It might not be BlackBerry’s “Defence Department” trusted level of email, but the PlayBook finally gets its OS 2.0 and native email, calendaring and more, adding a new lease of life to RIM’s trim tablet.
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David M Williams
Thursday, 26 January 2012 17:42
Xerox PARC, Apple, Microsoft: these companies and more have contributed to the ubiquitous but evolving WIMP (windows, icons, menus, pointers) user interface. According to Mark Shuttleworth Ubuntu is poised to revolutionise the menu this April.
Canonical’s Ubuntu Linux is often considered the most popular and accessible Linux distribution available and its chief driving force, Mark Shuttleworth, is no stranger to innovation.
Almost two years ago Ubuntu’s 10.04 Lucid Lynx release met with controversy and debate after the user interface was rejigged to display window buttons (minimise, maximise, close) on the left-hand side (as per MacOS) instead of its traditional right-hand side (as per Microsoft Windows).
While such a change is not radical so far as innovation goes it does reflect the willingness of the company to experiment and reject tradition in favour of new things.
The coming April 2012 release, 12.04, codenamed Precise Pangolin, is set to once again breed extreme feelings of like or dislike within its user community but with a change which competing operating system manufacturers will surely be watching.
Specifically, the traditional WIMP metaphor – windows, icon, menus and pointers – a critical part of the GUI over 40 years – may soon be known as the less-pronounceable WIHP if Shuttleworth has his way.
Shuttleworth’s vision is to replace the historic “menu” with his futuristic vision of a “HUD”. In fact, Shuttleworth dubs his proposed makeover as a user “intenterface”.
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