Introduced in 2009 by Google, Chromium comprises an open-source operating system and Web browser.
Chromium Operating System
The Linux-based Chromium OS in Chromebooks is geared for Web applications, and its user interface is essentially a Chromium browser. Various versions have been introduced with names such as Cherry, Zero, Flow and Vanilla Login. In 2012, software that compiles and installs a build for developers on a USB drive was released. See
Chromebook and
Cloud Ready.
Chromium Web Browser
Chrome is the primary Chromium Web browser; however, Microsoft Edge, Vivaldi, Brave, Opera and a dozen other browsers are also based on Chromium code.
All Chromium-based browsers use the same extensions, allowing users to switch between them and keep the same functionality. Unfortunately, all extensions do not behave exactly the same in all Chromium browsers, frustrating users to no end. See
browser engine.
Chromium browser source code is available for Windows, Mac and Linux in two modules: the user interface and rendering engine. The user interface interacts with the engine and renders Web pages in a sandbox. If a Web app crashes, Chromium is able to cancel that operation and keep running. See
sandbox and
Web application.