Right now, the best option for those not looking for a new computer, but that need restricted codecs and DVD playback, is to purchase them from Canonical (if you run Ubuntu.) There is a problem, though: the price tag - $90??? To put that in perspective, that’s roughly the price of an OEM copy of Windows from Newegg. I realize that Canonical may have little control over the price, but $90 is a tough price to sell at.

The second problem is that it looks like you have to buy additional software just to look at standard media. Despite the reality that free + $90 < $200+, it still looks strange (”but it’s built in to Windows…”). I believe it would be easier to explain to new users if there was a “premium” version of Ubuntu. This version would be exactly the same except that it would include the restricted extras and it would cost some money. I realize that the proposal to create any sort of commercial version of Ubuntu will be very controversial. The only reason to do this is to make it seem more normal to a new users. For an existing user, this makes no difference. It is just a way to get the codecs pre-installed. Nothing more. There would be no premium content, artwork, software, or anything. Just codecs.

I believe this would simplify the entire codecs and DVD playback issus for new users without changing anything for existing users.

Saving a search is a useful tool for organizing your files, but their current implementation could be improved. Rather than just being a thrown-in feature, they should act like normal folders in most respects. Ideally, the search function would also be improved so that you have more ways to sort through your files.

As a person who as run up against this, it is incredibly annoying to mount an NTFS drive, only to be told that you can’t mount it, because it was not properly removed. As I recall, it instructs you to use the terminal to get around this, but you should really be able to just press a button.

There are a number of utilities for examining and modifying external storage devices and filesystems, but it would be better if these tools were integrated in to Nautilus, so that you can format drives, change their properties, and more right from Nautilus.

It would be really nice to be able to use the video chat provided in various services like Google Chat right from Pidgin. At the moment, however you can’t do any video chat through Pidgin. Not being able to video chat through any popular service is a real problem that should be fixed.

Many people have commented that they consider the terminal an important and powerful part of Linux and do not want to see it taken away. I agree and do (as evidenced by the posts I have made so far) use the terminal just to save time on occasion. I do not, however, believe that a new user (or, for that matter, any user) should be forced in to using the terminal and not given a graphical option. Sure the power of the terminal is great, but there has to be a simpler way for new users to become familiar with Linux.

Looking at the posts so far, all of them fit in to one of these categories: a tutorial instructed the use of the terminal, the terminal was used because it was faster, or I was doing something development-related. Two of those categories I have no concern about. Without radical changes to the way graphical interfaces work, typing in a command is going to be faster than navigating through menus, so I see no issue with using the terminal to speed up something that could be done with the graphical interface. I also don’t really care that some development work requires or works better in the terminal. Seriously, if you can write code you should be able to use the terminal. Perhaps basic HTML/CSS would be an exception, but you don’t really have to use the terminal for that sort of thing. (On a side note, I do think that the Bazaar developers should fix this bug, but that’s just a personal annoyance.*)

The category here which is a consistent annoyance of mine is the “I was following a tutorial and it said to do this.” I will admit that I myself may be guilty of this, but it really bothers me when tutorial authors advise the use of the terminal when it is really not needed. In this specific example, I needed to open a .chm file, so I did a Google search. The tutorial I found instructed me to run “sudo apt-get install gnochm.” It could, however, have said to go to Synaptic and install “gnochm.” That would have been less disto-independent and harder to write, but it does make a better impression on a new user. Granted, I don’t know the context of the site I found. The intended audience makes a big difference, but, as a general rule, I would like to see more tutorials focus on how to get things done using graphical tools.

Remember to follow twitter.com/terminaltest or identi.ca/terminaltest!

* Yes, I know that someone is going to say “well, why don’t you fix it?” I can do HTML/CSS (leading to the existance of this site) and bit of other stuff, but I can’t do any real development.

It should be noted that I did not take into consideration whether or not the following dreams seemed realistic or probable.

• A Commercial Distribution with an End-User Focus Submitted by Petros Koutoupis. The majority of commercial Linux distributions focus on the enterprise and server areas, rather than on the end-user desktop. The biggest exception is Canonical, but Petros Koutoupis believes they have “spread themselves too thin.” For example, a Canonical-like company focused on education could be ideal for furthering Linux on the desktop.
• Dual-boot PCs Straight from the Manufacturer Submitted by valmorel. Valmorel proposed that, since many people initially dual-boot their PCs in the process of transitioning, computer manufacturers start selling computers that dual-boot Windows and Linux out of the box.
• Training from the Computer Manufacturer Submitted by Sn3f3ru. Dell offers computers with Linux, but they are so hidden that it almost seems like they are doing it grudgingly (or Microsoft is allowing it grudgingly .) Sn3f3ru’s dream is that computer manufacturers would take a more active role in training the user about Linux.
• Linux for PDAs and Phones Submitted by Eddy. Linux on phones and PDAs has been rapidly gaining attention, particularly with Google’s Android. Still, you can’t easily install Linux on your existing phone. Eddy’s dream is to be able to replace whatever software comes on your phone with Linux.

Well, those are some of the dreams I thought were the most interesting. Feel free to point out the ones you find most interesting in your comments.

Let me once again clarify: these are not meant to be realistic or probable. They are simply dreams. Every time I ask for dream submissions or discuss the top dreams, someone, invariably, has to point out that one of them is totally unrealistic. You have been warned.

And now, the most popular dreams for Linux are…

1. More Games! What were you expecting?
2. Better Hardware Support Seriously, what were you expecting?
3. More Software for Linux. Now that’s a shocker. Amazingly, the top request was Adobe software. Never heard that before. (</sarcasm>)
4. and finally… More Adoption of Linux Wow. Didn’t see that coming.

OK. So thre was nothing suprising on that list, but I think that makes a point. The most wanted things for Linux aren’t crazy, strange features, but simple compatibility issues. Really everything on this list comes down to the last one: more adoption of Linux. If more people adopted Linux there would be more software, better hardware support, and more games. The basic lesson here is that bringing more people to Linux matters and that the way to do that is to make Linux more user friendly and generally better. Those are not criticisms, just goals that every operating system should always strive for.

A frequent worry of Linux newbies is that they will have to learn how to use the terminal, something that is unfamiliar to new users. There is some debate, however, over when you have to use the terminal, if you have to at all. The question is: it is possible to use Linux without using the terminal?

It has been my personal opinion that everything can be done from the GUI and it is only that people are often advised to use the terminal, since it is easier to give someone a command than to explain what to click. Still, though, I sometimes find myself heading to the terminal to perform some test.

Here is the experiment: Every time I go to the terminal to do something, I will put a post out to Twitter and Identi.ca saying what I had to do, explaining the GUI way of doing it, and making suggestions for how things could be improved so that I would not have had to use the terminal - all in 140 characters.

You can follow the experiment at either of the below URLs, both should have the same content through Ping.fm.

http://identi.ca/terminaltest
http://twitter.com/terminaltest

I look forward to seeing how this experiment turns out.

Happy new year!

It would probably go something like this:

Windows has found new hardware. Please insert driver CDs.

Windows must be re-activated. Please enter the license code on the back of the original box.

Windows is running low on space on your 32GB flash drive. Please delete files to free up space.

Windows has been activated too many times. Please sit on hold for an hour and explain your situation.

And, finally… Windows got a virus and has been spreading it to every machine you’ve touched.

This is just in case you didn’t believe that anti-piracy measures hinder innovation.

gDesklets - Project Website

The first option I looked at was gDesklets. For Ubuntu users, they are available from the standard repositories, so head over to Add/Remove and search for “gdesklets.” After installing gDesklets, you will want to add the command “gdesklets shell” to your session (System > Preferences > Sessions > Add). Now either restart your computer or open them once manually by going to Applications > Accessories > gDesklets. This will bring up the “shell,” from which you can add widgets. A huge number can be installed just by navigating through the sidebar at the right or you can look on the gDesklets site. You can install downloaded widgets by going to File > Install Package.

In order to bring widgets to the front of your applications you can (by default) press Shift + F12. If Compiz Fusion is not enabled, there is a box around widget of the desktop background that looks really ugly. Turn Compiz Fusion on and it looks right.

Screenlets - Project Website

Screenlets, like gDesklets, can be installed through Add/Remove if your on Intrepid. If your still using Hardy Heron, it is still in the repositories, but you have to go to Synaptic. To make it start up when you boot, launch Screenlets from either Applications > Accessories > Screenlets (usually Intrepid) or System > Preferences > Screenlets (usually Hardy), then check the box saying “Auto start on login.” From this same window, you can add the widgets that come with Screenlets. You can also download them from the Screenlets site. Then just click the install button and select the package. You should also be able to install Google Gadgets with Screenlets, although I have not tested this.

If you want to be able to bring your widgets to the front, you can follow this guide which uses a Compiz Fusion plugin.

Conclusion

These two options are quite similar in many ways.and there are also other options avaliable, but these seem to be the most common. For me, I am going to stick to Screenlets, since it has a nicer interface and the Compiz Fusion widget layer integration is really nice. In the end, though, it is really up to personal choice. Since neither is difficult to install, I recommend you try out both before settling on whichever one suits your needs best. Now, off to find some more widgets!

Sorry there was no Brilliant Brainstorm last week. To make up for it (sort of) there is a bonus idea this week.

Being able to easily identify file types just by looking at the icon makes it easier to find your files without adding unnecessary complication. In other words, it is basically a win for everyone. Of course the icons would have to be designed to be easily recognizable, but as long as that was done, it should work well.

Ubuntu has already made the system menu much easier to understand relative to what is in Debian, but it can still be improved further. Most advanced users probably recognize what preferences and administration mean, but to a non-techie it might not be obvious. Thus, personal settings and system management are more logical names for the two groups under the system menu.

I feel like this idea has been proposed in different ways about a thousand times, but there are tons of advantages to have Ubuntu-certified logos on products. Not only is it highly useful, but it serves as easy promotion too. Whatever numbers you can spit out about Linux’s compatibility, the fact remains that actually verifying that something works with Linux is annoying. Ubuntu-certified logos would solve this problem.

OpenOffice 3.0 brings one really important feature: partial OOXML compatibility. It may not be perfect, but it is much better than not being able to read OOXML files at all. Quite frankly, it really doesn’t make sense to keep shipping releases with software that is not compatible with the latest format. I understand why it has not been included so far, but now is the time.

One of the really cool features of OpenOffice is the ability to add extensions, similar to how you can add plugins in Firefox. Unfortunately, this is not super well known. If you could add extensions for OpenOffice right from Add/Remove programs, that would alert many more people to this cool feature.