GSoC/GCI Archive
Google Summer of Code 2010

Ubuntu

Web Page: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GoogleSoC2010/Ideas

Mailing List: ubuntu-soc@lists.ubuntu.com

Ubuntu is a complete Linux-based operating system, freely available with both community and professional support. It is developed by a large community and we invite you to participate too! The Ubuntu community is built on the ideas enshrined in the Ubuntu Philosophy: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customise and alter their software in whatever way they see fit.

Projects

  • Android U1: Ubuntu One client for Android The aim of the project is to deliver Ubuntu One service to Android powered devices. The application would enable Ubuntu users not only to browse files in the cloud from their phone, but also share experience on the spot using URLs to their published U1 resources, instantly upload camera pictures or download music. Eventually, the aim would be to implement full-featured syncdaemon for specific UDFs. Let's take that cloud mobile!
  • Bug Triaging Improvements for Launchpad/Arsenal This project aims to implement the following bug-triaging improvements in Launchpad and subsequently use them in Arsenal: * Attachment Search (Text searches for attachments in bugs of a particular project) * Automatic Upstreamer (Forwarding bugs to remote trackers) * Bug Matchmaking (Search remote trackers for matching bugs) * Automatic Patcher (Generate packages automatically packed from bug attachments)
  • Harvest user interface improvements In this proposal, I describe a project where I enhance Harvest's user interface to be friendlier and more flexible. The three main features are a filtering interface, sprinkles of AJAX and simpler individual pages. Time permitting, I would also work on on a new landing page to make the service more inviting.
  • Home user backup solution/Deja Dup improvements Linux offers a lot of great backup tools that are used with great satisfaction by enterprise and server market but it has neglected ordinary home users that do not wish to become skilled computer administrators to make sure their documents are safe for far too long. Deja Dup began to change that quite successfully but still has a long way to go to offer great experience to its users not just when they stumble upon it but rather from day one from Ubuntu's installation.
  • services-admin configuration and Upstart-ification services-admin, currently included in the GNOME system tools, is a great utility to easily enable and disable services. However, it lacks the ability to manage Upstart jobs, making it less useful on some systems. The goal of this project is to provide a unified interface, in services-admin and backends, for managing both older scripts and Upstart jobs. Additionally, an interface will be provided that allows users to easily change service-specific configuration without editing files by hand.
  • Software Center Improvements This project brings many smaller improvements to the current implementation of software-center. Gdebi and apturl integration will be part of this project. The other components of this project are very flexible and can be determined on a week to week basis. Some suggestions are provided in the project proposal.
  • Testdrive Front End Testdrive is a project that makes it very easy to download the daily Ubuntu Development snapshot and run it in a Virtual Machine, allowing non-technical Ubuntu users to test and provide feedback. It can also be configured to download and run any URL-access ISO. It is written in Python, but only has a command line interface. This project would consist of constructing a PyGTK frontend for Testdrive. However, before that's possible, it first needs to be modularized.
  • The Great Clipboard Fixing Galore Project Copy, close source, paste fails in Ubuntu for more apps than not. It's a long standing problem that affects every Ubuntu user, and one that deserves a fix. I hope to: Create a webpage detailing how to fix the bug Fix this bug in >8 Ubuntu apps Implement a less piecemeal change with mentor help Change GTK+ to store clipboard contents on exit by default Ready parcellite for inclusion with Ubuntu Modify gnome-settings-daemon to store clipboard contents before they're requested
  • Ubuntu One for the KDE workspace The target of this project is bringing Ubuntu One awesomeness to the KDE workspace. Combining the very best online services suite with the very best free desktop technologies.