48

Where can I send feature requests? Both for Ubuntu as a whole and individual (supported) apps?

janot
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Noel
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  • Noel, you need some change in the answer or the answer provided is enough? – Manish Sinha Mar 01 '11 at 21:30
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    Most feature requests are ignored, regardless of the venue. There simply are not enough volunteer developers to respond to the constant flood of requests. The best way to add a feature to Ubuntu is to create it, or find it in the wild and package it, or to help a project or team that is working on it. – user535733 May 06 '12 at 23:44

4 Answers4

18

Individual Applications

For individual apps, the best way is filing a bug requests or feature request in the individual applications.

Some upstream development portals might be having explicit feature for asking user ideas but most of them use their bug tracker for that.

Example, you want a new feature in Synapse (the kick-ass launcher powered by zeitgeist) then you can file a bug request, ask for the feature and ask for the bug to be classified under [Wishlist].

Or before filing bugs for wishlist, you might want to talk to the devs of the particular application. You can look at their mailing list or IRC channel.

Jorge Castro
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Manish Sinha
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  • so basically there is no way to make sure that your idea or request ATLEAST reached canonical team? Can getting involved here- https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork be limited to just giving ideas? – Nirmik Aug 17 '12 at 16:33
  • Unfortunately Brainstorm was closed: http://askubuntu.com/a/321291/34298 – rubo77 Apr 18 '14 at 22:53
17

You can make a feature suggest by submitting it as a "bug" at bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu.

Mark the bug starting with wishlist: and the developers will know there is a demand. Only the maintainer of a project or bug superviser can then change the "Importance" to "Wishlist"

These types of bugs unfortunately are not usually given a high priority so you may have more luck trying to approach the upstream developers.

The link to actually file a bug "Report a bug" in the top right corner leads to a page, where the possibility to file a bug is hard to find. The link can be found in the section:

3. Tips and tricks >> 2. Filing bugs at Launchpad.net

It is also possible to file a bug now at the console if you type

ubuntu-bug

into the console and follow the instructions.

Note: I think this whole process could be optimized and I think it is strange to call feature requests still "bugs".

So I filed a feature-request here

rubo77
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  • Yes, and to sort flooding out, the best way to see one's feature request considered quickly, would be a system of votes. – useful Oct 20 '14 at 17:01
  • @EML: why do you say brackets are rejected? there are many entries starting with [wishlist] – rubo77 May 20 '22 at 22:02
  • The brackets are added when it has been accepted as a bug, and classified: before that point, you can only add a tag, without brackets (I tried it). Curious that my comment has disappeared. – EML May 22 '22 at 08:52
  • @EML your comment was obsolete, because I edited the answer accordingly. thx for the clarification – rubo77 Jun 01 '22 at 10:29
5

To report bugs or do feature requests to Ubuntu:

1. For individual applications:

Figure out how to file a bug or feature request for that individual application.

Ex: after a series of searches and clicking around I discovered that all GNOME-related bugs and feature requests should be submitted to the GNOME-project directly. This includes for gnome-terminal, for instance. Do that on GitLab here: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME.

2. For Ubuntu itself, or in the case that the individual application tells you to file the bug or feature request "with your Linux distribution's maintainers":

Here are the answers for Ubuntu itself:

  1. Read here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs.
    Holy smokes, that's long! Whew, what's the short answer?
  2. To report bugs, type ubuntu-bug into your terminal and follow the instructions.
  3. To do a feature request:
    1. Post it on Launchpad here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug/?no-redirect Update: Sebastien Bacher tells me to post it on https://discourse.ubuntu.com/ instead.
    2. AND/OR email the Ubuntu-devel-discuss group at ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com. However, if you're not part of the group, your email will probably be rejected, so first sign up here: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss. And then when you go to send the email, be sure to send it from the same email you just signed up with.

Note that I found this Launchpad link to manually report bugs or feature requests buried way down on this page here under the section titled "Filing bugs manually at Launchpad.net", and the words "Launchpad's own bug report form".

Feature requests I've done:

  1. I'd like to see Nemo become the default file manager instead of Nautilus:
    1. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/1885170
    2. How to set Nemo as the default file manager in Ubuntu 18.04?
  2. I'd like to see gnome-terminal add the ability to split the screen easily, like terminator: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-terminal/-/issues/280
  3. I'd like an easy way to script the opening of tabs in gnome-terminal: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-terminal/-/issues/281, rather than doing my pretty ridiculous (but perfectly-functional) work-around I describe here: Open Terminal with multiple tabs and execute application.
Gabriel Staples
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4

According to Ubuntu Documentation feature requests should be submitted to ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list.

janot
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