What would I like to see from Ubuntu. Well 2 things;
Firstly the option for a clean, minimal desktop installation. By that I mean an installation that has nothing on it except the core components and the ability to add what I need. No games, no applications, no Office package, no Media, nothing – zip – nil. It needs my ‘base layer’ of tools that let me then do more, but other than that I want the ability to install a minimal Ubuntu desktop on it’s own. Yes I know I can do it, but it is fiddily and I do not see why Canonical cannot provide this as an option? Can’t be too difficult surely? If you like the idea vote for it (even though it is currently marked as implemented doh!) go to Brainstorm
Secondly, a simple home network setup. By this I mean a simple way to have a server, and one or more clients integrated. This is becoming more of the ‘norm’ for families; to have more than one computer networked, but as it stands each needs to be backed up independently. Windows Home Server (WHS) is on the right lines but as it is dealing with Windows OSes it need to back up each machine. What if each PC actually held nothing of consequence physically on it, just the apps, and all the data was on the server? That server then has a simple backup mechanism and a families resources are all secure in one place. There could be a ‘laptop’ option that sets up synchronising seamlessly in the background (like DropBox) and it could all be encrypted by default. How good would that be? This should be the target audience for Canonical to attack now it has a decent desktop environment.