Ubuntu 12.04 to see HUD take place of traditional menus

'Head-Up Display’ said to be faster than mousing through a menu

Ubuntu April's release of 12.04 LTS will see a 'Head-Up Display' (HUD) taking the place of the traditional menu.

Canonical founder and former CEO Mark Shuttleworth, who revealed this in a blog post, said the HUD (connects) users directly to what they want.

"(It uses a) 'vocabulary UI,' or VUI, and closer to the way users think. The tree is no longer important, what's important is the efficiency of the match between what the user says, and the commands we offer up for invocation," said Shuttleworth.

Shuttleworth described the HUD in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS as "a smart look-ahead search through the app and system (indicator) menus."

According to the video demo posted in Shuttleworth's blog post, the HUD will try to guess the command based on the first few letters the user types.

The HUD is also said to be faster than mousing through a menu.

However, it was stated that menus would be present for those who prefer them in 12.04.

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