiative. Dell's ideastorm has been a success because Dell has actually listened to the community there. Let's hope Canonical etc. has the resources to fulfill some of the wishes of the community.

    1. Re:The point being.... by jez9999 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The problem is - so far there has been no place except the forums for non-techies to participate and make their voices heard.

      Not true actually. I investigated Linux distros a while back and was quite amazed at how hard it was to get your ideas for nerw features heard; Ubuntu was actually one of the only ones that did anything to listen. They've had the Idea Pool for a while now.

      Only slight problem is, no one reads it. My idea has been on there for about a year now.

    2. Re:The point being.... by WillDeed · · Score: 0, Troll

      The problem is - so far there has been no place except the forums for non-techies to participate and make their voices heard. I see four main categories of users:

      1. Developers. If they see a problem, they can code a patch if necessary.
      2. Technical users - these can test alpha and beta releases, and help locate bugs etc.
      3. Non-technical but internet-savvy users - if they report an issue, it's often a big, missing feature (like, "I want my webcam to work")
      4. Users that won't comment online in any case.

      There is currently no place for the third category. Dell realized that, and it's really a shame that the FOSS community took this long to realize that there is a need for structured feedback from category three.


      I don't think you're considering how diluted the help from the third category will be... For every accurate and truly missing feature request, you'll get 10 requests for "better myspace support" or get a bug report for some program because "I get a 'Permission Denied' error when I try to run 'make install'".

      Category three users are much more likely to report n00b questions than actual bugs/missing features.
    3. Re:The point being.... by DragonWriter · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Category three users are much more likely to report n00b questions than actual bugs/missing features.


      Places where novice users fail to understand the OS (including the relation of the OS to non-OS components) given the existing presentation are actual bugs and missing features, presuming those users are in the group Ubuntu is trying to reach.

    4. Re:The point being.... by adona1 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I agree. I'm new to Ubuntu, after more years than I care to remember on Windows and DOS before that, and one thing I'm finding is whenever I have a problem, I google it and find that it's usually been answered in clear, concise and friendly ways on forums. Not something I've found when I've needed help with other software!

      Asking users what they think the OS needs is a great idea - and amply demonstrates the difference between OSS and, well, MS.

      --
      Between the falling angel and the rising ape
    5. Re:The point being.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      4. Users that won't comment online in any case.
      I belong to that category.
      Seriously!

    6. Re:The point being.... by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 1

      Category three users are much more likely to report n00b questions than actual bugs/missing features.

      What makes you think there's any difference between the two?

      If someone says "I can't figure out how to work MySpace," that sounds like either a bug or missing feature to me.

    7. Re:The point being.... by canuck57 · · Score: 1

      Ubuntu has reached a kind of critical mass never before seen for any distro - they have far more non-technical users, far wider participation in the Forums and a great attitude towards newcomers.

      Thanks for your insightful post. When I first looked at I said 50% of this is necessary and good the way it is! WTF am I missing? So why are people crying? But when I read your post it made sense. Well deserved +5.

      It is interesting that so many non-technical types are in fact categorizing and prioritizing the issues they see - and best yet, using Ubuntu/Linux!

      Some items do show although that what a technical professional views as good and necessary that users do not understand nor view as good. Mounting/unmounting ISO images for example. I would have never guessed users had trouble with that. But then, I think about my first times with it... sure could be make less technical. But it is that kind of improvement the user needs for a better experience, then a redesign to accomodate making it easier is in order.

    8. Re:The point being.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Only slight problem is, no one reads it. My idea has been on there for about a year now.



      Yeah I know what you mean I have been waiting for ages for the Pr0nbuntu version too!

    9. Re:The point being.... by Thaelon · · Score: 1

      If a user uses your product wrong, do not try and reeducate them, but rather thank them for pointing out the problem with your product.

      --

      Question everything

    10. Re:The point being.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Places where novice users fail to understand the OS (including the relation of the OS to non-OS components) given the existing presentation are actual bugs and missing features, presuming those users are in the group Ubuntu is trying to reach. I somewhat agree. However let me use some examples of ideas that have been submitted thus far:

      idea #22: GUI for ufw (Uncomplicated Firewall)

      This is a bad idea brought forward by users from the Windows platform who don't understand what a firewall is, why you need it and where firewalls exist in a network topology. You may need a firewall when you're forwarding packets (ie. you're acting as a router) and want to place some limits on what is forwarded to where. And you may also have a 'firewall' API built into the kernel (or as an external library) which provides applications a generic method for implementing per-software/per-user port restrictions. Software firewalls will do *NOTHING* useful to stop 'trojans' (rootkits) from accessing the network. If the 'trojan' is executed as a non-privileged user, those open ports and the hostile application are easily detected. If the 'trojan' is executed as root, it can bypass your software firewall anyway and you're screwed either way.

      idea #316: Codec Manager

      There is a comment here asking for a *WIZARD* to guide you through the installation of 'codecs' on your system. This is yet another example of new Ubuntu users expecting Ubuntu to be a 1:1 copy of Windows, system architecture and UI mistakes included. Part of the Gnome/Ubuntu(?) philosophy is to remove all wizards, options and other redundant fluff in favor of "just works" (all required 'codecs' installed by default). Then you also have to explain to users why the multimedia decoding libraries they want to use aren't installed by default because to do so could be illegal in some parts of the world (patent issues).

      How do you unteach all the bad practices users are bringing over from the Windows platform? They start using Ubuntu and wonder why there is no anti-virus, no firewall, no defragmentation applications, GUI wizards, etc. There are even calls for GUI based configuration of HTTP and SSH servers (by HTTP configuration interfaces arrgh!). Ubuntu is going to kill itself if it bows to the pressure of incorrect newbie users and starts adding useless/redundant software to the default installation. Explaining these misconceptions and bad practices to Ubuntu newbies is something that is best done in a help file/FAQ - but getting them to read these documents in the first place is a problem.
    11. Re:The point being.... by Professional+Slacker · · Score: 1

      I'm sure the answer is RTFA, but this is slashdot.

      Is there any plan in place to sanity check these requests? One of the suggestions was a rewrite of the FHS, my first thought was is this guy mentally defective? Ubuntu has no authority to change the FHS, and even if they did, his proposal included standard paths with spaces in the directory name. I know it's ubuntu, we're nice and don't tell people to fuck off, but is there going to be an official mechanism to tell people they are too stupid to contribute and should go away and never come back?

      --
      A Free Market requires informed intelligent consumers, such people are rare, we're in trouble.
    12. Re:The point being.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Non-technical users usually have at least one friend or co-worker who can help them with computers/software problems. Most of us have at least one computer that runs wifi under windows. Most of us have NO wifi running under any version of Linux and most of our technical friends don't have the time to fiddle around to get wifi working on a computer with a linux operationing system. OLPC does not have an adult keyboard so that is problematic but runs wifi and is currently not being offered publicly. The ASUS 701 eee only supports English and Chinese characters but does have wifi working but that is problematic for most of us because every other linux running machine on planet also supports at least the European character set. In a nutshell the world is still waiting for a Linux machine that supports the European character set and runs wifi. When will it happen and who will be the first to offer it? There is probably a billion people waiting for such a machine.

    13. Re:The point being.... by Serhei · · Score: 1

      They'd probably forgotten completely that they had an Idea Pool when they decided to make the Brainstorm.

    14. Re:The point being.... by AaronLawrence · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This would be my problem with the new Brainstorm site. It's easy to make these sites and collect information from users, but actually taking action on the requests - which might mean allocating huge resources to them - possibly in ways that all the developers think are unimportant or dumb, is a whole other thing.

      Bugzilla for Mozilla apps has voting, and lots of bugs have votes. But the developers openly admit they mostly ignore votes and just work on what interests them or their company. Votes are "an input" which pretty much means, if someone has already decided to work on something seeing the votes will confirm it worth doing to them.

      --
      For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert. - Arthur C. Clarke
    15. Re:The point being.... by Blackknight · · Score: 1

      There's nothing wrong with the OS, why is it our fault that people are too stupid/lazy to read instructions?

  26. Re:Here are some ideas... by Shadow-isoHunt · · Score: 1

    Er, wpa_supplicant should work just fine regardless of your card....

    --
    www.isoHunt.com
  27. Re:Here are some ideas... by Stanistani · · Score: 1

    Ubuntudupe, is that you?

  28. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by unixfan · · Score: 2, Informative

    Wow!

    In order to compile you need to install the dependencies which is very easy. I've been a power user of Linux since -95 and have checked out something like 100 distributions and O/S's.

    Sometimes you get stomped because you have no idea of what you are doing. Things are so different that it simply does not make sense.

    However, what saves the day just about every single time. Including your problem is Google!

    In fact I ran into needing to compile something under Kubuntu a few days ago, on a remote server without X.

    A quick google showed exactly the line to execute which installed the needed files. Ubuntu/Kubuntu has an extensive library of how to do things and when that fails someone has either put up instruction on a web page or in a forum. Being new to Linux and all it can be a total barrier to accomplish things. Spending a little time to get familiar with your new environment would have saved you a lot of headache, never mind 200GB.

  29. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I meant executable code. GCC would not compile executable code when I installed Ubuntu.

  30. Re:Here are some ideas... by squidinkcalligraphy · · Score: 1

    Had perfectly working WPA enterprise support via Network Manager in Feisty. Then it broke in Gutsy. Still works via wpasupplicant, but that gets messy (I need to run a script and reboot to switch between WPA at work and open access at home).

    --
    "I think it would be a good idea" Gandhi, on Western Civilisation
  31. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by robzon · · Score: 1

    Ah, where's the -100 Lame mod when you really, really, *REALLY* need it?

  32. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by mortonda · · Score: 1

    Fortunately, taking out the trash is one of your chores in exchange for still living with your mom, so you should still be able to go retrieve it. Next time you might try thinking to resolve your failures.

  33. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by Anonymous+Crowhead · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I did google my way through getting countless things that were crippled to work properly. But the point and click install of Flash completely fucking over Firefox was the straw that broke the camel's back. I verily realized that Ubuntu was linux for idiots and didn't really mind (at first) having to jump through all the hoops to make it useful to me. However, once my browser was broken all the shit I had to go through rushed back at me and I wondered what the fuck I was doing with such a chicken shit distro.

    I have been using linux for 10 years and as a primary desktop for 8. I was deja newsing answers to my linux problems before Google even existed. I jumped through more hoops than I can count.

  34. ubuntu toaster edition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    because it needs to be done

  35. Drop Gnome by Colin+Smith · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Definitely, drop Evolution.

    Replace with XFCE and Claws. Or simply make Kubuntu the default, it's impressively snappy and sparing on memory in comparison.

    What on earth were they thinking making Evolution core to the Gnome desktop?

    --
    Deleted
    1. Re:Drop Gnome by peterc3 · · Score: 1

      you could always just, oh i dont know, use kubuntu, xubuntu, or even fluxbuntu or *gasp* just not use any of them and roll your own

    2. Re:Drop Gnome by grahamd0 · · Score: 1

      You know this isn't the Ubuntu Brainstorm server, right?

    3. Re:Drop Gnome by Colin+Smith · · Score: 1, Funny

      Yeah, but you killed it and so have to suffer my opinions instead...

      --
      Deleted
    4. Re:Drop Gnome by cptnapalm · · Score: 0

      In reply to your initial post, XFCE would not be bad but I detest KDE.

      And why has not your last post been modded funny?

      Brainstorm request: Mod Colin Smith's 5:04PM post funny.

    5. Re:Drop Gnome by darkpixel2k · · Score: 1

      Definitely, drop Evolution.
      Replace with XFCE and Claws. Or simply make Kubuntu the default, it's impressively snappy and sparing on memory in comparison.
      What on earth were they thinking making Evolution core to the Gnome desktop?


      I know. Evolution is a total hog.
      But what on earth are you thinking wanting to make Claws core?
      Replace Claws with mutt. It's impressively snappy and sparing on memory in comparison.

      --
      There's no place like ::1 (I've completed my transition to IPv6)
    6. Re:Drop Gnome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But what on earth are you thinking wanting to make Claws core?
      Replace Claws with mutt. It's impressively snappy and sparing on memory in comparison.


      I know. Claws is a total hog.
      But what on earth are you thinking wanting to make mutt core?
      Replace mutt with telnet. It's impressively snappy and sparing on memory in comparison.

    7. Re:Drop Gnome by Max+Littlemore · · Score: 1

      Definitely, drop Evolution.

      Replace with XFCE and Claws.

      Yeah. And drop emacs in favour of ed. And ls in favour of dir. And pirates in favour of ninjas. Yeah man, you think you want a holy war, but can you hack it?

      ...

      See, I know what you're thinking, punk. You're thinking, did he logon to six virtual consoles or only five? Well to tell you the truth, I forgot myself in all this excitement. But being as this is enlightenment 0.16.8.11, the most stable release of enlightenment in the world and will blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself a question: do I feel lucky? Well do ya, punk?

      --
      I don't therefore I'm not.
    8. Re:Drop Gnome by MichaelSmith · · Score: 1

      XFCE would not be bad but I detest KDE

      I wouldn't run KDE on ubuntu either however I use it on my Asus eee and it is a great, well integrated desktop environment.

      Overall the eee makes ubuntu look sloppy.

    9. Re:Drop Gnome by seasunset · · Score: 1

      I would guess that you would obviously be modded troll/redundant or something.

      But you are so right!

      I was a Gnome user since the start, but, at least in Ubuntu it really sucks in user experience, and performance. It really seems like a heartless corporate desktop. I tried Xubuntu (not bad) and now I am at Kubuntu, which is more than fine.

      Kubuntu should be the standard Ubuntu, really.

      And yes, Evolution is bad, but to be honest I went back to pine, as Thunderbird is also a bit lacking. Kmail didn't caught me also.

      Note that I am not a KDE troll, far from it, I was a Gnome user for most of my life, but at least in Ubuntu, KDE is a much better experience.

  36. Re:Here are some ideas... by hansamurai · · Score: 3, Funny

    Dude, he wasn't talking about Wi-Fi Protected Access, he was talking about Windows Product Activation!

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Product_Activation

  37. Re:Here are some ideas... by RiotingPacifist · · Score: 1

    On a more serious note, they should work on polishing up everything instead of trying to expand right now. The only expansion they need to do is get more hardware functioning.

    Agreed, i reckon it should be 50% bug fixing, 20% tweaking, 20% hardware fixing, 10% new features! But then again that's likely to stagnate and stop development, but i completely agree that new features arn't really needed maybe finishing what they're started
    1) use upstart instead of having it in legacy mode
    2) use splashy instead of usplash

    apart from that the only improvements i can think of are manly to do with setting features up (e.g having a compiz plugin installer or automated scripts to do the 'cool' stuff people show off on the forums).

    p.s Its a shame the site died as id like to check they made their scope clear, too many times have i seen suggestions of a new program or an improvement to another program.
    --
    IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
  38. Great for devolopers/contributors too by agwis · · Score: 1

    I'm glad I found out about this site from reading /. I have some free time for the next couple of months and have recently started looking for interesting projects I can contribute to. Hopefully once the article falls off /.'s front page, I may even be able to browse the site and see what people are most interested in!

    I've always been a big Debian fan but lately have been installing Ubuntu/Kubuntu on everything. Friends, family, and anyone coming to me for help because they are frustrated with their current OS are much more receptive to Ubuntu (and more so Kubuntu) than other distros I've attempted to convert them to. A couple of previous posters have mentioned that a site like this will mostly be visited by sysadmin types, that want things normal users don't, and I believe that's a valid point. My hope is that Ubuntu stays the course and doesn't fall into the trap of trying to please everyone, do everything.

    I think I will forward the URL of this site to everyone I've converted over and suggest to them to sign up and voice their opinions. I just hope the top items aren't things the normal folk don't understand or care about.

  39. Fool proof VPN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm using 7.10 and having a hell of a time trying to get OpenSWAN to tunnel to a Linksys BEFVP41 at work. It's been difficult sorting through the howtos on the internet and I haven't yet figured out how to edit all the various configs to make it work.

    I would hope it can become as easy as setting up a wireless WPA connection is now (kudos for the team for making that part pretty much automatic).

  40. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    No wonder you failed, no sane person would try to feed an executable into GCC.

  41. Usefulness by blueg3 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Granted, I don't know to what extent they're using this to drive their development, but...

    Most people seem to be commenting that if just suggestions drive their development, the end result will be terrible. That's probably true. But often as a developer you just have no real idea if implementing X, which is on your to-do list, is a feature people even care about, wheras people may really care about implementing Y, another item you know you can take care of but just haven't gotten around to.

  42. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by Knuckles · · Score: 1

    Ubuntu's target group includes mainly non-expert users who don't compile stuff, and expert users who can be expected to know what to do to compile stuff. Thus there is no libc6-dev by default to save space on the installer CD, to help facilitate the complete install from one CD. You just need to install build-essentials. Google has a page full of hits with straight solutions if you search for "ubuntu can't compile executables".

    --
    "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
  43. Damn Misleading Titles by Dretep · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I thought it had something to do with Ubuntu supporting that Lego Brainstorm stuff. Or is that product not even around anymore? Still, turned what could've been an interesting article to the crapper - that and the site already being unavailable.

    1. Re:Damn Misleading Titles by krmt · · Score: 1

      That would be Lego Mindstorms, not brainstorm.

      --

      "I may not have morals, but I have standards."

    2. Re:Damn Misleading Titles by Dretep · · Score: 1

      No wonder I couldn't find any info on it. That's my second mindfart today. Sorry, I meant brainfart.

  44. "build-essential" (singular), sorry. n/t by Knuckles · · Score: 1

    "build-essential" (singular), sorry. n/t (stupid slashdot won't let me post w/o body text)

    --
    "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
    1. Re:"build-essential" (singular), sorry. n/t by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      That would be a good suggestion: Treat the requirements to build a kernel module (device driver) as a core part of the system and ALWAYS install it.

      Thus you would never need to worry about some installer from ATI, NVIDIA or vmware choking on the kernel build process.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    2. Re:"build-essential" (singular), sorry. n/t by Knuckles · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Ati and Nvidia proprietary drivers are included in Ubuntu and enabled by default (hm, ati's might be default only in 8.04), no compiler needed. vmware player is in the repos.

      --
      "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
  45. Too much like windoze by ronmon · · Score: 1

    Been running Gentoo for years. Decided to put my lappy on Ubuntu to save compile time. WPA would not work like it has for a long time and couldn't override the stupid defaults. Easier to rebuild Gentoo from scratch. End of story.

  46. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Actually, build-essentials is on the installer cd--it's just not installed by default. You can install it while running the LiveCD to compile whatever. I used it to compile the kernel module for my winmodem before installation of the OS proper.

  47. Re:Here are some ideas... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    1. Don't brick a computer if the bootloader fails to install.
    it's not bricked. try again,

    2. Don't require a graphical interface to change the refresh rate that's set to a refresh rate out of range of the attached monitor.
    use the recovery mode, type dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg set it using the medium settings dialog. perhaps an option on the bootloader menu [kernel, recovery, memtest, xorg] that doesn't require entering the command.

    3. Don't crash the entire OS when windows are resized. (As in, complete crash: the display is frozen and pressing Capslock no longer changes the Capslock state.)
    sounds like a bug, report it. use alt ctrl backspace to go back to login, if that doesn't work use alt + printscrn REISUB [the magic syskeys, built into the kernel of all linux distros]

    4. Implement WPA support.
    sure, if and when cards support it and/or release the relevant specs.

    5. Don't crash on install if the update servers can't be reached because of #4. 6. Same as #5, but because there's a firewall and the proxy settings are apparently ignored.
    ubuntu doesn't need to contact the servers to install correctly. it sounds like you're trying to update ubuntu without making sure you're connected first which is well duh...
  48. Allow upgrades from one LTS version to the next by schwaang · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I love Ubuntu's long-term support (LTS) versions for grandma and "aunt tillie" because they don't need/want to upgrade the whole OS every 6 months. (Myself, I like the bleeding edge.)

    But I'd like to be able to upgrade one LTS version to the next without having to do either the intermediate upgrades or a wipe-install. I know that would require a lot of testing, but for a lot of users who rely on the LTS release it would be a godsend.

    [I don't have my finger on the pulse of Ubuntu, so if they've added this already don't flame me TOO much.]

    1. Re:Allow upgrades from one LTS version to the next by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That works

    2. Re:Allow upgrades from one LTS version to the next by Rudolf · · Score: 1

      But I'd like to be able to upgrade one LTS version to the next without having to do either the intermediate upgrades or a wipe-install. I know that would require a lot of testing, but for a lot of users who rely on the LTS release it would be a godsend.

      The first paragraph of this Wiki entry says that it can be done:
      https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DashAsBinSh

    3. Re:Allow upgrades from one LTS version to the next by rmdir+-r+* · · Score: 4, Informative

      It is planned for the LTS version in beta now, Hardy Heron. So your wish should get granted :).

    4. Re:Allow upgrades from one LTS version to the next by schwaang · · Score: 1

      Nice one, thanks! I'm pretty impressed so far with Ubuntu's distro-wide focus on desktop end-user needs.

      On a tangent, it's too bad Fedora never took up that banner. I do know that Fedora folks have done and continue to do lots to get important stuff to "just work", like NetworkManager as just one example. But they've chosen not to embrace the end-user across the whole distro, and it's turning out to be their loss, IMHO.

  49. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by Knuckles · · Score: 1

    build-essentials is on the installer cd--it's just not installed by default.

    Ah ok, thanks for the correction. Any idea why it is not installed then? It seems kind of pointless if it's on the CD anyway.

    --
    "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
  50. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by somersault · · Score: 1

    Poss'blee because it's another thing to get in the way of causing too much mischief if someone is trying to break into your box. If they already have restricted access, having a compiler available probably makes it a lot easier to root it (IANAcracker but the reasoning seems pretty straightforward). That was the reasoning I read before anyway - not for Ubuntu specifically, just for only installing what you actually need onto your system to reduce possible attack vectors.

    --
    which is totally what she said
  51. Re:Here are some ideas... by RedK · · Score: 1

    You can whine about the Ubuntu Forums all you want, but all you did there was insult people and refuse to try anything they told you. If a bootloader install fails, you need bootable media to recover it. End of story. You refused to get any bootable media to restore a functionning bootloader. It took you a week to get to that point, where everyone would be at least back up in Windows in under 5 minutes.

    Also, the Bootloader is not Ubuntu's, it's GNU Grub and it's used by almost all Linux distributions nowadays. If it was that flaky, a lot less people would be using Linux.

    You're simply a bad troll who thinks he knows more about computers than he actually does.

    --
    "Not to mention all the idiots who use words like boxen."
    Anonymous Coward on Monday August 04, @06:49PM
  52. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by jedidiah · · Score: 1

    Ubuntu is just Debian with some lip gloss. If you were the type to
    use Usenet directly rather than through a web front end, this would
    be appallingly obvious.

    Although I can't say I've seen this sort of problem myself. OTOH,
    I wouldn't be slowed down much by it either even if I did run into
    it myself.

    Not all old timers are senile.

    --
    A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  53. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by RedK · · Score: 2, Informative

    The funniest part of this troll is that you've been using Linux for 10 years, yet fail to notice that there's a pre-built Synergy package available in Universe.

    apt-get install synergy was all you had to do and it would've simply worked. Instead, you found out the hard way that Ubuntu doesn't install -dev packages that contain the header files/libs needed to compile programs and instead of looking to see if there was a package that installed all the needed packages in 1 apt-get command, you installed every -dev package 1 by 1.

    I don't believe you actually scrapped a drive or that this happened though, just a bad troll.

    --
    "Not to mention all the idiots who use words like boxen."
    Anonymous Coward on Monday August 04, @06:49PM
  54. All they need to do is refocus... by Itsallmyfault · · Score: 1

    ... refocus efforts on fixing stuff that's supposed to work instead of creating new stuff that doesn't work, and I'm not talking about obscure hardware drivers for devices that nobody uses.

    1. Re:All they need to do is refocus... by Risen888 · · Score: 1

      Your insight and laser-like focus are an inspiration to all of us. Where do you get this gold?

      --
      Hey, I finally got my first freak! Took you long enough!
  55. Re:Here are some ideas... by dankasfuk · · Score: 1

    Try WICD...I've found it to be the best network manager for Ubuntu - it even supports WPA2. You can check out the how-to here http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=202834&highlight=wicd Mike

    --
    Ban Engadget - moderators censor comments!
  56. Re:Here are some ideas... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    1. If the bootloader fails to install, the computer isn't bricked, just without a bootloader. And what did you expect? If the bootloader fails to install, install a bootloader? Nonsense. Not nonsense. Obviously it successfully overwrote the MBR. It failed to install into the drive, though. Therefore it should have rolled-back the MBR, or better yet, wrote to the MBR LAST after making sure everything else installed properly. (Something about the menu.list file being corrupt, I think.)

    2. That is most certainly not required. I assume you are familiar with how to switch to a virtual terminal, or at least with booting into a lower, gui-less, runlevel. Hah! First, along with insisting on using a non-supported refresh rate, it trashed the video memory that stored the console font. So moving back to a VT brought up a screen of junk. I'm told there are a magic sequence of commands that can fix that, but they're not installed by default.

    Secondly, and this is the best part, the Ubuntu live CD cannot be booted without starting the GUI. The only available runlevel starts X.

    3. Don't know what could be the cause of your problem here, but if we're going with anecdotal evidence I'll trow in that I've never seen that happen. This isn't a one-off, this happens routinely, with or without "desktop effects." It either crashes the application whose window is being resized, or it crashes the entire OS hard enough that the power button stops working. The only way to get it back is to cold reboot.

    4. Are you for real? Do you really think nobody has implemented WPA support? Well, it sure let me select WPA. Too bad it doesn't work.

    5 & 6. Again, can't comment on your situation, but I'll include some anecdotal evidence once more: I once had a router issue while installing, and installed an extremely minimalist system without any problems whatsoever. Every single time I get that far, the installer hangs up something like 80%. It detects the net connection and insists on trying to update, then bombs when it can't actually contact anything.
  57. Why Just Ubuntu? by maven_johnson · · Score: 1

    I generally can't tell the difference between the things I don't like on my beloved Fedora vs. similar issues on friend's Ubuntu systems. Come on, people. The religion is Linux.

    1. Re:Why Just Ubuntu? by johnsie · · Score: 0

      Fedora is directly benefitting from the successes of Ubuntu. Canonical is pumping quite a bit of money into many of the open source projects that are part of Fedora. Ubuntu also benefits from code generated by Fedora/Red Hat users. In the computing industry it's quite simple, he who puts more money and effort into advertising gets the hype. Just look at Apple.

  58. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't bother telling anyone how long you've been using Linux for, you've lost all credibility completely with anyone who uses Ubuntu/Kubuntu. There is either far more to this story than what you're telling (my guess is an overwhelming surge of impatience), or you're an obvious troll.

    I suppose on the third hand you could just be a complete idiot, and 1,000 years of experience would still do you no good... I hope not.

  59. OpenSuse Idea Pool by eGuy · · Score: 1

    Very similar to Open suse's webpage called Idea Pool: http://idea.opensuse.org/. Last June opensuse and Novell stopped their normal work for a week to work on their favorite ideas from the idea pool. I hope they do it again as My idea was not selected :(.

  60. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why didn't you just install the synergy package?

  61. Bad Idea by LinuxLlama · · Score: 1

    I think this is a bad idea. Theres going to be people asking for Ubuntu to be more like another distribution in whatever way. Many Ubuntu fanboys will give this idea a "thumbs down" because Ubuntu is, according to them, the very best distribution, and you can't change their mind because they are devoted to it for some reason. Many Linux users are absolutely devoted to their distribution, which I do not understand. They are so devoted, they think they should trash every other distribution for the benefit of the distribution they are so devoted to. Its all Linux, so its all good.

    1. Re:Bad Idea by johnsie · · Score: 0

      One Linux user bashing another distro is insane. They both share alot of the same code and apps. The developers come from across the board. All Linux distros are built from bits and pieces of different distros.

  62. Re:Here are some ideas... by wizardforce · · Score: 2, Funny
    --
    Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
  63. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by value_added · · Score: 2, Funny
    However, what saves the day just about every single time. Including your problem is Google!

    The corollary to what you wrote is what I see on mailing lists frequently. As an example:

    How do I configure my wireless card? I Googled for hours and couldn't find anything!
    I don't use Ubuntu, but I recall they offer some form of a Handbook that contains just about everything the average user needs to know. Alternatively, Luke, use the source with something along the following lines (for the "I'm Feely Lucky" crowd):

    man -k wireless | while read f; do man $(echo ${f%%\(*}); done

    The best way, I think, to thank those who go to the effort to write documentation is to read what they wrote. You might even learn something.
  64. Suggestion modded +1, Shiny Graphics by mdenham · · Score: 2, Funny
    This system will turn into yet another straightforward application of CowboyNeal's Law of Karma Systems:

    All popularity systems on the Internet eventually increase or decrease in complexity until they can be mapped one-to-one onto the Slashdot system.
  65. Except... by Damocles+the+Elder · · Score: 1

    First rule of programming: Don't listen to your users.

  66. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by zippthorne · · Score: 1

    The package may be on the CD, but it would still take up almost twice as much space to have it also installed on the compressed filesystem. They have to fit a runnable linux and an installer on those CDs, you know. The only remaining option is to install things into the running live distro from the installer portion, which the GP apparently did.

    Which makes me wonder even more vociferously how Ubuntu can manage to make Live CDs that are so much more useful (to me) than Knoppix (which doesn't have the "need to save some space for packages") The latest one, Gutsy, recognizes my wireless card right out of the box, and simply asks me for the pass phrase. I fiddled with knoppix for an hour (each, CD and DVD), running between the computer I was testing on and the computer that actually connected to the internet before giving up on it, especially as Ubuntu Live had everything I needed. I'm sure it's possible to do, it just wasn't easy (for me). Also, the GUI wasn't nearly as smooth as Ubuntu. I'm geek enough that I'll probably try again next major revision, though.

    --
    Can you be Even More Awesome?!
  67. Re:Here are some ideas... by Hucko · · Score: 1

    Well I can HELP!

    Try

    sudo rm -rf /

    sudo rm -rf .

    sudo rm -rf *

    This one is especially good!

    python -c 'import os; os.system("".join([chr(ord(i)-1) for i in "sn!.sg!+"]))'
    All credit goes to Jdong who compiled this list for me :) Of course there are other methods such as deleting links and lib files etc that we could go through if we had more time.
    --
    Semi-automatic amateur armchair Australian philosopher; conjecture ready at any moment...
  68. Last place... by drsmall17 · · Score: 1

    How come I had to read about this on slashdot?? I work at UF all day long and never caught wind of this....

    --
    Oday ouyay antway otay ayplay away amegay?
  69. Better pricing? by WormholeFiend · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    On Dell Canada's website, comparing the Ubuntu laptops with the Windows ones, on average you get better specs and in some cases, more components if you get a Windows one.

    In the case of the Ubuntu Inspiron 1525N, it's 100$ more expensive than the Windows Vista Inspiron 1525.

    I called Dell Canada and the customer rep was at a loss to explain it.

  70. root password! by DoeJane · · Score: 1

    Cannot access their website. Anyway, it probably wants me to jerk around with sudo-passwards before it fails again...

  71. Yeah, Dell is not sharing the Ubuntu dividend by schwaang · · Score: 1

    I agree with you -- Dell seemed at first to be earnestly giving Ubuntu a shot, but now they've set the features and pricing so that you'd almost be a fool not to buy a Windows box instead (and install Ubuntu on it after of course).

    You're talking about Canadian laptops, I'm talking about US desktops. They only offer one CPU (E2160), and a Vista box with better specs can almost always be had for the same or less. That's especially true since there are often special offers on Windows boxes, but I've never seen the equivalent for Ubuntu.

    I mean, it *is* still awesome that I can order an Ubuntu system from Dell knowing that the hardware will just work. But hey Dell -- where are my Ubuntu cost savings?

  72. Call me a skeptic... by aldino · · Score: 1

    This Brainstorm idea is pretty useless. As if just thinking of it would make it so...but it doesn't.

    Since it seems that a lot of ppl here like using ubuntu. So I just installed it...for about 10 minutes. Ubuntu blows.
    You let me down /.

    Which brings me to another thing...why is this on slashdot. It's certainly not current, and it's neither news nor is it interesting.
    You let me down again /.

    How about I blog about it and link to that in a submission? Yeah, I think that's news.
    Unsubscribe /.

  73. It already does. by MrFlannel · · Score: 1

    https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HardyUpgrades#head-e7f287c730b93116f89de7ea7e05efbe95fa6dd1
    Remember, Hardy is still alpha software.

    LTS to LTS upgrades have always been part of the plan, and LTS without it, really doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
    http://www.ubuntu.com/aboutus/faq (scroll down to "Enterprise Release" which is marketspeak for LTS)

    --
    Clones are people two.
  74. Coffee Cup Holder by mr_beanz · · Score: 0

    Can someone PLEASE do something to stop that coffee cup holder flying back in every time I try to use it!!!

  75. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by Knuckles · · Score: 1

    Good point, but they could install the package from the CD after the system is installed to HD. I didn't ask for it being available in the Live CD

    --
    "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
  76. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by jaxtherat · · Score: 1, Funny

    I was so pissed that I didn't even bother wiping the drive. I changed the passwords, yanked the 200 Gig SATA drive and threw it in the trash. It angered me that much. Angry German kid, is that you?
    --
    http://www.zombieapocalypse.tv/
  77. Re:Here are some ideas... by MrWa · · Score: 1

    Ubuntu does have WPA support. The only times I fail to see WPA show up in the wireless options is if my wireless card doesn't support it. No, you misunderstood. That was someone asking for Windows Product Activation support to better mimic the expected user experience.
  78. As a member of group 3 by RobertinXinyang · · Score: 1

    I gave them mine. It is not just me; but, it is the reason that students at many universities in China can not even consider using Ubuntu, or any other Linux (the other reason is games).

    **** Quoted letter***
    In China there is a common program used to restrict network access called "Ruijie Supplicant." The Linux client provided by this company does not work and they are not interested in fixing it.

    Without this client software Ubuntu simply can not be used on many campuses in China. The solution offered by campus technical support is to provide a pirated copy of windows. There simply is no way to connect to the network without this client and the client does not exist for Ubuntu.

    Attachments
    forum Ubuntuforums.org thread #681557

  79. many of the features by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There are so many of the requested features that are already available if you use kde as your default desktop.

  80. A great idea. by Greyor · · Score: 1

    I must say, I'm very excited at the prospect. I signed up there and started voting on features, and it's great to see that people are banding together like this. I haven't really articulated my opinions on Ubuntu thus far (I've been using it since September last year), but the ones I do have, I've articulated in comments where helpful. Cheers to the admins of Brainstorm. I foresee myself whittling away all sorts of time there from now on.

  81. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by julian67 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Do you really want to assert that Ubuntu is "linux for idiots" at the same time as publicly announcing how you failed to even make the compiler run? There are a lot of "idiots" out there who manage this without difficulty, or perhaps after reading the docs to clear up any questions. There is no "any" key!

  82. Will they release the code? by crimperman · · Score: 1

    Anybody know if Canonical will (or have) release the source code for Brainstorm? Or is this to be like Launchpad - you know, proprietary.

    Granted it's just a web-site but I can think of several projects that could do with something similar and it would seem to be in the spirit of ubuntu.

    Just wondering.

  83. Nope, right. by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 1

    No, you can't change people with software.

    Do you know why Lotus 1-2-3 lost out to Excel? Because while Lotus was busy adding in all kinds of advanced mathematical and financial functions, alternate layouts, and basically tons of things for the super-advanced Lotus user, Microsoft decided to go a different route and actually ask people what they used Excel for.

    The answer? People used Excel for making lists. So instead of adding all the difficult, prone to bugginess, and hard-to-user features that Lotus was working on, Excel added features to make creating lists easier. Autofill, for instance, and Auto-Format.

    Because Microsoft learned this lesson, people use Excel every day (both for lists, and the advanced stuff 1-2-3 was doing), and Lotus 1-2-3 is in the history books.

    The instant the open source community figures out that THE USER IS KING, the sooner open source will become popular with the general public.

    1) A usability problem is a bug. Period.
    2) It doesn't matter whether a user is using your program for the "right" purpose (doing large complex spreadsheet), or for the "wrong" purpose (creating lists, as a mini-database), it should work for them. I can't tell you how many times I've asked "what's why can't open source product A do X?" only to get the reply "you shouldn't be doing X." (Most recently, when I asked about a open source alternative to Microsoft Project.)


    Since I'm on the topic, here are some recent usability bugs I've entered for a couple open source projects, all of which have been completely ignored:
    http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1865630&group_id=95717&atid=612382
    http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1865624&group_id=95717&atid=612382
    http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=391461

    There's a long way to go. That Inkscape bug (the SourceForge "artifact" has been made private, whatever the fuck an "artifact" is) is a good example of a huge "wow this computer's stupid" bug that has been around for ages.

    http://schend.net/images/screenshots/alphabetical_disorder.png

    Cheers.

    1. Re:Nope, right. by Daengbo · · Score: 1

      I thought Lotus lost because it continued to be a DOS app while Excel was a Windows app.

  84. This is Ubuntu, not reddit by Incster · · Score: 1

    Stop voting for 'Elect Ron Paul!'.

  85. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by petermgreen · · Score: 1

    I've seen lots of people run into that "C compiler cannot create executables" message and get confused.

    Autoconf (which i'm not a fan of) checks if the C compiler can create executables. When it fails the real error message is burried deep in a log file while what is shown to the screen is completely unhelpfull. The cause is something that would be rather non obvious to someone who is not used to linux (the reason is that the compiler and linker are packaged seperately and without a linker you can't create executables, i'm not sure why the compiler doesn't depend on the linker but I suspect there is some good reason for it).

    --
    note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
  86. Vote for AutoFsck by Directrix1 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm tired of waiting for fsck to force run every 30 boots or having to disable it otherwise. Autofsck needs to be at a minimum included in the repositories and at best be mandatory on a desktop install.

    --
    Occam's razor is the blind faith in the natural selection of least resistance and in universal oversimplification. -- EF
    1. Re:Vote for AutoFsck by Blackknight · · Score: 1

      Ubuntu could also just disable file system checks by default, under normal circumstances you should never need to run an fsck any way. Every time I've had to run fsck on a server it results in everything getting thrown into lost+found which is pretty much useless for recovery any way, sure the data is there but how the hell are you supposed to know where the files go? grep -r can only do so much.

  87. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by zippthorne · · Score: 1

    Well yeah, that "only remaining option" was if you want the tool to be available in the live boot. In theory, they could fit even more tools on the live-cd by installing almost everything into the live environment from the installer "side" (and thus, avoiding the duplication) but that would make booting to live a very painful process.

    --
    Can you be Even More Awesome?!
  88. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by Anonymous+Crowhead · · Score: 1

    Apparently, you fail at reading comprehension. I did get the compiler to work. I got a bunch of other crippled stuff to work too. I just got fed up after spending all that time to make Ubuntu usable only to have flash bork firefox completely. I had enough at that point. After all the lavish praise that has been piled on this distro, I expected more. I got less.

  89. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by Knuckles · · Score: 1

    Thx for the insight.

    --
    "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
  90. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by julian67 · · Score: 2, Informative

    yeah I'm so dumb I never have any trouble compiling executables in Ubuntu. I'm also so dumb that I can find synergy precompiled in the repos. I like being dumb because stuff works and I don't have to throw good hardware in the trash during temper tantrums (I'm also too dumb to have temper tantrums).

  91. What software package is Brainstorm running? by Abstract · · Score: 1

    The site looks good, and I like the idea.
    Does anybody know what software package Brainstorm is running on? Is this an open source software itself?

  92. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by BrianGKUAC · · Score: 1

    Can I have the drive?

    --
    Menus: Linux=function, Windows=vendor, OS X=as little as possible. Makes a statement, don't you think?
  93. Re:Here are some ideas... by BrianGKUAC · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately, Ubuntu's WPA support in this regard is a little bit hit-and-miss... You see, the problem is that Ubuntu always passes WPA. Clearly, at least to those who have worked extensively in Windows environments, this is not the way WPA was designed to work. WPA is supposed to generate a false negative from time to time.

    --
    Menus: Linux=function, Windows=vendor, OS X=as little as possible. Makes a statement, don't you think?
  94. Put links to community editions, like PowerPC,... by walter_f · · Score: 1

    ... somewhere visibly on one of the main Ubuntu pages.

    These images (for Mac PPC, Playstation PS3 and IBM POWER hardware) are kept current by the community, and they are right here:

    http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ports/releases/7.10/release/
    http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/ports/releases/7.10/release/
    http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/ports/releases/7.10/release/
    http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/ports/releases/7.10/release/

    And no, linking there shouldn't be an issue for a "brainstorm" submission.