So, this is this new HUD we’ve been hearing about. It appears to take the idea of Spotlight on the OSX and the search bar on Windows a step further to include menu options as well. It’s an interesting idea but I’m guessing that typing every command rather than mousing over to them is going to get annoying very quickly.
There’s a lengthy explanation on Mark Shuttleworth’s blog, but this paragraph seems to explain the thinking behind it.
Even casual users find typing faster than mousing. So while there are modes of interaction where it’s nice to sit back and drive around with the mouse, we observe people staying more engaged and more focused on their task when they can keep their hands on the keyboard all the time. Hotkeys are a sort of mental gymnastics, the HUD is a continuation of mental flow.
Fortunately 12.04 will get the lite version to ease us in gently, but 12.10 may well get the full fat version. I’m not convinced that this is the right way to go, but the proof in the pudding is in the eating, as they say. I’ll try it out when I can.
You can read more on Shuttleworth’s blog here.
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#1 by Howard on January 27, 2012 - 10:46 am
I was quick to throw my hands up in horror when I saw this. But then I thought of how intuitive the Firefox “Awesome Bar” is. So, as you say, the we’ll just have to try it out before passing judgement.
#2 by gavomatic57 on January 27, 2012 - 12:04 pm
I think it all hinges on how clever the system is and how well it’ll interpret what it is you are asking for. You don’t want to be wasting time trying to find the right way to ask for a particular function or menu option. Even then, it’s something I’d want alongside a conventional menu system, not instead of it.
That said, it is nice that a distro is thinking about how users interact with their desktop. The Gnome 3 developers took a few risks too. Admittedly not everyone was happy, but people seem to be coming around to their way of thinking, slowly.
It’s interesting to look back at when Unity first arrived as the default desktop and how the top menu started to auto-hide – they were gearing towards this HUD all along. A Linux distro that thinks about design and forward planning?! Whatever next?
Genuinely exciting times ahead!