Some gnome-blog suggestions:

I recently sent some small suggestions for gnome-blog:

Improve the applet's general look:

-Adopt the Tango icon (http://tango.freedesktop.org/index.php?title=Tango_Fridays&redirect=no) and use it in the applet, to make it stand out.
-Center the text, since it is now placed too low and part of it appears hidden.
-Maybe remove the arrow? It does not seem to serve any purpose.
-Don't show the button frame until the cursor is hovered over the applet, just like the clock applet or the time-tracking applet do.
-Also, use the fade animation in Compiz as they do. Not the current one.

Support for more than one blog:

-Move the "blog name" field to the main interface. That way, publishing to a different blog would be just a click away.

Replicate pidgin's tipography and insert buttons:

-Replicating Pidgin's buttons would allow gnome-blog to add more functions while keeping its interface simpler than it is now.

The following mockup shows the proposed changes.

Integrate "extra buttons" in mouse properties

I proposed this some time ago.

I have just realised in Ubuntu Brainstorm (http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/120/) that a program called BTNX can help users who have a mouse with additional buttons get the most of their mice.

The interface to it, however, is quite complicated and not as simple as we would like for a Gnome app. It is quite undiscoverable, too, just because a user trying to configure their mouse is naturally going to look in system → preferences → mouse.

I think having a simplified frontend to BTNX in the mouse preferences menu would be the perfect solution. I have made a quick mockup:


As you can see, the interface is heavily influenced by the keyboard shortcut menu. The idea is, you hit "detect a button", then click the button you want to configure; then you can give it a name, an effect -key combination or command- specify the input for it.

Integrate Dates into the clock applet

I proposed this some time ago.

If you have installed and used Dates, you know that it's an extremely lightweight and simple app to manage your dates visually. The idea is to integrate it into the clock applet, so you get a simplified Dates interface when you click the applet, that lets you create, move, edit and delete dates without having to open Evolution.

Offer to create a separate /home partition

I proposed this some time ago.

A separate partition for /home has been proposed for a long time in the forums. It implies some risks, though, so based on disk size Ubiquity should estimate the amount of space that should be left for / or whether a separate partition should be made at all. Then...

-The first time an user installs Ubuntu, he is given the option to set a separate /home. This option is selected by default, with a size for each partition based on a sane guess:


-Of course, he can just choose not to set a separate /home. This option will be selected by default if the results of the system test suggest that's the best thing to do.



-Manual install is also possible. Selecting it greys out everything related to separate /home, since it's implied that the user doesn't want to be guided.



-If the user set a separate /home, the next time he installs Ubuntu a new option appears and is selected by default, prompting to use the existing /home partition. All other options are still available, though.

Offer a delay before shutting down

Here's a suggestion I made time ago.

Intrepid sports a new close menu. It would be cool to have an option on it, to delay the chosen option. This would allow the user to watch a movie in bed, for example, without fear of falling asleep and leaving his PC on during all night.

This already exists as a modifier for the "shutdown" command; this would just make it more accessible to the casual user.



Also, it would be cool to have a notification when the system is about to close.

Deskbar on the menubar

I sent this suggestion to Ubuntu Brainstorm today: Integrate deskbar in the gnome menubar.

I read this comment on ubuntuforums:

I love how in Vista I can press the Start key and instantly type in stuff to find such as files or apps. Is it possible to do the same actions in ubuntu? I know there are search features and some program called Beagle seems pretty popular, but is it possible to get that same action on ubuntu?

So I thought, why not? Would it be possible to include deskbar on the gnome menubar, so that you can start searching just by clicking the apps menu or press F1?




As for not forcing it on the user, we wouldn't have to. It could be enabled or disabled, very easily, from Alacarte. So it would depend on the distributions (or the users themselves) to show it by default or not.

Ubuntu Mockups

I use Ubuntu and I love it. One of my favourite things about it is being able to actually propose stuff to the developers and see them in new releases, so I often make mockups of things which I think would be cool to have, and send them to the devs.

Some of them have been adopted, some haven't. But I always end up forgetting the ones I sent. That's the reason for this blog: to keep those mockups somewhere safe where I can see them later.

You're welcome, anyway. I hope you like some of them.