Ubuntu 12.04 HUD Supports Voice-Based Menu Commands
The new HUD will be included in the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS release scheduled for April.
Canonical's Mark Shuttleworth reports that a new Head-Up Display, or HUD computer menu system, will be implemented into the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS release scheduled to go live in April. The new HUD feature will replace current menus in Unity applications, providing a faster way to access menus in applications. Instead of clicking through menus, users simply type the command they require in a search box.
According to Shuttleworth, the new HUD can actually learn the actions a user most often requests and prioritize options for commands based on past use. HUD also covers system functionality, meaning users can play and pause music, or even change their IM status or go offline without having to access Skype directly, as an example.
"It’s a way for you to express your intent and have the application respond appropriately," he writes. "We think of it as 'beyond interface,' it’s the 'intenterface.' This concept of 'intent-driven interface' has been a primary theme of our work in the Unity shell, with dash search as a first class experience pioneered in Unity. Now we are bringing the same vision to the application, in a way which is completely compatible with existing applications and menus."
Shuttleworth indicates that voice input will be added, but not at its full potential when the HUD arrives in April. "The full integration of voice into applications will take some time," he writes. "We can start by mapping voice onto the existing menu structures of your apps. And it will only get better from there."
Given it's the end of January, there’s still a lot of design and code still to do in regards to getting HUD ready for an April release. The team, which includes individuals who understand Gtk and Qt such as Ted Gould, Ryan Lortie, Gord Allott and Aurelien Gateau, as well as designers Xi Zhu, Otto Greenslade, Oren Horev and John Lea, still hasn't addressed the secondary aspect of the menu, as a visible map of the functionality in an app.
"We’ll make sure it’s easy for developers working in any toolkit to take advantage of this and give their users a better experience," Shuttleworth writes. "And we’ll promote the apps which do it best – it makes apps easier to use, it saves time and screen real-estate for users, and it creates a better impression of the free software platform when it’s done well."
To read the full blog, head here.
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- Ubuntu ,
- 12.04 ,
- HUD ,
- Mark-Shuttleworth ,
- intenterface
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wow.. someone is actually competing windows!!! that is awesome people.. i loved ubuntu.. i love ubuntu.. and i will continue to love ubuntu.. ^_^
wow.. someone is actually competing windows!!! that is awesome people.. i loved ubuntu.. i love ubuntu.. and i will continue to love ubuntu.. ^_^
how are they competing?
how are they competing?
in terms of UI.. now they added what windows has.. voice recognition.. and the search is better as compared to windows.. its faster in booting, tries to pack the drivers like windows, what not? and they are free on top of that.. the difference?? it wont support .exe, .msi files. but we got wine hq, run on linux etc there..
Very futuristic.
Now we can get the productivity of a fighter pilot with the 'intenterface' HUD!
- ”A healthy penguin can usually swim faster than a ... “
ubuntu is great, however i left cus of unity.. but with gnome 3 being pretty much the same... and windows 8 going to something similar, might as well make the switch
As a 10.04 user who refuses to downgrade to 11.x, I want to know if I'm going to be able to avoid any UI changes that Canonical decides are better but really aren't, for me. (eg, the immovable Unity launcher that groups tasks, sure it's good for some, but not me).
IE, has Canonical dropped the "we know how to best set up your desktop, and everyone's needs are the same" attitude and gone back to letting us customise everything the way we like it?
There are many who jumped ship with 11.04, but there are still probably many others waiting to see whether Ubuntu might yet fix things.
Make this release a more faster, leaner, stable and reliable distro. Common Ubuntu/Canonical you can deliver this kind of distro as what you did with version 8.04LTS and 10.04LTS...
ubuntu is great, however i left cus of unity.. but with gnome 3 being pretty much the same... and windows 8 going to something similar, might as well make the switch
Since there are plenty of alternatives, why move to something you don't like?
There are enormous numbers of anti-unity users who jumped to mint, enough to keep things current and working fine. I'm probably headed to mint if 12.x doesn't let me keep the features that I find most efficient.
If only games have native linux support...
in terms of UI.. now they added what windows has.. voice recognition.. and the search is better as compared to windows.. its faster in booting, tries to pack the drivers like windows, what not? and they are free on top of that.. the difference?? it wont support .exe, .msi files. but we got wine hq, run on linux etc there..
While I won't be abandoning Windows because I like it better (yes yes, I've used iOS and many nix distros). But I certainly appreciate these advances and the competition keeps Microsoft charging. Windows has had voice for years now but this sounds like it's pushing into more of a natural voice interpretation. Impressive.
I liked playing with 11.10 and it was much better than 11.04. That's not to say that 11.x was better than 10.x, but as they are evolving the OS, they are doing some things right and I hope Canonical can continue making positive changes to Ubuntu in each successive version. I'm looking forward to 12.04 and giving it a good run on my PC. For my laptop, I'll stay with Mint.
I want the Ubuntu TV project (OS to be built into physical TV's) to be included in the actual Ubuntu OS so I can have my HTPC. I've been using Windows Media Center for a long time and it's working fine, but I'd like more flexibility with my recordings. I tried MythTV a while ago but that was to complicated. And I didn't feel like paying for Beyond TV (even though my dad has it and he likes it) because they use several different packages to get the same experience from a full media center.
problem, you need very good microphones to use it. notebook integrated mics are... almost non-functional.
seems like Windows, and Ubuntu are pushing boundaries when it comes to navigation of your computer. we had the same old. for over 15 years. But wasn't the good old start menu at the bottom or top with icons on a desktop already the best solution for Desktops and Laptops? I can't really find my self using the new Metro Ui, or the HUD from Ubuntu. Who knows though probably these new interfaces are the way to go.
MAC and linux are going to hot this year and getting bigger.
Expensive MS software~ STOP !!
They are coming !!
New features don't mean crap to me unless they're rock solid stable, and I have yet to come across a hot shot Linux GUI that is rock solid. There seems to always be some kind of bug that makes them randomly crash on me or some strange error occur. Windows and OSX are for GUI's and Linux is for command lines. Period.
in terms of UI.. now they added what windows has.. voice recognition.. and the search is better as compared to windows.. its faster in booting, tries to pack the drivers like windows, what not? and they are free on top of that.. the difference?? it wont support .exe, .msi files. but we got wine hq, run on linux etc there..
by competing i mean trying to catch up, or anything like that.
alt oses have always done certain aspects better than windows, but no alt os does everything better, or even does everything reasonable enough that people would consider it a real alternative to windows for the casual.
I've moved to Mint and love it. I hope they don't move to some of this "new" cr@p that belongs on a tablet or phone, but NOT ON A PC!!!
wow.. someone is actually competing windows!!! that is awesome people.. i loved ubuntu.. i love ubuntu.. and i will continue to love ubuntu.. ^_^
I think it would be the best for the users, if the interface would look similar. If they can adapt faster, easier, the more users will Ubuntu get. My grandma, my sisters, etc ... don't want to talk to the computer, nor this feature. Just use the computer as they are used to.
They are happy if something "just works" like under Windows. They don't want to re-learn the whole "computer thing".
My opinion: Ubuntu is going in the wrong direction.
If only games have native linux support...
Really? Most developers are turning their backs to PC, gaming on the PC is slowing being phased out by the developers.
Really? Most developers are turning their backs to PC, gaming on the PC is slowing being phased out by the developers.
Yes and no. The more console oriented developers are moving in that direction, but you take a look at all MMOs that are coming out plus the huge wave of indie developers (Mojang, Re-Logic, Team Meat) that are working on the pc because it's free (XNA/C# and whatnot). Plus, after seeing how gorgeous BF3 was on the PC (bear in mind that we are talking about people who have yet to see games like Witcher 2 and who usually play on PC equivalent of low graphics settings), I know several console gamers jumping ship and buying only the necessary upgrades for their PC. It's an even market at the moment.
What will be interesting to see is if Linux and MacOS can get enough users/gamers to justify developing on OpenGL, despite its lack of features compared to DX11.
Also, check Just Cause 2. After Battlefield 3, that was the second game that took my breath. It's just ... awesome (in terms of graphics).
Its all about easy user-based installers with Linux. Still not quite there. Still can't get many users to switch because of that...
Yes and no. The more console oriented developers are moving in that direction, but you take a look at all MMOs that are coming out plus the huge wave of indie developers (Mojang, Re-Logic, Team Meat) that are working on the pc because it's free (XNA/C# and whatnot). Plus, after seeing how gorgeous BF3 was on the PC (bear in mind that we are talking about people who have yet to see games like Witcher 2 and who usually play on PC equivalent of low graphics settings), I know several console gamers jumping ship and buying only the necessary upgrades for their PC. It's an even market at the moment. What will be interesting to see is if Linux and MacOS can get enough users/gamers to justify developing on OpenGL, despite its lack of features compared to DX11.
Minecraft uses pure java and launches from a JAR, so that is why it is cross platform.
Most developers using PC use the M$ software stack from Visual C++ to DirectX and that is almost impossible to port to *nix systems like OSX and Linux.
Some of them do develop with the GNU stack and use make and such, but it is much more complicated than the Windows development environment because M$ went out of their way to make a proprietary easy to use development system. Hopefully, as M$ declines, game developers start using the cross platform open source tools to build games using OpenGL rather than using the Visual C++ compiler with DirectX.
Wow! Heads-Up DOS, really pushing the envelope.
Wow! Heads-Up DOS, really pushing the envelope. So...retro.
And it will be incredibly clunky, just like the interface micro$oft is proposing for windows 8. Its like everyone is trying to dumb down the user.... er, the interfaces.
Just as a quick question (which also applies to windows 8), how in tarnation is someone going to know the NAME of the program they want if they can't browse a list with it in?
Its not like ALL programs have names that relate to function (say, for example, who would say "synaptic" to get a program to install other programs?).
This is just a very bloated annoyance, exactly like unity, and anyone with half a brain cell and actually interested in getting anything done rather than having a flashy desktop will stay away from.
It was a bold move by the Ubuntu team to break away from gnome and trail blaze their own interface. They've used their releases between long term supported releases to experiment and progress this new and drastic change, and they've taken flack and lost loyal users in the process. With Linux though you've always got plenty of choices (like mint
) and can further customize your interface to the nth degree! I personally think hats off to them for breaking the mold on this one. When touch-screen usage begins to explode next year and mobile and tablet numbers continue to rocket, the Unity interface should be a compelling choice and perhaps will vindicate their forward thinking?!!
I run ubuntu 10.10 on my work compter, a HP 8440p with nivida NVS 3100 GFX, and i run a dual screen setup, but i have never gottn unity to work with dual screen so that is a reason for that I don't upgrade to a newer version. Is this a general issue ?, because I have not tested it on different computers, or have any of you the same experience.