Google has finally opened up a little about its Project Athena, its open source project, behind Chromium OS through which the company lets the world know about the Chrome developments.
Google executive Francois Beaufort has shared some screenshots of the Chromium OS that the company is working on. The highlight is the stacked windows interface instead of the familiar tabbed interface currently in use in most browsers.
There has been no mention about why Google has made this sudden shift in the interface design of from the tabbed interface which users are familiar with. But the Google Plus post says that the first draft includes a “collection of windows” with easy management, which has also attracted some controversial comments.
However, when seen from a different angle, this design might go well with the design strategy of Android L app switcher. The Android app switcher treats the open apps and discrete webpages as different entities which is slightly confusing for users to tell which windows are active with a single glance.
Looking back, the Chrome OS has received some significant changes like an app launcher which works like the start menu, apps running outside the browser, offline accessing of apps, etc. These changes have reportedly made the experience on Chromebooks similar to working on a traditional PC.
The Google plus post also gives information on how those interested can get a peep at the new design of the OS in its source code. Although the signs of the new improvements were noticed sometime last month, the company has chosen to share it only now.
You may have not seen the Chrome Metro on Windows 8. It too, has a stacked windowed function, but it still has tabs. Different windows are for different chrome apps, and different tabs are for different webpages. Not a dramatic change of browser interface.