back to article Google shows off new Chrome OS look

Google has shown off a candidate for a new Chrome OS user interface. Dubbed “Athena”, the new UI appeared fully grown from the head, and Google+ page, of Googler François Beaufort. Athena “is a brand new project the Chromium OS team is experimenting with in order to bring a new kind of user experience,” Beaufort writes, …

  1. This post has been deleted by its author

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    hmmm

    Yeah yeah yeah. Google keep on trying to make Chrome as easy to use as Windows. But they constantly fail. In addition, the majority of people are smart enough to work out that Google are spying on your every move when you use a Chromebook, and that they sell your personal data to the highest bidder. Hence they avoid them.

    The people who cannot work this out, and who pay money for the 'luxury' of using Chrome deserve everything they get. I laugh at them all the time.

    1. Frankee Llonnygog

      Re: trying to make Chrome as easy to use as Windows

      Oh my aching sides.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: hmmm

      How is using Chrome a luxury?

      1. Fungus Bob

        Re: How is using Chrome a luxury?

        Its shiny...

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      Re: hmmm

      Everyone I know with one so far have, without being prompted, raved about them being the best computer they have ever had, citing speed and simplicity. Personally I love the way I can log on from any device and just carry on without thinking about what device I'm using, not missed anything yet, I feel less cluttered and more productive. Got an Acer c720. We are going to start trialling them at work.

      1. Anonymoist Cowyard

        Re: hmmm

        I went for a C720 and it's a great bit of kit, very pleased with it. Gets alot of use in our household.

        I like the guest account feature on them, everything is so well thought out, and the KISS principle in full effect.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: hmmm

      Yeah yeah yeah. Google keep on trying to make Chrome as easy to use as Windows. But they constantly fail.

      I used to help a retired friend of the family with his IT problems, which were pretty regular. He ended up going to John Lewis because he wanted a new machine and they ended up selling him a chromebox. The only issue he has had so far is the keyboard mapping switched to US mode when he plugged in a new keyboard. Apart from that though he has no issues anymore with Malware, Viruses and toolbar hijackers.

      He has plenty of games on there to keep him entertained and he has all his documents and music and all his photos. Fantastic choice for senior citizens who might not be too computer savvy

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: hmmm

        No issues because it does nothing.

        May as well have bought a tablet.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: hmmm

          No issues because it does nothing.

          May as well have bought a tablet

          The gentlemen in question takes enough tablets, so I don't think he'd be too happy with another one...

          As for it doing nothing it seems more than capable for playing music if bought through amazon or google (who lets face it aren't any more expensive than the other big names) and offer cross platform solutions, so you aren't locked in.... Emails are a doddle there is the ability for word processing and spreadsheets and the photo management is surprisingly quite good. He was very impressed when I got him to take a photo on his android phone and it appeared on his chromebox less than 30 seconds later...

          The 'it does nothing' argument may of been true in the very beginning, but they were only really aimed at geek types anyway when released as preview machines now they have matured into a well rounded product and more manufacturers can see the potential and have released machines. The fact they are developing a solution to let Android apps run on it can only be a bonus

      2. VinceH

        Re: hmmm

        "Fantastic choice for senior citizens who might not be too computer savvy"

        Exactly that.

        When my step dad needed a new computer, about six or so months back, I pointed him in the direction of Chromebooks. His requirements are very simple so it's ideal for him - and it's meant I have to deal with less problems (so far, none at all).

        1. Gis Bun

          Re: hmmm

          Should of bought a tablet - any tablet - instead of the Chrome paperweight.

      3. Javapapa

        Re: hmmm

        "Fantastic choice for senior citizens who might not be too computer savvy."

        This 66 year old senior IT professional is savvy enough to use Windows 7 Pro, Windows 8.1, LinuxMint, Android, and Chromebook, and has coded for AS/400, System/38, Datapoint ARCNET, DEC System/20, and Tektronix 4012.

        I agree, youngster. Chromebook is a fantastic choice. If it had SMB to access documents on Windows servers, it would be my primary work machine. (Yeah, I know, they are "working on it".)

        And by the by, if you use ANY browser on ANY platform that supports predictive completion, you are sending what you type to the server, character by character. BaaK Browser as a Keylogger.

        So be careful out there. For example, don't type: how do I murd ^H^H^H ake my wife happy?

    5. Craigness

      Re: hmmm

      My C720 is the best computer I've ever had. And the cheapest.

      Google do not sell your personal data, they use your data to place more appropriate adverts. If you think you can buy personalised data from Google, please provide a link to where they offer that service. If you don't want the adverts, use an ad blocker.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: hmmm

        Just to be clear, I didn't downvote the C720 being good or not; I have one and it's a cracking piece of kit. No, I'm downvoting the new-speak "Google do not sell your personal data, they use your data to place more appropriate adverts." followed by the fanboyish "If you think you can buy personalised data from Google, please provide a link to where they offer that service." Prove that they don't. Also, using an ad-blocker where a "free" service is being provided is tantamount to stealing. Same goes for blocking ads on this site.

        1. Tom 38

          Re: hmmm

          I'm downvoting the new-speak "Google do not sell your personal data, they use your data to place more appropriate adverts." followed by the fanboyish "If you think you can buy personalised data from Google, please provide a link to where they offer that service." Prove that they don't

          It's not a very good argument though is it? You're the one making the unsubstantiated claim, and asking others to prove a negative. You might as well say Paul Daniels bites the heads off hamsters (prove he doesn't). I'm sure there is some clever word describing the fallacy of this kind of argument - oh hey, here we go: onus probandi.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: hmmm

            Craigness matter-of-factly claimed the lack of existence of a public facing arm of Google that sells user information. The onus to prove this lies with him, as he is making the claim. You have things entirely backwards and no amount of passive/agressivness changes this ("oh hey, here we go"? Fuck off, patronizing twerp).

            1. Tom 38

              Re: hmmm

              Look, it's basically religion at this point. You believe that something exists, for which no proof can be shown for its existence, but in order for you to be convinced that it does not exist, you must be shown evidence of its non-existence.

              You can get sweary and downvote me, but the only thing you aren't doing is convincing me of your position with your fallacious arguments.

            2. Craigness

              Re: hmmm

              "Craigness matter-of-factly claimed the lack of existence of a public facing arm of Google that sells user information."

              What I actually did was demonstrate a way the other guy could substantiate his claim. My own claim was that google uses your personal data to provide more appropriate adverts. Would you care to dispute that, because I can provide a link if you really need it. If Google has a website where people can buy personal data, please provide a link. If they don't have a way for anyone to buy personal data, why claim they sell it?

              Ad blockers: if you think a website is in league with an organization which spies on people and sells personal data then is it not moral to block any domain belonging to that organization even if the website in question would lose income as a result? They chose to make a "deal with the devil" after all. Also, using an ad blocker is a convenient way to deduce that a website is wilfully taking part in a covert action against you. You can then block the entire website; I didn't suggest freeloading.

        2. Robert Helpmann??
          Childcatcher

          Re: hmmm

          To play Devil's Advocate a bit:

          I love the way I can log on from any device and just carry on without thinking about what device I'm using...

          I don't, at least in as much as it is the default and automated (passwords stored on device). I also have an issue with the fact that others on my home network share access to some data. I know Google searches performed on one device show up in the cache for others regardless of the accounts being used. I don't know what other data leaks may show up, but this should be enough to raise concerns.

          ...he has no issues anymore with Malware, Viruses and toolbar hijackers.

          It might not have any now, but I find it hard to give credence to the claim that there will be no malware, especially given the relative small amount of time between Android gaining popularity and malware being developed for it. Chrome has relatively few users right now, so it is not a worthwhile target. This will change as soon as someone thinks a profit can be made from it, so pretty soon. This also discounts targeting by government sponsored groups.

          Google do not sell your personal data, they use your data to place more appropriate adverts.

          Essentially, they do not sell the data, but have set themselves up as a proxy. It's more profitable if they simply rent it. On the other hand, they gather as much data as they possibly can, making them a very tempting target for governments and black hats alike. This sort of data gathering is baked into all of their products, as far as I know.

          My C720 is the best computer I've ever had. And the cheapest.

          I cannot argue with your personal experience, though I would stipulate there are cheaper machines and better machines out there, though perhaps not in the same package. As far as better value for money, beware getting exactly what you pay for. Manufacturers will sell at a loss if they think they will make up the difference and then some later down the road. It is why printer ink cartridges are ridiculously expensive, for example. Google seems to have a good idea of how to make money, so I would not expect them to do otherwise with these machines. The question is more one of how they do so.

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: hmmm

          I please guilty to having just installed Adblock, having been driven to it by some inane "targetted" ads that proceeded to bombard me with endless bloody ads for a few specific sites I recently vistied, whose product lines I know well and with whose URLs I am familiar.

          Sorry, but utterly mindless advertising like that is totally unacceptable. Its just a shame these idiotsa have screwed it for everyone else.

        4. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
          Paris Hilton

          Re: hmmm

          Prove that they don't.

          Also, using an ad-blocker where a "free" service is being provided is tantamount to stealing.

          I don't even know where to place this on a scale from "cognitive dissonance" to "serial neural misfire".

      2. Gis Bun

        Re: hmmm

        In reverse, how do you know they DON'T sell our data? Show a link. Blocking "adverts" means nothing. They are still using your data - you are just not seeing it.

        1. Craigness

          Re: hmmm

          @gis they state what they do with our data, and they offer no way for people to buy it. That's a pretty big clue. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. The claim is that they sell our data, the evidence is not provided.

          If you adblock google they don't have your data, so can't use it. If you send an email to someone with a gmail address they don't know who you are, cannot associate you with an online profile and cannot use your data for targeted ads.

          "Should of bought a tablet [blah blah blah] paperweight"

          I have a tablet, but I use my chromebook far more. It's simply better for almost everything. And it's "should have".

    6. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: hmmm

      Will your printer work? Probably not. Can you use skype? Nup. Can you use a decent word processor (i.e Word)? Nup. Can you run spotify through a native app? No. Can i reinstall any of the expensive software packages i have previous purchased? Nooo. Is it any use when i cannot get on wifi? Nup. The list goes on and on..... It would be about as much use as a chocolate teapot to my aging parents.

      1. Bloakey1

        Re: hmmm

        <snip>

        " It would be about as much use as a chocolate teapot to my aging parents.."

        Were I able to install my £7000.00 worth of Autocad I would design the pot for you. I mean, who needs all these expensive software packages?

        To give him his due it would be great for Twitter, Pr0n, Facebook and the like as nature intended when Al Gore Invented the Interwebs back in the late 90s.

        He also mentions Onus Probandi, I think that would come into play when a swab test of the keyboard was sent for analysis (1.).

        1. Presumes absence of splash guard, cling film, boxing gloves.

      2. Floydian Slip

        Re: hmmm

        Actually Office 365 runs in the browser very nicely thank you. Even my many PowerPoint presentations play happy with a projector connected to my Dell 4Gb Chromebook. Oh, and the 1Tb Office 365 storage trumps Google Drive too.

        It's the most usable, portable, lightest, bestest battery life portable computing device that I've used in nearly 20 years of IT and IT related work.

        1. cambsukguy

          Re: hmmm

          Love it.

          Office + MS Cloud > Google drive

          On his Google OS machine.

          Priceless, I mean cheap.

          TBH, I would think Surface RT does all the same stuff with almost-real apps and real local storage as a backup in a smaller package with very good battery life.

          But, I see why a laptop-looking thingy suits many with lesser needs, I could definitely manage with one as a travel machine.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: hmmm

        Will your printer work? Probably not. Can you use skype? Nup. Can you use a decent word processor (i.e Word)? Nup. Can you run spotify through a native app? No. Can i reinstall any of the expensive software packages i have previous purchased? Nooo. Is it any use when i cannot get on wifi? Nup. The list goes on and on..... It would be about as much use as a chocolate teapot to my aging parents.

        No you can't use Skype. For video / voice calling and sending messages you are limited to something called Google Hangouts. I'm not sure how many people have Skype installed on their PCs / Phones / Tablets, but I'd wager any Android phone or tablet running 4.0 upwards has Google Hangouts on there and the person using the device has a Gmail account.

        There are applications that will support the word format maybe not some of the advanced features, but if you're writing lots of documents maybe you should go for substance rather than fluffy clip art in future. Spotify has an app available through the chrome webstore, which is about as native you will get on a device that is essentially a glorified browser...

        As for being no use when there is no WiFi I will agree with you there. When I don't have Wifi I only have access to view and edit my documents, read and compose emails, listen to my Google play music, watch videos, view my photos, read my kindle books and play one or two games.

        As for expensive software packages these devices are mainly aimed at people who are upgrading Windows XP machines from years ago. A lot of software struggles to make the jump from XP to windows 8.1 despite all the cajoling that can be done, so leaving cheap legacy software isn't an issue for most people.

  3. frank ly

    re. François Beaufort.

    Should that be 'François (Zeus) Beaufort' from now on?

  4. big_D Silver badge

    Looks very

    1990s UNIX at first glance.

    1. Grifter

      Re: Looks very

      Maybe the name is a pun (or homage) to X Athena Widget?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Looks very

        OMG, I'd forgotten about libXaw.so until you said that. Thanks (not) for bringing back those memories

    2. garden-snail
      Go

      Re: Looks very

      Yep, I just came here to post that, then saw you already had.

      But yes. 90s UNIX. What he said.

      1. Bloakey1

        Re: Looks very

        <snip>

        "But yes. 90s UNIX. What he said."

        Ooooh. I am having flashbacks to VMX, Oracle and compiling POP 11. Oooohheerrrrrr matron.

        Shakes head and reaches for Windows 8!!!

  5. Khaptain Silver badge

    Oh my eyes

    What has happened to interface designers in the last few years, colour schemes seem to have taken a dive. It now appears that the visually disturbing the interface the better...

    Windows 8 . Chromes OS (as per photo in article), even my bloody NAS ( Synology - DSM v5.0 ) have been given interface colours and icons that only appear attractive to the under 5s... And no, some of them can't be modified, or at least not without some considerable effort.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Oh my eyes

      Well, that should be easy to understand. Not only do they think everyone who uses a computer is getting stupider, they also think we're going blind too

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hopefully it will follow the Android Material design principles and they will get a bit of continuity to their products for a change,

  7. Adam T

    Please bring back skeumorphism, all is forgiven.

    I remember when buttons where buttons, and floating text was either a heading, a label or content.

    All Jonny Ive's fault. From rock star designer to murderer.

    1. Philip Lewis

      Actually, I don't think so. You might better lodge your complaint with the design "gurus" at Microsoft.

      I can point to 100 sites without even thinking, that have adopted the Windows8 design language and exactly none that have adopted the Apple website or for that matter the iOS design language.

      My Bank for starters.

      YMMV

      1. Craigness

        Mobile sites from 2007-2012ish were usually based on iphone UX (nasty blue "back" button and a slide-to-the-right menu system). Since then they've tended to go with the Android hamburger.

    2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Mushroom

      Please bring back skeumorphism, all is forgiven.

      Only the Knights of Utter Hipster Retardation think that skeumorphism is necessarily bad.

      People have all that visual cortex that can usefully applied to grouping semantically related or separating semantically distinct elements via fast analysis of a nice quasi-3D image. Forcing people to pull the same information out of a flat expanse of rioting color is an idea that is just stoopid.

  8. Gis Bun

    Why on earth did Google spend money on the Android OS and then WASTE money on the Chrome OS. Android used by hundred of millions. Chrome OS - 5 people. Many, many, may applications for the Android. What is there for Chrome OS.

    If I was given one of these Chrome paperweights, I'd format it and install Linux or even Windows 7.

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