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Ubuntu Brainstorm Launched

Posted by kdawson on from the good-ideas-are-where-you-find-them dept.

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."

21 of 242 comments (clear)

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

    I vote for a better web server.

    1. 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.

    2. 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."
  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. 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

  4. 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 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 */
  5. 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 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.

    2. 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".

    3. 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.

      --
      Comment of the year
    4. 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.
  6. 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.

    --
    google.slashdot
  7. 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.

      --
      == Jez ==
      Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
    2. 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.

  8. 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.
  9. Re:SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

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

  10. 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.

  11. 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 rmdir+-r+* · · Score: 4, Informative

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