Android's Full Desktop Mode Surfaces in Accidental Chromium Leak
- Reference: 0180678472
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/26/01/28/1443215/androids-full-desktop-mode-surfaces-in-accidental-chromium-leak
- Source link:
The status bar has been redesigned for large screens -- taller than the tablet version, displaying time with seconds, date, battery, Wi-Fi, a notification bell, keyboard language indicator and a Gemini icon. The taskbar remains identical to the current implementation, though the mouse cursor now features a subtle tail. Chrome's interface includes an Extensions button, a feature currently exclusive to the desktop browser. Window controls mirror ChromeOS, placing minimize, fullscreen, and close buttons at the top-right.
[1] https://9to5google.com/2026/01/27/android-desktop-leak/
'Aluminium OS' (Score:2)
Yes, using the international English spelling within the codename.
"inadvertently"? (Score:2)
Whenever I see "inadvertent" leaks of new UIs, functionality, etc., I can't help thinking that they might be purposeful trial balloons. I'm sure companies want to see the people's surprised reactions, as opposed to the responses from those who have been waiting for the release of a new version.
The year of Android on the desktop? (Score:2)
Why can't GNOME, KDE or similar desktop just be ported to run on top android instead of using whatever "ClippyPilot" UI that Google will come up with? If such a project does exist why hasn't it been promoted? I know about Phosh but that only runs on obscure phone models.
Crappy? (Score:2)
Would not bother me at all if Aluminum ditched X for Wayland. X11 is an interesting kludge that has been 'made to work' over the years. Mostly by taking advantage of various lax permissions, poorly defined functions, and tolerance of workarounds because, frankly, X did not want to be bothered with fixing much if it could avoid it. That's a good strategy for games and toys, bad strategy for industry standards.
I, for one, welcome our new window manager and compositor overlords.
Will this replace Chromium OS? (Score:2)
This could be a useful trend if it
- Replaces Chrome OS in Chromebooks
- Is an option for installing on normal PCs - be it x86 or Arm - regardless of whether it has been fine tuned by Google, or the OEM
At least that way, more of the apps available on Android on phones and tablets will be available for desktops running it. That could reduce some of the demands on current PCs, such as TPM 2.0 for Windows 11. It may not solve the AI slop, given that Google is about as aggressive as Microslop in pushing it
Ughh.. (Score:2)
In a world with very good window managers/compositors, they manage to have the crappiest freshman level window management.
Even Microsoft window management is better than Chrome's, and this seems to just carry forward that tradition of not even bothering to use a capable pre-existing solution and crap out a low quality one.
Re: (Score:2)
They can't use any of the existing WMs or compositors because they have their own display engine. But you're right, it's sad to see them fail so hard when they could just copy something that doesn't suck
Re: (Score:2)
It looks like they copied something that does suck. All the behavior looks like Windows 11 but with the menu at the top of the display instead of the bottom.
I'd assume that is absolutely deliberate too. I am sure goal is cannibalize the portable Windows market, further.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, it looks fine. Maybe the window borders could do with a bit more definition, but it's pre-release and they do seem to intend you to use it as a tiling window manager for the most part.