Ubuntu Linux’s New ‘HUD’ Interface Will Do Away with Menus - growcapassicer

A rising kind of interface is coming to Ubuntu 12.04 "Precise Pangolin" that will at long las replace menus in Ace applications and recognize sound commands.

Called "Department of Housing and Urban Development," or "Head-In the lead Display," the parvenu interface is designed to recognize users' intent in interacting with the desktop rather than forcing them to navigate a rigid menu system to get things done.

"Menus serve cardinal purposes," explained Canonical fall through Mark Shuttleworth in a blog office along Tuesday morning. "They act as equally a standard way to evoke commands which are overly infrequently used to warrant a dedicated pick of UI real-estate, like a toolbar button, and they serve as a represent of the app's functionality, almost like a table of contents that one can skim to get a feel for 'what the app does'."

The overtop-conjuring start of that is what Canonical thinks can be improved upon, Shuttleworth added, and that's where HUD comes in.

'It Can Watch What You Usually Do'

Focusing alternatively on users' intentions, the fres interface–now in image form–will match what the drug user types in a lookup box with a list of commands for possible invocation.

"IT's bright, because it can do things care fuzzy matching, and information technology can learn what you usually do then it can prioritize the things you use oftentimes," Shuttleworth wrote.

HUD bequeath include not just the focused app, since that's most likely to be where the user wish privation to invoke roughly action, only also system functionality, he noted, even allowing users to turn offline on Skype, for example.

The video below demonstrates Department of Housing and Urban Development in action.

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'Easier to Employment Than Hotkeys'

Finally, Sanctioned wants to let in spokesperson integrating therein picture thus that Ubuntu users can only speak their commands. That, of course, will take some prison term, he notes.

Even before that happens, though, victimisation the HUD is quicker than navigating direct a menu and easier to use than hotkeys, wrote Shuttleworth, who also compared the new user interface to Microsoft's Ribbon.

The new capabilities will be even better for power users, Shuttleworth added, directly addressing an audience that's been to a lesser degree thrilled with the Unity interface Standard has ready-made desktop Ubuntu's default option.

'You'll Have That Option'

Ubuntu users won't have to jump into using HUD immediately, Shuttleworth noted, and it will seem only when invoked from any received Ubuntu app that supports the global menu. Assuming IT does land in Precise Scaly anteater–collectible for release in April–it will be accompanied away a traditional ready of menus, which Shuttleworth admitted throw been belittled prematurely in Single versions so far.

"If the HUD lands in 12.04 LTS, we Leslie Townes Hope you'll find yourself victimization the fare less and less, and be glad to have IT hidden when you are not using it," he concluded. "You'll definitely sustain that option, aboard more time-honored menu styles."