Ubuntu Linux 12.04 ‘Precise Pangolin’ Reaches Final Beta

[Rob]

With just a few weeks remaining before the final release of Ubuntu Linux 12.04 “Precise Pangolin,” Canonical on Thursday released the second and final beta version of the free and open source operating system.Version 12.04 of Canonical's popular Linux distribution is a notable one for several reasons, including not just the fact that it's a Long Term Support (LTS) release and thus a particularly suitable choice for businesses, but also that it's the first to feature Canonical's new Head-Up Display (HUD) interface.... Full story here.

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The new Heads Up Display (HUD) looks pretty interesting. From this article on Ubuntu's new HUD interface:

A new kind of interface is coming to Ubuntu 12.04 “Precise Pangolin” that will ultimately replace menus in Unity applications and recognize voice commands.

Called “HUD,” or “Head-Up Display,” the new 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 two purposes,” explained Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth in a blog post on Tuesday morning. “They act as a standard way to invoke commands which are too infrequently used to warrant a dedicated piece of UI real-estate, like a toolbar button, and they serve as a map of the app’s functionality, almost like a table of contents that one can scan to get a feel for ‘what the app does’.”

The command-invocation part of that is what Canonical thinks can be improved upon, Shuttleworth added, and that’s where HUD comes in.

They are calling it an "intent-driven" interface, so we have a new paradigm in user interfaces here. Check it out:

I will definitely be downloading Ubuntu 12.04 when it is final!