I'm looking for a UI totally rendered using HTML / CSS / JS - with no native coding required to modify the browser's Chrome, and preferably other backend API's being available via Javascript.
This is what Mozilla's Chromeless project and Webian offer.
Is there something similar for Google Chrome or Chromium that support's Google's Extensions?
If so, it could allow:
more browser development, more innovative design
prototyping new desktop interfaces, instead of relying on existing launchers and docks
automatically loading tabs out of memory that don't need to be there
I found Berkelium but it's not clear if it supports extensions, or if there is a UI implemented in web standards for it, so that may be a dead end.
Chrome's new packaged apps allows you to run your apps without any window chrome: http://blog.chromium.org/2012/08/the-evolution-of-chrome-packaged-apps.html
In principle, you can build your own UI and drive it through JS.. you have history API, you can navigate the user to different pages, etc. All the pieces are there!