ChromiumOS explained

ChromiumOS
Developer:Google
Family:Unix-like (Linux)
Working State:Current
Source Model:Open source
Updatemodel:Rolling release
Supported Platforms:IA-32, x86-64, ARM, ARM64[1]
Kernel Type:Monolithic (Linux kernel)[2]
Userland:Ozone (Display manager), X11, GNU
Ui:Chromium, Aura Shell (Ash)
License:Various open source licenses (mainly BSD-style licenses and GPL)[3]

ChromiumOS (formerly styled as Chromium OS) is a free and open-source Linux distribution designed for running web applications and browsing the World Wide Web. It is the open-source version of ChromeOS, a Linux distribution made by Google.

ChromiumOS is based on the Linux kernel, like ChromeOS, but its principal user interface is the Chromium web browser rather than the Google Chrome browser. ChromiumOS also includes the Portage package manager, which was originally developed for Gentoo Linux.[4] Because ChromiumOS and ChromeOS use a browser engine for the user interface, they are oriented toward web applications rather than application software or mobile apps.[5]

Google first published the ChromiumOS source code in late 2009.[6]

Architecture

Chromium's architecture is three-tiered, consisting of "three major components":

Availability

ChromiumOS was first made available in compiled form by hobbyists. More organized efforts have emerged over time, including a few manufacturers that have shipped devices with the operating system pre-installed.

Builds and forks

By May 2010, compiled versions of the work-in-progress source code had been downloaded from the Internet more than a million times.

The most popular version, entitled "ChromiumOS Flow", was created by Liam McLoughlin, a then 17-year-old college student in Liverpool, England, posting under the name "Hexxeh". McLoughlin's build boots from a USB memory stick and included features that Google engineers had not yet implemented, such as support for the Java programming language.[8] While Google did not expect that hobbyists would use and evaluate ChromiumOS ahead of its official release, Sundar Pichai, Google's vice president of product management (now the CEO) said that "what people like Hexxeh are doing is amazing to see." Pichai said the early releases were an unintended consequence of open source development. "If you decide to do open-source projects, you have to be open all the way."

Hexxeh's work continued into the following year. He announced "ChromiumOS Lime" in December 2010,[9] and in January 2011, released "Luigi", an application designed to "jailbreak"/"root" the Google Cr-48 "Mario" prototype hardware and install a generic BIOS.[10] The developer made the builds available in virtual machine format on March 13, 2011.[11] With no official build of ChromiumOS forthcoming from Google, Hexxeh's "vanilla" nightly builds of ChromiumOS were the principal resource for people wanting to try ChromiumOS. Hexxeh stopped uploading his builds on April 20, 2013.

More recent versions of ChromiumOS are available from Arnoldthebat, who maintains daily and weekly builds[12] along with usage guidelines and help.[13] [14] In July 2012, Chromium Build Kit was released. It automatically compiles a developer build and installs ChromiumOS on a USB drive.[15]

In 2015, New York City-based Neverware produced a ChromiumOS fork called CloudReady aimed at the educational market, with the intention of extending the life of older PCs and laptops.[16] [17] A subsequent version can dual-boot Neverware and the Windows operating system (until v64).[18] In 2018, Neverware acquired Flint OS, a UK-based and China-based company.[19] In 2020, Neverware was acquired by Google, and a similar "ChromeOS Flex" was released into beta in February 2022.[20] [21]

Flint OS became FydeOS.[22] FydeOS, is based on Chromium OS,[23] to run on Intel-based computers,[24] and the Raspberry Pi 4 family.[25]

Hardware

Some devices have shipped with ChromiumOS preinstalled. In May 2012, Dell also released a new build for the Dell Inspiron Mini 10v netbook, following up on an earlier build released almost 18 months earlier. The build did not support audio, but was bootable from a USB drive. Other devices include the Kogan Agora Chromium Laptop by the Australian company Kogan[26] and the Xi3 Modular Computer, introduced by the company of the same name.[27] [28] In late 2015, a team headed by Dylan Callahan released a beta ChromiumOS port to the Raspberry Pi 2 single-board computer.[29] In 2016, Flint Innovations released a ChromiumOS port for the latest Raspberry Pi 3/B model named Flint OS for RPi. Subsequently, this project has been fully open-sourced at GitHub, with all the files and detailed instructions to re-create the build.

Trademark dispute

In June 2011, ISYS Technologies, based in Salt Lake City, sued Google in a Utah district court, claiming rights to the name "Chromium" and, by default, Chromebook and Chromebox. The suit sought to stop Google and its hardware and marketing partners from selling Chromebooks.[30] The suit was later dismissed and, as part of an undisclosed settlement between Google and ISYS, ISYS abandoned its trademark efforts.

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Womack. Brian. 2009-07-08. 2009-07-08. Google to Challenge Microsoft With Operating System. Bloomberg.com.
  2. Web site: Kernel Design: Background, Upgrades. September 7, 2011. June 24, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180624010728/https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/chromium-os-kernel. live.
  3. Web site: Licenses - the Chromium Projects . April 30, 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180701211722/https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/licenses . July 1, 2018 . dead .
  4. Web site: The secret origins of Google's Chrome OS. Vaughan-Nichols. Steven J.. ZDNet. en. 2019-03-13. April 23, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190423201620/https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-secret-origins-of-googles-chrome-os/. live.
  5. Web site: Kernel Design. The Chromium Projects. June 20, 2018. June 24, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180624010728/https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/chromium-os-kernel. live.
  6. Web site: What's the Difference Between Chromium OS and Google Chrome OS? . Bligh . Martin . December 11, 2009 . Chromium Blog . 2018-06-11 . June 12, 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180612143511/https://blog.chromium.org/2009/12/whats-difference-between-chromium-os.html . live .
  7. Web site: Software Architecture - The Chromium Projects. www.chromium.org. 2016-01-25. January 31, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160131065952/https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/software-architecture. live.
  8. News: Stone. Brad. Test Flights Into the Google Cloud. New York Times. May 7, 2010. February 24, 2017. January 11, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160111133448/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/business/09ping.html?scp=1&sq=hexxeh&st=nyt. live.
  9. Web site: Hexxeh. Now with a citrus twist. Hexxeh's Blog. 30 June 2011. March 25, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120325045615/http://hexxeh.net/?p=328117639. live.
  10. Web site: Hexxeh. Your princess is in another castle…. Hexxeh's Blog. 30 June 2011. December 3, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20121203014745/http://hexxeh.net/?p=328117655. live.
  11. Web site: Hexxeh. In my VirtualBox?. Hexxeh's Blog. 30 June 2011. December 13, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20121213035224/http://hexxeh.net/?p=328117684. live.
  12. Web site: Chromium OS Builds . Chromium.arnoldthebat.co.uk . 2014-07-04 . February 15, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220215190614/https://chromium.arnoldthebat.co.uk/ . live .
  13. Web site: Home . arnoldthebat.co.uk . March 13, 2019 . January 17, 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190117185418/https://arnoldthebat.co.uk/ . live .
  14. Web site: ArnoldTheBats World of Whimsy. ArnoldTheBats. March 13, 2019. September 8, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190908070651/https://arnoldthebat.co.uk/wordpress/. live.
  15. Web site: Chromium Build Kit . Chromium Build Kit-- Source Forge . July 30, 2012 . 30 July 2012 . March 3, 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130303023354/http://sourceforge.net/projects/chromiumbuild/ . live .
  16. Web site: How schools around the country are turning dead Microsoft PCs into speedy Chromebooks. The Verge. 2016-02-22. February 16, 2016. Popper. Ben. October 12, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20171012035355/https://www.theverge.com/2016/2/17/11030406/neverware-google-chromebook-chromium-os-education-microsoft. live.
  17. Web site: ChromiumOS: The Whirlwind Tour. Neverware. 2016-02-22. Bishop. Nicholas. November 13, 2015. February 15, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220215190613/https://www.neverware.com/blogcontent/2015/11/11/chromiumos-the-whirlwind-tour. live.
  18. Web site: Chrome OS distro for regular PCs can now dual-boot with Windows. Ars Technica. 2016-02-22. February 17, 2016. Cunningham. Andrew. September 22, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170922100517/https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/02/chrome-os-distro-for-regular-pcs-can-now-dual-boot-with-windows/. live.
  19. Web site: CloudReady Maker Neverware Acquires Flint OS . Chrome Unboxed . 26 July 2023 . en-us . 6 March 2018.
  20. Web site: Cunningham. Andrew. 2022-02-16. Chrome OS Flex is an ideal off-ramp for millions of PCs that can't run Windows 11. 2022-02-18. Ars Technica. en-us. February 18, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220218005310/https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/02/chromeos-flex-is-an-ideal-off-ramp-for-millions-of-pcs-that-cant-run-windows-11/. live.
  21. Web site: Proven. Liam. 2022-02-16. Google announces Chrome OS Flex for ordinary PCs, Macs. 2022-02-20. The Register. en. February 20, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220220123118/https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/16/google_chrome_os/. live.
  22. Web site: Long . Moe . Flint OS vs Chromium OS vs CloudReady: Which Chrome OS is best? . electromaker.io . 26 July 2023 . en . 30 January 2019.
  23. Web site: Chromium OS vs FydeOS detailed comparison as of 2023 . Slant . 26 July 2023.
  24. Web site: FydeOS 13.1 review: How to Install FydeOS or Dual boot with Windows . Quickfever . 26 July 2023 . 8 January 2021.
  25. Web site: FydeOS, a Tweaked Chromium OS for Chrome OS Fans, Hits the Raspberry Pi 400, Raspberry Pi 4 Range . Hackster.io . 26 July 2023 . en.
  26. Web site: Laptops - Kogan.com. Kogan Australia. Kogan Australia. June 19, 2011. June 6, 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110606061643/https://www.kogan.com.au/shop/agora-12-ultra-portable-laptop-chromium-os/. dead.
  27. Web site: Xi3 Modular Computer is one cool-looking desktop in a cube. Joanna Stern. AOL. Engadget. November 11, 2010 . August 25, 2017. September 22, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170922100606/https://www.engadget.com/2010/11/11/xi3-modular-computer-is-one-cool-looking-desktop-in-a-cube/. live.
  28. Web site: Xi3 modular PC reborn as Chrome OS desktop, promises independence from local storage. Dana Wollman. AOL. Engadget. May 23, 2011 . August 25, 2017. September 22, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170922194300/https://www.engadget.com/2011/05/23/xi3-modular-pc-reborn-as-chrome-desktop-promises-independence-f/. live.
  29. Web site: Chromium OS for Raspberry Pi 2 Gets Faster Boot Times, Download Now. Softpedia. 2016-01-25. Marius. Nestor. December 9, 2015. February 15, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220215190614/https://linux.softpedia.com/blog/chromium-os-for-raspberry-pi-2-gets-faster-boot-times-download-now-video-497397.shtml. live.
  30. News: Chrome Turf War: Did Google abandon the Chromium Trademark?. February 4, 2014. June 13, 2011. February 22, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140222021028/http://trademarkem.com/chrome-turf-war-did-google-abandon-chromium-trademark. live.

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