The HUD in Ubuntu 12.04
So what is the HUD? It stands for “Head-Up Display”, whatever that means. The HUD is supposed to eventually replace the menu system, which haven’t changed since almost the GUI was invented.
If you don’t know what it is you should watch this video:
I have a few things to say about the HUD.
If is not broken, don’t break it
I really appreciate the effort of trying to reinvent the wheel. But is not necessary, menus work, have been working for ages, let’s just leave them like that and focus on other thinks that are broken. I still would like to do something as simple as dragging a file to an app on the Unity-bar and the app should respond to it, this sometimes happen and sometimes don’t.
I do understand why sometimes work and sometimes it doesn’t, but most users don’t. Which takes me to my second argument:
The HUD is not for human beings
Ubuntu is “Linux for Human Beings”. And if that’s true, then the HUD should be removed, because that thing is really hard to use for someone who is not an expert. Suppose, you remove the menus, what if I want to do something but I don’t really know what I want to do? I usually just browse around the menu to see the options. The HUD is nice to have, but is not for everyone, and everyone out there with the exception of some crazy guys like us, are just regular human beings.
You need a keyboard
I still remember reading (I don’t know where) why Ubuntu was moving to Unity in the first place. One of the main reasons was that Unity was designed to attack the tablet and devices with no keyboard. I get it, the big icons, the nice menu, it certainly was a good idea, with some flaws but a good idea.
But, how the HUD is gonna help the tablet users? It won’t, unless Ubuntu adds some kind of voice recognition (which it might) I really don’t see it viable.
Yes, I know you might say that they could just remove the HUD in any tablet system, but then, there’s a lack of consistency here, because you made us move to Unity (not that I’m complaining), and then you kind of break your own rule.
Is not for a LTS
Things like HUD are not meant for LTS. I’m a user, and I will be upgrading my OS when 12.10 comes out, so I don’t mind to have some experimental features on my system, even if they don’t fully work, but not on a LTS which is supposed to be installed in many computers for many years.
Finally, I must say that you can easily disable it, I won’t disable it personally, I’ll be giving it a try, is just like a Gnome-Do for apps which I use a lot but again, I’m not a “human being”