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What's the difference between Chromium OS and Google Chrome OS?

Google Chrome OS is to Chromium OS what Google Chrome browser is to Chromium.

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Chromium OS is the open source project, used primarily by developers, with code that is available for anyone to checkout, modify, and build.
Google Chrome OS is the Google product that OEMs ship on Chromebooks for general consumer use.

Some specific differences:

Aug 26, 2020. Jun 27, 2016. Oct 19, 2018. Google Play Store and Android apps are available on many Chrome OS devices since launching in 2016. To learn more about what we launched in 2016, check out this blog post. The Chromebooks, Chromeboxes, and Chromebases that were launched before 2019 that are able to install.

Jul 13, 2018.

The two projects fundamentally share the same code base, but Google Chrome OS has some additional firmware features, including verified boot and easy recovery, which require corresponding hardware changes and thus also don't work out of the box in Chromium OS builds.
Google Chrome OS runs on specially optimized hardware in order to get enhanced performance and security.
Chromium OS does not auto-update by default (so that changes you may have made to the code are not blown away), whereas Google Chrome OS seamlessly auto-updates so that users have the latest and greatest features and fixes.
Google Chrome OS is supported by Google and its partners; Chromium OS is supported by the open source community.
Google Chrome OS includes some binary packages which are not allowed to be included in the Chromium OS project. A non-exhaustive list:

Adobe Flash
Widevine CDM plugin (to support HTML5 EME)
3G Cellular support (but work is on going to address this)
DisplayLink Manager for video over USB (some systems)
Android (ARC++) container for running Android apps

Some components are available in both, but as closed source binary-only blobs. A non-exhaustive list:

Graphics Libraries (e.g. OpenGL) on ARM platforms

Google Chrome ships with its own set of API keys while Chromium does not include any

Users are expected to set up their own

Google Chrome OS has a green/yellow/red logo while Chromium OS has a blue/bluer/bluest logo.

Where can I download Google Chrome OS?

Google Chrome OS is not a conventional operating system that you can download or buy on a disc and install. As a consumer, the way you will get Google Chrome OS is by buying a Chromebook that has Google Chrome OS installed by the OEM. Google Chrome OS is being developed to run on new machines that are specially optimized for increased security and performance. We are working with manufacturers to develop reference hardware for Google Chrome OS.

Chromebooks are available for sale now! Check out the Google Chromebook site for more information.

Where can I download Chromium OS?

If you are the kind of developer who likes to build an open source operating system from scratch, you can follow the developer instructions to check out Chromium OS, build it and experiment with it. A number of sites have also posted pre-built binaries of Chromium OS. However, these downloads are not verified by Google, therefore please ensure you trust the site you are downloading these from.

Keep in mind that Chromium OS is not for general consumer use.

I am a hardware manufacturer, who can I talk to about making a Chrome OS product?

The Chrome OS business development team can be reached at chromeos-interested@google.com.

Today you’ll learn to install Chrome operating system on your computer, and the special thing is you do not need a Chromebook, install and run Chrome OS on an ordinary computer let it be a Workstation or a lightweight laptop. This article is curated to depict everything about Chrome OS forks.

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Before jumping check out these screenshot of Chrome OS running on a typical Intel-powered computer. The right-side panel will pop-up the quick settings, from where you can control volume, connect to a Wi-Fi network, shut down your computer, accessibility. Sign out and locking the PC is easy from the quick access panel. The interface is minimal, looks beautiful, and consists of notification count, time, wifi and battery icon, and finally user image. Also, you’ll be able to see all the notification clicking the icon before the clock.

And this is the minimal yet beautiful home screen. Interested? It has the round-shaped google quick access shortcuts. The screenshots are of Chrome fork by ArnoldTheBat and FydeOS. You’ve also got other forks to choose which one you like better.

Chrome OS for PC (Chromium Forks)

These forks are based on Chromium OS, start tinkering with ArnoldTheBat builds – for an easy and amazing out of the box experience.

1. ArnoldTheBats

ArnoldTheBats Website | Tools used to make bootable USB Win32 imagewriter

Daily, weekly, and special Chrome OS builds to choose from. This site provides up-to-date Chrome OS build based on Google’s Chromium project. This is the best option to get the same look of Chrome OS that you see on a real Chromebook. The limitations are fair, you won’t be able to run Android App and Google Assistant (and that seems final). Otherwise, everything will work out of the box I must tell you that the stability of this Chromium OS fork is astounding.

*Chrome OS fork = Chromium OS fork in this guide.

On the website you notice 3 types of builds, CARMOS builds denote ARM processors, Camd64OS builds denote x64 processors and Cx86OS builds denote x86 processors. If you’re not sure start with Cx86OS which stands for 32-bit machines, rather old computers.
The special builds contain these following perks.

Google Assistant and Play store won’t work.

Because the special builds come with additional drivers, it supports more computers. You should try the weekly latest build because it may not have bugs and compatibility issues.

Since there are continuous updates it hard to download each new system image, burn to a USB to boot so you can just go to Settings > About > Check for and apply updates and it will install the latest update. Thanks to the Air (OTA) updates from dev servers.

How to use (on Windows).

Install a Zip utility like 7zip to extract IMG/bin file from the downloaded file.
Use Win32 Image Writer, then select the IMG file and select the USB device from the menu.
Click on “Write”.
Boot from USB stick.

* Alternatively, you can use Rufus tool.

2. Fyde OS

Download FydeOS | Etcher

FydeOS is based on chromium fork to run on Intel computers. Version 10 is running on Chromium r83 and supports Android Apps. Despite you won’t find play store as it was mainly focused on the Chinese market where Google services are banned. Still, you can sideload Android apps or ~~even install the Google Play Store~~. It is available as a PC and Vmware system image.

Use FydeOS with a Google Account, for that to work registration is required with a FydeOS account.

You need FydeOS because.

Runs Chrome Extensions, Android Apps* and Linux Apps* That’s epic actually.
Chrome fork with more extra features such as Google Sync.
Linux Kernal is 5.4 (8th, 9th, and 10th gen processor support)

Unlike the older beta version took 10 minutes to boot up, the new version was insanely fast and booted under 20 seconds. This is tested on my HP ENVY laptop with an i7 8th generation processor. Android subsystem and related functionalities are limited to Intel series graphics cards. We are quite impressed to see how it manages to run Linux Apps and Android apps together. That being said you could install Chrome extensions, Android Apps, and Linux Apps, on FydeOS. Being a Chromium OS fork we found that Google’s Assistant wasn’t working.

*Enable Android and Linux support before sideloading apps.

3. Nerveware’s Cloudre

Install Play Store On Chromium Os