This whitepaper discusses the current state of availability and readiness between the three Cloud OS's which have been evangelized into commercial readiness by Google.

1. The Cloud OS battle
Chromium OS vs Google Chrome OS vs Android
A Collabor Labs Whitepaper, Jan 2011
ABSTRACT
This whitepaper discusses the current state of availability and readiness between
the three Cloud OSs which have been evangelized into commercial readiness by
Google
www.collabor.com info@collabor.com

2. Google Chrome OS & Chromium OS
Google Chrome OS is a forthcoming Linux operating system, based on Ubuntu and
designed by Google to work exclusively with web applications. Google announced the
operating system on July 7, 2009 and made it an open source project, called Chromium
OS, that November.
Unlike Chromium OS, which can be compiled from the downloaded source code, Chrome
OS will only ship on specific hardware from Google's manufacturing partners. The user
interface takes a minimalist approach, resembling that of the Chrome web browser.
Because Google Chrome OS is aimed at users who spend most of their computer time on
the Internet, the only application on the device will be a browser incorporating a media
player.
The expected launch date for retail hardware featuring Chrome OS has slipped since
Google first announced the operating system: from late 2010 to early 2011 to, by some
reports, mid-2011.
In summary:
1. Chromium OS is the open source project, used primarily by developers, with code
that is available for anyone to checkout, modify and build.
2. Google Chrome OS is the Google product that OEMs will ship on Netbooks
Some specific differences:
• 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 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 (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.
Here is the link for downloading Chromium OS: http://chromeos.hexxeh.net/. While
there are many builds available for PC, Mac, Linux, VMware, etc – the build that is
updated daily on this site is the USB Image at - http://chromeos.hexxeh.net/vanilla.php.
Chrome OS is not compatible with Skype, Google Talk or Video Chat but Google Chrome
OS should be compatible with at least Google Talk and video chat. This will however be
clear when the stable version is released.
Hardware Support for Google Chrome: Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, HP, Lenovo,
Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Toshiba are among few hardware product currently
partnered with Google chrome OS
Research by: Collabor Labs Page 2
January 2011

3. Chrome OS: Installed - with the browser at the center of the OS. All applications built for
Chrome OS will be Web-based and thus able to be accessed from any browser. It is not
clear if the OS itself can be customized or skinned completely – but the assumption is that
this should be possible because of the opensource license – but maybe counterproductive
in terms of cost-benefit
Google Chrome OS is not a conventional operating system that can be downloaded or buy
on a disc and install. The way we will get Google Chrome OS is by buying a netbook that
has Google Chrome OS installed by the OEM
Android and Google Chrome OS
For Mobile (Android) For Desktop (Google Chrome)
Base Line Linux Linux
Visualization Phone, Tablet Chrome browser
Applications Development Java Web technologies
Applications Infrastructure Download from Android Market Browse to Web Store
Gingerbread (2.3) stable release
Latest Release Version OS 0.9.128.12
Honeycomb (3.0) pending release
There is a lot of conversation in the technology media about the course of these two
operating systems – whether they will merge, whether Android has already won (given its
lead and installed base) and whether both OSs really have a place in the market. At this
time, we would leave you with this statement from Google – who is at the core of both the
systems
“Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of
devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is
being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is
being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size
desktop systems.”
Research by: Collabor Labs Page 3
January 2011

4. Collabor Labs Summary:
1. Chromium is already available for use, but has mostly been a engineer/techie buy-
in for the moment. We found the builds from Hexxeh work blazing fast (no
scientific benchmarks were done at Collabor Labs)
2. Google Chrome OS is becoming a reality – starting with the CR48 pilot program.
3. Android is well established in the phone/tablet market and we see some
resistance from manufacturers to bring it to the netbook market as well as
potential resistance from users to adopt Android notebooks. But, it is still early
4. A convergence, if any, of any of the above OSs is still way off.
References:
1. Chromium.org, Google.com & Android.com
2. Wikipedia pages – Chromium OS & Google Chrome OS
3. Hexxeh.net
4. Reviews and articles in blogs and technical media
Research by: Collabor Labs Page 4
January 2011