IDG News Service - Canonical will equip the next release of its Ubuntu Linux OS with a new type of interface that allows desktop users to execute functions for any program through a command line interface or by voice command.
The new interface, called the Head-Up Display (HUD), "will ultimately replace menus in Unity applications," said Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth,in a blog post announcing the technology. The first version of HUD will be part of the Ubuntu 12.04 Long Term release (LTS), due in April.
Unity is the Ubuntu's standard shell, or desktop interface. HUD provides an overlay that sits on top of the desktop. When the translucent HUD console is evoked, the user can type in any number of keywords to find a specific function, bookmark or file. The command line, in effect, acts as a search engine for individual application resources. Using autocomplete, it will speed access time in subsequent uses. Any program that is written to work with the Unity global menu will work with HUD.
HUD came about as a way to address shortcomings of traditional application menus. They can slow down power users in a number of ways, Shuttleworth said. They also require a lot of reading to find one function and they force users to remember arbitrary hotkeys for specific functions. And they can categorize functions into ambiguously defined and confusing top-level menus.
HUD offers a number of advantages over standard menus, Shuttleworth said. It can do fuzzy matching to help users find commands when they don't know the exact words to evoke. A few words that describe the command may be enough to locate that function. HUD will also keep track of the most frequently used commands and offer those more readily.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, it will be outfitted to work with voice input. "We want to make it easy to talk to any application, and for any application to respond to your voice. The full integration of voice into applications will take some time. We can start by mapping voice onto the existing menu structures of your apps. And it will only get better from there," Shuttleworth wrote.
HUD even works with the Unix native command line, allowing HUD actions to be scripted and included in pipes, the technique of connecting the output from one Unix utility to the input of another.
HUD is not an entirely new idea. Giving the user a command line interface to quickly call up specific functions has already been implemented in a number of applications. Unix text editors such as Vim and Emacs have long featured the technology. Mozilla offers a command-line console, called Ubiquity, for the Firefox browser. Apple's OS X has a similar feature where users can autocomplete a command from within a program itself. HUD, however, is advantageous in that it can offer the same basic interface for all the applications on a desktop, minimizing the learning curve for individual applications.
Shuttleworth contrasted HUD with Microsoft's Ribbon interface, first introduced in Microsoft Office, which also tackles the problem of making unwieldy menus easier to navigate for users. While the ribbon made commands easier to spot, it also takes up a lot of space on the screen, which can be a distraction. In contrast, HUD shows "users just what they want, when they want it," Shuttleworth said.
Joab Jackson covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Joab on Twitter at @Joab_Jackson. Joab's e-mail address is Joab_Jackson@idg.com
Mark Shuttleworth, el fundador de Canonical, afirmó que HUD pretende facilitar la transición de los usuarios de Windows al software libre. 
En su primera etapa de desarrollo, Ubuntu 12.04 aún no incluye HUD.

Canonical, la empresa desarrolladora de Ubuntu, anunció que la próxima versión de su distribución GNU/Linux incluirá una interfaz de pantalla de visualización frontal (HUD, del inglés ''head-up display''), con la cual pretende reemplazar los clásicos menúes informáticos. HUD será capaz de ejecutar funciones para cualquier programa a través de una línea de comandos y por comandos de voz.

Mark Shuttleworth, el fundador de Canonical, predijo que HUD finalmente reemplazará los menúes de las aplicaciones de Unity, entorno de escritorio que seguirá estando presente en Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, a publicarse en abril.

La interfaz será capaz de acceder a características de las aplicaciones y de invocar comandos en una combinación de búsqueda y de autocompletación de lenguaje natural (similar a Google Instant), enfocándose en las intenciones del usuario. “Es inteligente, porque puede hacer cosas como la coincidencia aproximada, y puede aprender lo que sueles hacer para darle prioridad a las cosas que usas con frecuencia”, dijo Shuttleworth.



La intención con HUD es reordenar la interfaz de Ubuntu, una intención que Canonical tuvo con Unity. Sin embargo, Shuttleworth recordó la confusa experiencia de los usuarios de Microsoft Office ante el cambio que mostró en su versión 2007.

Shuttleworth afirmó que HUD facilitará entre las personas acostumbradas al diseño de las aplicaciones de Microsoft Windows la migración a las alternativas de software libre, eliminando la necesidad de volver a reaprender, puesto que todos sus comandos favoritos están anidados en el sistema de menúes. Le describió como un “escueto contraste” de la interfaz de cinta de Microsoft que festonea menúes con decenas de los comandos más utilizados. “Estamos diciendo que vamos a exponer menos la interfaz”, dijo Shuttleworth, quien renunció a su papel como Director Ejecutivo de Canonical para centrarse en la experiencia del usuario de Ubuntu. “Será interesante ver cómo los usuarios reaccionan a los cambios”.



Canonical describió a la HUD de Ubuntu como el “menú del futuro”.