How to propose a new fetaure (Re: Suggestions for Breezy...)

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Sun, May 08, 2005 at 01:18:15PM -0400, Tim Hull wrote:

> First of all, the default fonts on Hoary could look better.  This could 
> be done by 1)enabling autohinter (for Latin fonts only) 2)Reducing font 
> sizes across the board (especially in Firefox - the defaults are too 
> big) 3)Using sans serif in apps whenever possible (for instance, make it 
> the default in Firefox rather than serif).

With the possible exception of the autohinter, these are your personal
preferences, and I don't think that a change to the defaults would be to the
benefit of most users.

> Also, I'm really interested in better Linux laptop support, and I think 
> that a few things would really help.  For instance, there is no good 
> wireless roaming tools installed in Hoary by default - you have to go to 
> universe to find anything, and even then the tools are unsupported and 
> have known bugs.  It also would be nice to see more suspend support 
> (including suspend-to-RAM) as this is critical for many laptop users.

We already discussed this at UDU:

http://udu.wiki.ubuntu.com/NetworkMagic

> One other area where improvements could be made is in dial-up support. 
> Currently, Hoary comes with no decent graphical PPP dialer installed by 
> default (the Network control panel applet doesn't work good at all for 
> me), and no winmodem drivers are included (maybe these could go in 
> restricted?).  Not all can get broadband, so it seems like dial-up would 
> be a good thing to look at in Breezy.

This was also discussed at UDU, but there were few participants present who
used dialup regularly.

http://udu.wiki.ubuntu.com/DialUpSupport

> Additionally, I think it would be a good idea to use dmix for sound 
> rather than using a sound server, as dmix doesn't require applications 
> to be written for it specifically as does esd.  I've noticed many people 
> have been asking about setting up Hoary to allow non-esd sound, so this
> seems like something that should be considered for Breezy.

http://udu.wiki.ubuntu.com/AudioInfrastructure

By reading these specifications, you can get an idea of the level of
preparation which is appropriate for proposed features (and you also know
where to look in order to learn whether something has already been
discussed).

If you have a feature idea that you feel would significantly improve Ubuntu,
the best way to move it forward is to do some of this work in advance.  For
example, rather than saying "I think Ubuntu should do this", draft a
specification (using the SpecTemplate provided) explaining:

- What it is
- What problem it solves
- Why it is a better solution than other available alternatives
- Which parts of the system would need to be changed in order to implement
  it

This information provides the basis for a new feature in Ubuntu.  If it is
complete and compelling, there is a much better chance of your idea
receiving attention.

-- 
 - mdz