I am an avid user of Ubuntu, a popular version of the Linux OS. Why? Because a licenced version of Windows would cost me over a month's salary and the cost of a Mac is almost what I earn in half a year. I just can't justify the cost of another operating system.
But more than the cost issue, I found the operating system simple to use, the interface clean and the community extremely helpful. So I've stuck with Ubuntu for almost 5 years now as my primary operating system.
When the team working on Ubuntu announced Unity a few versions back, I was very skeptical. I liked the way things worked so why change everything so drastically? When I upgraded to Ubuntu 11.10 I did so with the intention of using the classic interface.
I haven't used it even once.
Despite my skepticism, I found Unity made my life easier. I quickly found the programs I needed and I found that it didn't affect my workflow negatively. And I learnt the ropes very fast.
And now it looks like we're in for another big change.
On January 24, Mark Shuttleworth (The man behind Canonical, Ubuntu's parent company if you will) announced the HUD in a blog post entitled Introducing the HUD. Say hello to the future of the menu.
Calling it the "Intenterface" he describes the HUD as a way of mapping a user's intent to the interface.
So starting from Ubuntu 12.04, when you run a program that uses Unity for its menu, you will still see a menu, but you can now press a key - I believe it's ALT - and just like Unity, you'll be able to type in what you want to do (express your intent) and the HUD will present all possible options available in the program's menu. In his blog post, Mark Shuttleworth talks about the next step being voice commands. Apparently this is similar to Apple's Siri, but since I haven't used that I really can't say anything about it.
The HUD will also learn as time goes by and present your most used commands first. Here's a video on YouTube posted by the Ubuntu developers that illustrates the HUD:
Just as with Unity, there is controversy surrounding this development. You'll find lively debates on every blog that broaches the subject. Here are some snippets for:
As you can see from the comments above, there are many opinions about whether or not the HUD makes sense. A lot of the controversy stems from the fact that readers think traditional menus will be gone forever. That is not really the case. Here's a snippet from Mark's blog post:
Innovation-wise, I personally think it's great. Will it make the end user happy? We'll just have to wait and see. If Unity is anything to go by, I think many critics who gave it a shot found it pretty easy to use.
So basically, I am looking forward to it but I'll have to reserve my final comments till April when I actually take the HUD out for a spin.
But more than the cost issue, I found the operating system simple to use, the interface clean and the community extremely helpful. So I've stuck with Ubuntu for almost 5 years now as my primary operating system.
When the team working on Ubuntu announced Unity a few versions back, I was very skeptical. I liked the way things worked so why change everything so drastically? When I upgraded to Ubuntu 11.10 I did so with the intention of using the classic interface.
I haven't used it even once.
Despite my skepticism, I found Unity made my life easier. I quickly found the programs I needed and I found that it didn't affect my workflow negatively. And I learnt the ropes very fast.
And now it looks like we're in for another big change.
On January 24, Mark Shuttleworth (The man behind Canonical, Ubuntu's parent company if you will) announced the HUD in a blog post entitled Introducing the HUD. Say hello to the future of the menu.
Calling it the "Intenterface" he describes the HUD as a way of mapping a user's intent to the interface.
What is the HUD anyway
The HUD (Head-up display) is something similar to Ubuntu Unity. Similar to how Unity replaced the traditional menu through which one could find all the programs on a system, the HUD presents a new way to access application menus. However, menus will still be present.So starting from Ubuntu 12.04, when you run a program that uses Unity for its menu, you will still see a menu, but you can now press a key - I believe it's ALT - and just like Unity, you'll be able to type in what you want to do (express your intent) and the HUD will present all possible options available in the program's menu. In his blog post, Mark Shuttleworth talks about the next step being voice commands. Apparently this is similar to Apple's Siri, but since I haven't used that I really can't say anything about it.
The HUD will also learn as time goes by and present your most used commands first. Here's a video on YouTube posted by the Ubuntu developers that illustrates the HUD:
So is it good or not?
Just as with Unity, there is controversy surrounding this development. You'll find lively debates on every blog that broaches the subject. Here are some snippets for:
Thisawesome, I have wanted something like this for a long time! In Libre Office for example I always know what function I want, but I rarely find it in the first menu tree I try.
I'm really not a fanboy and I'm the biggest critic of Unity. For example. what's up with discovering installed applications? I used to just click on Applications->Internet to find all Internet apps. Now news users don't even find the category because they don't think of them as filters. But with every release Unity is getting better and better and pieces start to fall into place as the bigger picture becomes clearer. Here's an example for HUD. I wanted to use Liquid Rescale im GIMP, yesterday. I couldn't find it in the filters but I was sure it is installed. So after 5min of not finding it, I went on to Google and figured out how to invoke it. This could have been as fast as hitting ALT and typing "liq"
A lot of people wants to drop the menubar and use a Chrome-style menu instead. That is now possible. The idea that it is impossible to come up with a more user friendly type of menu than the menubar is very strange. Of course it is. The reason it hasn't been changed is that it has never before been possible to change them without changing all the applications that uses menus.And some against:
Perhaps they should upgrade the name as well to Dumbuntu. Did Mark plan for the 12.04 (April 2012) release to sink like the Titanic did 100 years earlier (April 1912).
Seriously….. first moving the buttons order and location, then Unity, now HUD?
I can see where it is so much easier to type bookmark instead of clicking a star. Using a GUI use to be so easy until everyone decided to make it easier.
My take on the HUD
As you can see from the comments above, there are many opinions about whether or not the HUD makes sense. A lot of the controversy stems from the fact that readers think traditional menus will be gone forever. That is not really the case. Here's a snippet from Mark's blog post:
In 12.04 LTS, the HUD is a smart look-ahead search through the app and system (indicator) menus... No app modifications are needed to get this level of experience. And you don’t have to adopt the HUD immediately, it’s there if you want it, supplementing the existing menu mechanism.So I say it looks like something that can be pretty handy. Just like Unity, I can see myself quickly learning how to do a few things faster with the help of the HUD. Since the existing menu structure is still in place, I can use that for situations where the menu would be a faster way for me to do something.
Innovation-wise, I personally think it's great. Will it make the end user happy? We'll just have to wait and see. If Unity is anything to go by, I think many critics who gave it a shot found it pretty easy to use.
So basically, I am looking forward to it but I'll have to reserve my final comments till April when I actually take the HUD out for a spin.
Other posts on the same topic from around the web
- Linux users cautiously optimistic about Ubuntu's Head-Up Display desktop
- Moving Away from Menus: Is Ubuntu's HUD Change We Can Believe In?
- Ubuntu HUD: Solving A Problem That Doesn't Exist
- Introducing the HUD. Say hello to the future of the menu
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