Chromium OS
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| Written in | C, C++ |
| OS family | Chromium OS (based on Linux kernel) |
| Working state | Current (in case of Chrome OS preinstalled on Chromebooks, Chromeboxes, Chromebits, Chromebase) |
| Update method | Rolling release |
| Platforms | x86, ARMv7 |
| Kernel type | Monolithic (Linux kernel) |
| Default user interface | WIMP-based [web browser] windows |
| License | Various |
| Official website | www |
Chromium OS is the open-source development version of Chrome OS, one of Google's operating systems (OS). Chromium OS is based on the Linux kernel and uses Google's Chromium browser as its principal user interface. As a result, Chromium OS primarily supports web applications.
Chromium's architecture is three-tiered, consisting of "three major components":
Chromium OS 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.
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 "Chromium OS Flow", was created by Liam McLoughlin, a then 17-year-old college student in Manchester, 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. While Google did not expect that hobbyists would use and evaluate Chromium OS ahead of its official release, Sundar Pichai, Google 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 "Chromium OS Lime" in December 2010, and in January 2011, released "Luigi", an application designed to "jailbreak"/"root" the Google Cr-48 "Mario" prototype hardware and install a generic BIOS. The developer made the builds available in virtual machine format on March 13, 2011. With no official build of Chromium OS forthcoming from Google, Hexxeh's "vanilla" nightly builds of Chromium OS were the principal resource for people wanting to try Chromium OS. Hexxeh stopped uploading his builds on April 20, 2013.
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Wikipedia