For about as long as computers have had graphical user interfaces, apps have had menus. You know those things at the top of the window that say things like File, Edit, and Preferences. Now the folks behind Ubuntu Linux want to get rid of menus… or at least supplement them with something that may be easier to use and take up less screen space.

Ubuntu Head-Up Display

Founder Mark Shuttleworth says Canonical is testing something called Head-Up Display (HUD) which could be ready to go by the time Ubuntu 12.04 is released in April.

The idea is that apps which support the system wouldn’t need to display the File, Edit, and other menu options at all. Instead you would invoke the HUD and just start typing. The Ubuntu HUD would search through all the possible commands to find the action you’re looking for. Like Google search results, HUD will also recommend options as you type so you can refine your results.

For example, say you’re using a web browser. You can search for bookmarks or visit sites from your history just by starting to type their names. Want to bookmark a new page? Just start typing “bookmark.” Want to visit your settings or preferences page? Start typing “settings.”

HUD can also look through the help files to understand if settings and preferences are related, so you can start typing one and see the results for the other.

Here’s why this is a good idea:

  • You no longer have to remember what heading a specific option is under.
  • HUD can save you time since you no longer have to go digging through menus.
  • You don’t have to lift your hands from the keyboard to get started, which can save time.
  • Less screen real estate is used up by menu systems, which means there’s more space for the apps you’re actually using.

But here’s why HUD may also be a bad idea:

  • If you can’t remember the name of the command you’re looking for, HUD may not be able to help you.
  • Existing menus help you explore an app’s functionality by providing a sort of roadmap for possible features. HUD doesn’t (yet).
  • Some people may be more comfortable using a mouse to navigate than a keyboard (especially if they’re slow typists).
  • Typing may be a faster way to navigate on a desktop or laptop PC, but HUD may be more awkward to use on a tablet where keyboards are more difficult to use.

Shuttleworth says the first public version of HUD won’t entirely replaces old-fashioned menus. You’ll be able to enable them if you want them. Canonical is also working on a way to replace the “roadmap” function that menus currently serve. The developers also plan to incorporate touch and voice input support.

In other words, Canonical is well aware of some of the potential downsides. But while the Ubuntu Unity user interface has gotten a fair share of criticism over the past few years for being too radical a departure from traditional desktop environments (or for dumbing down the user interface), one thing you can’t accuse Canonical of is thinking small.

Shuttleworth compares the HUD menu design with Microsoft’s Ribbon UI. Both are designed to make menus easier to use by giving you quick access to the features you need most. But Microsoft’s solution does this by throwing a ton of information you probably don’t need at you while taking up screen space. The Ubuntu HUD solution does the exact opposite, by eliminating visual menus altogether and only bringing up navigation tools when you need them.

Canonical is currently testing HUD with the goal of shipping at least an early version of the feature with Ubuntu 12.04, but there’s a chance it may not be ready in time, in which case HUD will likely ship with Ubuntu 12.10 in October.

If you want to test an early build you can download Ubuntu 12.04 Alpha, add the unity-team repository, and install the test build of HUD. Web Upd8 has instructions.

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,547 other subscribers

10 replies on “Ubuntu re-invents PC menu systems with new HUD interface”

  1. as far as we are human beings, we will definitely make typos & each time this will lead to irrelevant results in HUD! how pathetic it is to remove menu & introduce this typing-based HUD! it’s an added trouble to me

  2. Looks pretty clunky to me.
    Then again, I’m not the kind of Linux user that Ubuntu targets.

  3. For those who worry about not having the menu bar to guide novel users, the answer is very simple: an option to enable both the bar and the HUD search. That would actually be even better.

  4. Just the latest example of “just because you can, it doesn’t mean you should”. Like the MS Office ribbon. PITA, especially before they brought back some level of customizability in Office 2010.

    Remind me again of the major problem that menus create please? Just allow users to hide them and bring them up with the “Alt” key if they prefer (Windows 7 explorer fer instance”).

    As for using this on a tablet – isn’t the keyboard itself already covering half the screen?

  5. just to add a thought – it would be much more convenient to make the menu ribbons “drop down” sensitive like the windows start menu bar. if needed it becomes visible, else it is out of sight. all space problems solved. no funky new navigation antics needed.

  6. there are well thought reasons behind concepts like
    “drop down”, point & klick, not more than 3 mouse klicks needed per option, also meaning menu levels should not be higher than 3 … since menues started showing up in dos and company during the early 80’ties.
    only fools will sit down to learn 100dreds op menu options by heart just to retype them like in the old nightmarish days of wordstar, the hell of all secretaries in the past.
    this is time, money and cpu ressources  wasted.

  7. So, instead of just clicking File->Open, I’d have to invoke the HUD, then start typing open??? Seems like going backward to me… Also, so Inkscape, Gimp, and other apps will not only have to support Gnome, but Unity with their stupid HUD, too? With Unity pretty much only on Ubuntu, will they bother? Or is this something the Ubuntu developers will take charge of and make happen? Personally, I think Unity is stupid and so is this HUD idea for a menu system. Props for thinking outside the box, but no props for coming up with a dumb idea. However, maybe with Siri-like technology, desktops could just use voice commands. But, then, how would I draw in Inkscape late at night when others are in bed? I’d wake everyone up!

  8. Pretty neat.  I wonder how well it will work.  It would be neat if you could type “save as anothername.txt” or “move to my folder” and it would know what to do.  Might be neat if you could say those things and it would recognize your voice commands.

  9. So basically it’s an in-app GnomeDo? I can see that this would be very useful for applications that I use a lot and already know very well. It will be interesting to see what their solution to the “road map” function of menus is. If this makes applications easier to use, then great, but if it’s just a way to open up a block of screen real estate that’s 25px tall, there are easier ways such as auto-hiding menus.

Comments are closed.