Mark Shuttleworth of Canonical has announced Ubuntu's new Heads Up Display, catchily titled The Intenterface. I like the look of it a lot, as I said previously, the Sublime Text editor uses a form of it already. What is key is the very point that Shuttleworth make: "it’s there if you want it, supplementing the existing menu mechanism."
When I last tried Unity a year ago, the most frustrating aspect was that I couldn't customise the shell to make it work the way I wanted. I was stuck with vast icons cluttering up the left hand side of my monitor. Maybe Unity has changed since then but I don't have the hardware/time to find out!
Linux Mint Cinnamon, old skool minterface
This is a key reason why I have moved to Linux Mint: it is more configurable than Unity so I don't have to have a new way of working forced upon me. It looks like Ubuntu have taken heed, as Shuttleworth says in relation to the HUD: "If the HUD lands in 12.04 LTS, we hope you’ll find yourself using the menu less and less, and be glad to have it hidden when you are not using it."
Sure, have a Minimal Interface (or Minterface ;) to reveal as much content as possible, but allow the user to make the decision when to turn off the menu display.
If Ubuntu had taken this approach with Unity, maybe Linux Mint wouldn't have enjoyed such a large increase in usage.
(PS for early adopters who want to try out the HUD Intenterface, there's instructions over at OMG Ubuntu).
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What Shuttleworth doesn't realize is that it's 'way too late.
People have very long memories, and no matter what Shuttleworth does now, he still has to deal with the very people who he has been snubbing, and dealing with in a very arrogant and high-handed manner for the last two or more years.
Ubuntu is late. Shuttleworth is late. As is the late Sir Winston Churchill (with apologies to the late Douglas Adams).
Warmest regards...
At very first I hated the shop windows on th left hand side of the screen as the icons are ulaelled until passed over and I can't remember what a partucular squiggly thing was.
And so I tried Mint and it seemed so kind of retro. A lot of distros fork out of Ubuntu and they were quite happy do go ahead with Ubuntu's redesign of the real estate made Mint look retro and little else. It was rathere twee heritage and the distro did not do any more than that other they=n try to divert itself an income stream.
The innovation in in Ubuntu and Shuttleworth has done Linux a freal seervice with his distro so I went back. I realised I didn't need the clutter (for I live a rather cluttered life) and living in Ubuntu-space was like living in a desgner flat where the architect will remove your familiar stuff if you leve it around.
11.10 os more mature than 11.04 whhich was very bare and we are promised ways to help us live in the new space.
So, I think I'll stay and get used to the new, for its much better than the old.
@zdnetukuser: I hope there's more conciliation and less bitterness in the graphical shell camps, I'd like to Ubuntu to succeed, I *want* to have a choice of a mainstream Linux mobile phone and tablet. And I hope Linux Mint succeed too, providing users with what they want from the desktop.
@Charles Norrie: But I think Linux Mint is actually _maintaining_ the customisation and workflow of the GNOME 2 days, whilst utilising the advantages of GNOME 3. And surely it's based on providing what people want rather than a calculating diversion of an income stream?
thanks for commenting :)
Thanks for the heads up. Will definitely check this HUD Intenterface.
And NOW, folks, for Canonical's next trick...
Kubuntu is late.
Here's a pencil. Draw your own conclusions.
cf.: http://www.muktware.com/news/3287/canonical-changes-treatment-kubuntu
Warmest regards...