Skip to main content

Chromium OS team working on ‘new kind of user experience’ with Athena

chromium os team working on new kind of user experience with athena google
Image used with permission by copyright holder
According to Francois Beaufort, who is Google’s “Happiness Evangelist,” the Chromium OS development team is working on something the company calls Athena.

Unfortunately, not much is known about Athena, though Beaufort does show off a screenshot, which you can see above. Here’s what he had to say about what the goal is with this new endeavor.

Recommended Videos

“Athena is a brand new project the Chromium OS team is experimenting with in order to bring a new kind of user experience,” Beaufort said. “As you can see below, the first draft consists in a collection of windows with some simple window management.”

Some of the comments below Beaufort’s post offer a little insight into what Athena could be. For instance, Michael Bond, who is a software developer according to his Google+ page, mentioned that the image resembled the multi-tasking view in Android L, which Google revealed during Google IO 2014. So far, the early reactions have been mixed. One commenter called it “amazing,” while another said it’s “awful.” Another referred to Athena as “cumbersome.”

I myself have no development chops, so it’s near impossible for me to tell what Athena could bring to the table just by looking at the “Work in Progress” page. Beaufort says that you can take a look at it yourself “by simply checking out the chromium source code and compiling the convenient “athena_main” target with ninja -C out/Release athena_main.”

If that means something to you, please feel free to chime in below and enlighten us.

Topics
Konrad Krawczyk
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Konrad covers desktops, laptops, tablets, sports tech and subjects in between for Digital Trends. Prior to joining DT, he…
Windows vs. MacOS vs. Chrome OS
Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 review

Deciding on the right operating system can feel downright overwhelming. There are so many factors to consider when choosing an OS, and it often comes down to your personal preference for features, capabilities, user-friendliness, and price.

If deciding on the best OS has been nothing but a headache, look no further. We’ve rounded up the most vital information on the latest from Windows, Mac, and Chrome to make the process a breeze.
Windows 10 (and 11)

Read more
Chrome OS was born 10 years ago. Here are the highlights in its rise to power
HP Elite C1030 Chromebook

Ten years ago to this date, the computing world was forever changed. But it wasn’t because of something that was done by Apple or Microsoft. Rather, it was Google.

On June 15, 2011, the first public version of Chrome OS was released. It was initially foreign to a lot of technology journalists, but it ended up ushering in a new type of operating system that is now entrenched in schools, businesses, and even your home.

Read more
Chromebooks at Google I/O 2021: Everything new that’s been announced
new chromebooks at google io 2021 7uio62ca

Chromebooks aren't the flashiest product in Google's lineup, so they rarely take the spotlight at the Google I/O developer conference. But this year, Google made the point that as a whole, Chrome OS products grew 92% year-over-year.
Between the sweeping changes to cross-platform design, updates to Google Chrome, and some new Chrome OS-specific features, there's a lot to be excited about for the future of Chromebooks. Here's everything new in the world of Chromebooks coming out of Google I/O 2021.

Support for Android 11

Read more