The first beta of Ubuntu 12.04, codenamed Precise Pangolin, was made available today. The 12.04 release, which is the next major version of the popular Linux distribution, will officially launch in April. It's a long-term support release, which means that it will receive updates and support for five years.

Precise will introduce some noteworthy improvements to Unity, Ubuntu's user interface shell. The biggest enhancement to Unity in 12.04 is the HUD, a new keyboard-driven user interface for accessing menu items. Version 12.04 will also bring better hardware support, such as improved power management for certain hardware configurations, and updated software.

Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth, who discussed the beta release today in a blog entry, highlighted the HUD implementation as a particularly significant achievement. He characterizes it as an innovation, one that reflects the Ubuntu community's ability to create a distinctive user experience that is competitive with that of other major platforms.

"For the first time with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, real desktop user experience innovation is available on a full production-ready enterprise-certified free software platform, free of charge, well before it shows up in Windows or Mac OS," he wrote. "For the adventurous, who really want to be on the cutting edge, the (totally optional) HUD is our first step to a totally new kind of UI for complex apps. We’re deconstructing the traditional UI, expressing goodness from the inside out."

The HUD allows users to activate menu items by typing part of the name. It uses a fuzzy search algorithm that will highlight partial matches. It can match menu items that are multiple layers deep in an application's menu hierarchy. The feature, which replaces traditional menu accelerators, is activated by pressing the alt key.

Conventional keyboard shortcuts and the traditional mouse-driven menu interface are still present in the Unity environment. The HUD is intended to serve as an optional convenience mechanism alongside the standard menu interaction paradigm. It works in any application that supports Unity's global menu system and is powered by the same underlying D-Bus menu framework.

The initial introduction of the Unity environment as a standard part of the Ubuntu desktop in version 11.04 proved controversial. The new shell was less flexible and configurable than the traditional GNOME desktop. It also suffered from rough edges and had some areas where it felt incomplete. The Unity environment in 12.04 feels more robust and better-integrated. The HUD is a nice addition that will help bolster the environment's credibility among power users.

Although Unity is smarter and cleaner today than it was a year ago, it's still got some major deficiencies. The consistency issues with the global menu that we identified in our last two Ubuntu reviews still haven't been rectified. The application panel of the Unity dashboard, which was atrociously bad in 11.04, got much better in 11.10 but is still a bit awkward to use in 12.04.

Users who want to test the beta can download the disc images from the Ubuntu website. For more details about the beta release, you can refer to the technical overview on the Ubuntu wiki.