Nick_Hill wrote:
>>From discussing on IRC and between friends, it seems uncontroversial to
> suggest 8.04 has more bugs than we'd like. Far more than we'd like for
> an LTS. Many of them being regressions. Not to mention beta Firefox.

Understatement.  Company wide, we have frozen on Gutsy other then one 
home test system and my Laptop.  I curse at both regularly.  :) 
Slightly less lately, so an upgrade may be soon.

[lots of other good comments omitted]

> I'll kick off by suggesting:
> 1) When a user account is created, by default, beg users to file bugs, and point them to the BTS
> 2) The Ubuntu bug tracking system should have only Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu or other siblings which share the same packages - there should be no way for users to get lost in other projects on the same bug tracking system. 
> 3) The root of the Ubuntu bug tracking system should actually be at an easy to remember URL such as http://bugs.ubuntu.com/ . (This URL does currently re-direct to https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bugs).
> 4) The hardest part - make it much easier for users to identify which package the bug is related to. I am an experienced user and find this step challenging. Maybe a clear decision tree, with unambiguous, easy questions, or some graphical system.

I beg to differ here.  Make it irrelevant.  Have an "advanced" and a 
"beginner" setting early in apport, and the beginner steeing just makes 
guesses behind the scenes.  Yes this is more work for the bug wranglers, 
but it makes it much simpler for the user.  Moreover, the user sees 
instant action in e-mail.  Let me repeat that.  THE USER SEES INSTANT 
ACTION ON HIS BUG IN E-MAIL.  Compare that to Microsoft...  If the bug 
tracker is made easy, not only will we get better bug reports, it 
becomes an amazing marketing tool.  So much for the "Linux has not 
support" FUD.

> 5) When a bug is marked as a duplicate, the title of the bug should remain searchable (at least for months) as a 'common user' may identify a bug using different words to those used by the developer.

6)  Either fix the policy problems that prevent known broken systems 
from being fixed, or figure out a way to tell a new user that leaving 
his app broken is better for him.

Specifically the QEMU issue in Gutsy with BOCHS BIOS and version freeze 
is a good example.  When a showstopper bug can only be fixed by a 
version upgrade, it stays broke for 6 months.  New users are baffled by 
this, and if the app is critical, they will go back to Windows rather 
than find the fix.  (A backported BOCHS BIOS in this case) I understand 
the reason, but I still shake my head in wonder occasionally.

However this is a very good plan.  The bug tracker is an amazing 
marketing tool, because MS has nothing like this.  My mother (the 
classic example) files a bad dupe of a common bug.  She gets an e-mail 
saying it is moved to an existing bug.  She gets an e-mail saying it is 
worked on.  She gets an e-mail says fix uploaded.  She gets a fix for 
her bug.  She feels a dev was dispatched to fix HER BUG.  She tells the 
ladies in her knitting group how that nice man fixed her bug so fast. 
(actually she does not knit, but I love clichés...)  How cool is that?