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Chrome OS/Chromium OS

Chrome OS and Chromium OS are Google-developed, Linux-based operating systems designed for lightweight computing on Chromebook hardware. Chrome OS ships on commercial Chromebooks, while Chromium OS is the free, open-source counterpart available for developers and self-installation.

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About this video

Chrome OS is a lightweight operating system developed by Google specifically for Chromebook hardware. Chromebooks are designed with modest processors and limited RAM, making them well suited for everyday computing tasks such as web browsing, media playback, and academic work. They are widely deployed in educational settings as affordable, manageable devices for students. A key driver behind Chrome OS was cost reduction: by building on a Linux kernel instead of licensing Windows from Microsoft, Google eliminated the licensing fees that would otherwise raise the price of these entry-level machines. Because Chrome OS is derived from Linux, it is subject to open-source licensing terms that require a freely distributable version of the code to be made available. That version is Chromium OS. Chrome OS is the commercial product installed on Chromebooks sold through retail and institutional channels, while Chromium OS is the open-source build that developers and advanced users can download, modify, and deploy independently. Both operating systems share the same Linux base and present an interface and user experience consistent with other Linux distributions, though Chrome OS includes proprietary components and integrations not found in Chromium OS.

What you'll learn

What's covered

Chrome OS & Chromium OS

Aligned to

CompTIA Tech+
3.1 Explain the purpose of operating systems.
CompTIA A+ Core 2
1.8 Explain common OS types and their purposes.
1.11 Identify common features and tools of the Linux client/desktop OS.

Key terms

Chrome OS
A Linux-based operating system developed by Google for Chromebooks, designed for lightweight tasks and sold under a proprietary license on supported hardware.
Chromium OS
The free, open-source version of Chrome OS that developers can download and modify, made available to comply with Linux open-source licensing requirements.
Linux
A free, open-source operating system kernel created by Linus Torvalds in 1991 that forms the foundation of many distributions (Ubuntu, Red Hat, Debian) widely used in servers, cloud infrastructure, and embedded devices.
Open Source
Software whose source code is freely available for anyone to view, modify, and distribute, typically governed by a permissive license.

Topics

Chrome Os Chromium Os Operating Systems Linux Open Source Chromebook

Transcript

Two other operating systems that are out there are Chrome OS and Chromium OS, and we'll be talking about both of them.

Chrome OS and Chromebooks

Let's talk about Chrome OS first. It was really built for these Chromebooks. Chromebooks have components inside of them that aren't super powerful. It's got not as big of a CPU and not as much RAM, and so it's really meant for lighter weight work — things like school work, like surfing the web, and maybe watching some videos, doing some homework. In fact, the schools around where I live give these to the students to operate when they are at school. So this is a Chromebook right here, and Chrome OS was built as an operating system for these.

Now the base of both Chrome and Chromium are the same, and that is, the kernel is Linux on both of those.

Why Google Created Chrome OS

Microsoft has most of the market when it comes to operating systems on laptops, but in order to get the price point down on these Chromebooks, a new operating system that didn't have these high licensing fees needed to be created. So Google created Chrome OS. Chrome OS is something that can be installed on these machines, so you don't have to pay the high licensing fees to Microsoft.

Chrome OS Versus Chromium OS

Now one of the things with Chrome OS is it's built off of Linux, and because it's built off of Linux, the licensing within Linux says that if you use the code from Linux, then you have to distribute a version of it for free. And so the version for free is Chromium OS.

So Chrome OS is the one that gets put onto a lot of these Chromebooks, but then the free version out there that you can just go download and develop is Chromium OS. So a lot of developers use the Chromium OS, versus the Chrome OS can be sold on these Chromebooks. And ultimately it is a version of Linux, so it has a similar look and feel to other Linux distributions.

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