Chromium OS

Chromium OS is a Linux distribution in which, in contrast to Google Chrome OS, the source code is freely available and usable. Chromium OS contains instead of the Google Chrome under BSD license standing Chromium browser . New Chrome OS versions are derived from the current state of Chromium OS development and supplemented by some commercial programs such as Google Chrome, Adobe Flash , a PDF plug-in, Netflix instant and Google Hangouts .

Differences from Google Chrome OS

Both projects use Chromium OS as a basis. However, there are big differences:

Google Chrome OS has a few additional firmware features, including boot and recovery functions, that require hardware specifications and therefore do not work by default in Chromium OS builds.
Google Chrome OS runs on specially optimized hardware.
Google Chrome OS is supported by Google and its partners; Chromium OS is supported by the open source community.
Google Chrome OS contains some binary packages which, for licensing reasons, cannot be included in the Chromium OS project. A partial list gives a few examples:
- Google Play Store
- Adobe Flash
- Netflix Instant
- Google talk
- 3G cellular support
- Older versions of Chrome OS may contain proprietary Synaptic touchpad drivers

Also, Google Chrome OS has a green-yellow-red logo, while Chromium OS's is made up of different shades of blue.

↑ Google Chrome OS Terms of Service ( Memento of February 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
↑ Chromium OS FAQ. Chromium Projects, Google, accessed December 6, 2013 .