Default computer name confusing

[Mark Curtis]

When installing Ubuntu the default for the computer's name is user-desktop.
The computer is being named, not the user
in the terminal it shows user@user-desktop. user is shown twice and seems redundant. Also it may give the impression that currently it is pointing at ~/Desktop and not ~/.
Perhaps use lucid-desktop or ubuntu-desktop

Yes it can be changed during the install, but this is about default experiences

[Hercules_100_98 (hercules-100-98)]

I believe the idea behind this naming convention is to try and avoid having too many identical computer names floating around, as identical names cannot exist on the same network. Hence something like "ubuntu-desktop" won't work.

I do agree however that "user-desktop" is unwieldy, but unless another system can be recommended it is something that can be lived with.

[Mark Curtis (merkinman)]

Well if it is the same IT person setting up multiple computers, wouldn't you still run into the same network problem? "ITguy-desktop" would end up on multiple?

Maybe one of the many commands that scans for hardware? Using some information from that to use instead of username?

[lootic (lootic)]

The default computer name could be Computer and then a random hexadecimal number(like an ID), like "ComputerF83A323CB5". Theres 1099511627776 permutations with 10 hexadecimal numbers, thats maybe not enough?

[J (jonathan-vola)]

I would suggest something the likes of "ubuntu-user" - perhaps a numerical count added if a similar one is found on the network (Do a quick search for anything named "ubuntu-user" then change to "ubuntu-user-0" "ubuntu-user-1" etc)

[Vish (vish)]

This was fixed in ubiquity (2.3.18) maverick; urgency=low
" Use dmidecode to get a more unique suffix for the hostname (LP: #628087) " I had mentioned this bug there, but this bug # was not used in the changelog.

While the main bug was about " Add back the hostname entry (LP: #628087). "