Ubuntu just kicked off its new Brainstorm site, a place where ordinary users and techies alike can vote on or suggest ideas they feel are critical to Ubuntu.  At the very top of the list, with more than 3,400 votes as of this writing: Fix Suspend and Hibernate.

Right on, I say.  If there's one issue that has been persistently problematic since I started using Linux in any form -- Ubuntu as well -- this has been it. To be scrupulously honest, suspend/resume has gotten better by leaps and bounds.  My Sony VAIO notebook suspends and hibernates perfectly, for instance, and that's the one machine where I would want such a feature to work best.

But on one of my desktop test systems, suspend/resume doesn't work properly -- and while that system does use a slightly older motherboard and chipset, isn't one of the vaunted benefits of Linux that we can use older hardware without fear?

Other top Brainstorm ideas currently in the running:

• Provide a simple graphical interface to manage any type of network connection.  The interface Ubuntu has right now for managing networks is a bit of a hash, although I've personally not had huge trouble navigating it.  Still, there's always room for improvement.
• Power Management.  Or, rather, more aggressive support for selective power-down, always a good idea.
• Clean up Preferences and Administration.
• Unmount resolution (i.e., inform the user what application or file might be blocking the removal of a volume).
• Easy mounting of Images like ISO and CUE.

Obviously not everything that gets submitted and voted on is going to get used.  But so far Brainstorm seems to be serving as a fair indicator of what Ubuntu users feel they need most, and what they're willing to pipe up and ask for.  It'll be interesting to come back some months down the line and see which ones have remained popular -- and which ones have actually been acted on.