Ideas/11.1

From openSUSE

openSUSE 11.1 Ideas Page - Also see KDE/Ideas/11.1, GNOME/Ideas/11.1, and Package Wishlist

General

• Add rar, 7z and ace support out of the box.
• Make the openSUSE greeter more useful by adding links to common tasks a new user might need to do at start-up (Examples: User oriented like links to enable desktop effects, system-wide like links to .ymp files to install community multimedia codecs and Nvidia/ ATI drivers, configure online updates, etc.)
• Build vpnc with ssl support to allow hybrid auth mode
• Discuss integration of bugzillas with major package projects that openSUSE includes. A bug currently gets opened in Novell's bugzilla, when it may need to go upstream because it is an issue with that program upstream, and vice-versa, a bug may get opened say at bugs.kde.org when it is an issue with the openSUSE package.
• Integrate a build-service client in 11.1.
• Consolidate some of the redundant repositories. Alos, some repositories aren't redundant, they just feature a small number of packages, yet it takes time to sync every repository. Fewer repositories would appear to be beneficial.
• Consider an artwork contest, encouraging the community of openSUSE users to help design better artwork and defaults for the Gnome/KDE4/KDE3 desktops.
• KDE is holding bug-triage days in the IRC channels, and managing to close a good number of bugs. openSUSE is designed to be a community distro. Concepts like these utilize the power of the community to improve the project.
• Enhance LSB and XDG standards if not already completely compliant.
• Simplify menu layouts for apps. The current system makes sense, but perhaps it is too nested. I end up with tons of categories with just one app in it, and I must navigate several menu layers to get to it.
• Liberation fonts. Given that SUSE is supposed to be the best distro for interoperability, Liberation fonts make a lot of sense. Either that, or prepackage the Microsoft core web fonts.

• Installer. I compared installers of 10.3 and 11.0 And found regress in section "Package Selection".Installer in 10.3 has awesome tree of packages groups which contains menus and submenus. Tree is very well structured. So my wish is to return these tree what was in 10.3 to installer as soon as possible!
• Consider the possibility of allowing a 'hot upgrade' from 11.0 to 11.1 from the internet (Ubuntu already allows this), so that it is no longer necessary for users with fast internet connections to download a DVD (or CD) and go through the entire installation process.

YaST

• Give the users an option at install time to include proprietary apps and codecs, or be completely OSS. The installer already includes some non-OSS software. A help option during install time can explain the concepts of proprietary and OSS software to help people with that choice, but integrating codecs and drivers at install time will make most users happy.
• Improved partition manager in installer. Provide visual demonstration of partition sizes (wedges?) in relations to the physicals disks they are on. Also show labels for which partitions belonged to what before (previous Linux installs, Windows, etc).
• Support easy full disk encryption (i.e. everything except /boot) in installer.
• YaST should auto-enable or disable the DVD repository based upon whether or not there is a current network connection.
• Integrate visible metrics with zypper, use SMART, or somehow show metrics during updates.
• Re-integrate the bluetooth module for YaST,
• Given that most repositories are on download.opensuse.org, YaST should make the process of adding a repository even easier. For instance, a simple wizard or dialog could allow you to select KDE or Gnome. You can then choose stable, or unstable, and YaST should know you're on version 11.1 (or Factory, or whatever) and select that repo automatically.
• Perhaps list Packman in the repository list, already there but not enabled by default. Given how often we have to direct people to packages on Packman, this should simply adding that repo for people.
• LIRC YaST module.
• Give an option for users to cache or save downloaded updates and packages. This is useful as backup, for deployment across multiple systems and will save bandwidth.
• Make the YAST Software Installation module more responsive. Currently the software installer interface shows package download progress in discrete multiples (usually of 5%), and on clicking on abort (say), the abort operation only takes place after a further 5% has been fetched from the network. May be this can be improved upon, so that on clicking on abort, the installer asks for the confirmation immediately. There is no such problems with the cli of zypper though.
• YaST's software installation module should show disk space modifications before install / uninstall start like SMART and Zypper do
• Make Yast Software module transactional: if an error occurs while downloading / installing or uninstalling a package, Yast should rollback all changes that were applied in that installation session, therefore restoring the previous environment.
• Drop Yast-gtk and go back to the unified Yast-Qt for all the desktop environments. This would improve consistency in management tools, it would automatically fix a lot of problems related to yast-gtk (many bugs are affecting it and are not present in the Qt version), and it would reduce the effort to maintain YaST. Moreover, with YaST rewritten in Qt 4, the look inconsistency that was at the base of the creation of YaST-gtk is not present anymore, and makes YaST-gtk redundant. See this bugreport for a discussion with Ricardo.

Hardware

• Consider a specialized build of openSUSE for UMPCs and small laptops. This may seem like a bandwagon move, but small laptops are selling like mad, and this could be a revenue source for Novell if they can sell their notebook remix to be prepackaged on these laptops.
• Reiser4 and/or Ext4 support. These options can be hidden, and only enabled by a Firefox-like "I understand that enabling these voids my warranty!" type of disclaimer. Both of these file-systems offer performance increases. Reiser4 includes compression plugins which can save space, especially useful on small laptops with small HDDs (such as SSDs). Ext4 is more future-proof than Ext3, with extents, 64-bit, and large HDDs in mind.
• Improved support for mobile devices and smart phones.
• Persistent USB live image.

Software

More user-friendly package wishlist on web. The current one is too timeconsuming to edit. There should be something form/search based like bug reporting engine for example http://bugs.kde.org

• P2P:
  • Implement this feature on MonoTorrent, which will bring an interesting usability idea from the eMule community. (knocte)
  • Fix: pyslsk is broken and deprecated. (knocte)
• Packaging:
  • Latest versions of kernel, Gnome, KDE, etc. are a given.
  • Xorg 1.5 and kernel-based modesetting of video mode.
  • Don't distribute ancient versions of programs by default
  • Help the Packman community migrate to OBS software (note: I'm referring to OBS software, not OBS servers). (knocte)
  • Create OBS packages for Bugzilla (knocte)
• Misc:
  • Would it be possible to help add a failsafe KDM server like the GDM one?
  • Automated workflow app/feature akin to this or OS X's Automator.

Booting

• Add support for configuring vlan network interfaces via initrd. This should enable nfsroot or iscsi root on vlan interfaces.

Tweaks and Optimizations

• Look into these optimizations: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/OneSecondX
• provide patterns to intall coded and restricted stuff (that means move that 1-clicks http://opensuse-community.org/Restricted_Formats/11.0 to patterns) Anubisg1

Other Distros

• Surprisingly despite the open nature of the code, many distros don't copy or include the innovations of other distros. To that end, distros become somewhat homogenous of all advertising the same features that the packages provide. However, when a distro comes out with a new feature, other distros don't pick up on that feature.
• Expand the Windows installer with a tool like transfugdrake to migrate documents and settings from Windows to Linux. Ideally, I'd love a tool like to this to even look for settings for common apps like Firefox, and then migrate those profile settings over as well. Maybe even move over the Windows desktop background. Make users feel immediately at home in their new desktop, as opposed to terrified of something new.
• Look into Wubi install.
• Standarize on one system dictionary and make all major apps use it. See: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/FeatureDictionary
• Cannibalize NetworkManager improvements from Fedora. NetworkManager is such a crucial component that any improvements are worth looking at. See: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/FeatureMoreNetworkManager
• Jockey