I am looking for some subjects for my software engineering course, so if any of you would like to see a small app developed for linux that will simplify things, follow this post!!!

some imporvements on the desktop will be great!!!!

can you be more specific about it?

How about a KDE mail notification for thunderbird on FC3?

Note to self: that's a sure way to get 100 responses that it already exist.

having some features on the desktop which will make it easier for newbies

we have many desktop themes which behave like winows but still we do not have a desktop as windows( i am not comparing windows and linux here but i still believe many new users find it difficult to migrate to linux mostly due non availability of these features)

regards

Write an application (I would but I don't know C or even Python ) that is similar to OS X but instead of dragging dmz images onto your drive, make it so new users can drag a .tar.gz file over an icon or open it in an app or something and it'll auto extract it to /tmp and do the standard ./configure, make, make install so newbies can install apps without needing to know how to compile them.

I think that's soimething that could help new users in linux

yes that also will be good idea
trying to make "installing packages from source " easy for newbies

regards

I would love a small database program, although that may be a bigger project than you want to try.

How about modifying gnu's make to understand XML-based makefiles. No more stupid "this line must start with a tab to indicate it's a command". It's all self-contained in a rule. And if that's not enough (since you're really only adding a file processor "front end"), how about providing an option similar to -n that reports the actual commands executed during the make process. In other words, basically have make spit out a script (each command it would execute); expand for loops, do variable substitution, remove "info" messages (like 'Entering directory X', 'Leaving directory Y', and 'nothing to be done for Z'). This way, an administrator could see exactly what "make install" wants to do, (s)he can check for conflicts (like file overwrites), examine configuration file changes (like sed commands), and in general, nix or modify anything that's undesireable. Then simply chmod the script output, and execute it to install the software.

In fact, I'm kinda interested in doing that myself Although, loop expansion, variable substitution, etc., might be a bit complicated.

It seems to me that some folks would love to have a place to have their voice heard re: new software development. It also seems to me that many developers would benefit from it too. Anyone up to the challenge

Anyway, I came back to this thread because I now have a suggestion.

You see, I have recently become a first-time dad. And while there is abundance of children's title in MSwin, linux is lacking somewhat. There are many MSwin titles that either use a child-specific keyboard... or a keyboard overlay which sits on top of the keyboard. These keyboard overlays map specific key(s) to simple kiddie apps. So essentially you could generate an application which although very likely will be easy to develop, it will include hardware and software aspects...and contribute to a area not very active in FOSS..

Imagine, you map one portion of the keyb such that when clicked (or banged by their little hands)... and a laughing dog pops up.
They hit the other side of the keyb and different colored shapes scatter across the screen.

Simple right?
so what'd'ya think?