Canonical Designer Demos Ubuntu Context-Aware UI

Blacklaw writes "Canonical's Christian Giordano has posted details of what he believes could be the future of user interface design in Ubuntu — a system that detects physical context. Designed to be paired with a webcam or other sensor system, the concept is that the computer is able to detect where a user is in proximity to the display along with an idea of roughly what he or she might be doing. Using this information, the operating system — in this case, Ubuntu Linux — can automatically make changes to the screen layout. For example, when the system detects that the user has leaned back in his or her chair, the system automatically makes the currently playing video full-screen. Lean forward again, and the video returns to its previous windowed mode."

Comments

Re:Great idea!

[hairyfeet]

And therein you have just fallen for yet another logical fallacy. did you see it? Oh and for those who labeled troll? Don't blame me if your emperor is naked. as a retailer you need guys like me to sell and support your product, which is at its current state a minefield of pain. Not my fault. as for the logic fail you fell for here it is "I can send my customers to buy a copy of Windows 7" fail. Nobody buys windows 7, they buy a new PC! The ONLY windows 7 upgrades I've been selling is those stuck in Vista hell, and if it worked with Vista it worked with 7, simple. on the other hand YOUR customers have to install your product

The point, which Linux guys can go "LA LA LA!" all day long and won't change, is the VAST majority of users out there are NOT IT guys, nor are they CS grads. No they are people like your Aunt and Uncle, who know how to put in a CD and go clicky clicky, and know how to shop at Walmart. And for them Linux equals a giant FAIL, whether you want to believe, though I am willing to prove it. Ready? Take the Hairyfeet challenge: Load up walmart, Staples, And Best Buy's online pages. From now until the experiment is over you are NOT a Linux guru, you are a normal noob. Buy these three things WITHOUT research, and for fairness go by price alone with 2 out of three stores. A USB Wifi card, a USB TV Tuner, and a USB AIO Printer. These are the big three sellers. Go ahead, I'll wait. Now go to Ubuntu forums and see how many actually worked OOTB.

Looking at about 30% aren't you? and that is if you count "support" as putting in 3 pages of CLI junk, which I don't. windows has had a simple GUI to search the web for drivers since XP, in Vista and 7 this works quite well. WTF Linux? Why can't my aunt just right click on a non working device, choose "find driver" and have the damned thing work? Remember, nobody cares about excuses, all they care about is does it work. Until you fix problems like these and the dreaded "update foo broke my hardware" problem, which honestly out of 4 bog standard PCs I never had Ubuntu update it self not ONCE without breaking something, then I stand by my statement: Linux is NOT like windows and is instead more comparable to Apple. Like apple one needs to throw out most if not all the hardware for more expensive hardware designed for that OS, unless you are just dumpster diving and using ancient hardware that has been in the kernel forever. But of course nobody wants the old and busted, they want the new hotness which Linux does NOT support unless you research your ass off and buy hardware A, rev g, which if you are gonna go through all that, why not just buy a Mac?

So don't blame the messenger, having everyone sitting around going "Gee, isn't Ubuntu swell? It sure is Biff!" doesn't gain share, which you desperately need to get manufacturers to support you. I sat up 4 boxes in the shop hoping that Linux had finally gotten average Joe friendly, instead what I found was a mess with more hours wasted on CLI bullshit than I care to count, and even bog standard hardware like Broadcom, Realtek, SiS, ATI, and Nvidia being seriously hit or miss across upgrades. As a retailer I want Linux to succeed, I really do. I remember the days of the atari and commodore when one had real choices in the market. But my time costs $50 an hour, at that rate it only takes 2 hours to equal a copy of Windows XP or 7 Home. Hell I couldn't even write off the hours wasted and just sell the machine once I had everything settled, because guess what happened in less than 6 months when Ubuntu updates rolled around? Yep back to square one with broken shit. I can sell a windows box and know my customer is good for 7 years minimum of security updates and often even longer. The BEST Ubuntu has to offer is THREE, and that is if you count not bothering to port most newer software and just leaving it old and busted.

don't blame the messenger when even /. brags when Linux reaches 1% like that is