Chromium

The open-source browser that has led to Chrome

You've surely come across a few browsers that say that they're based on Chromium and you must be wondering what it's all about. Well, it's basically an open-source project the final product of which is Google Chrome. However, it's a totally operative browser that you can download and use to access any website.

Chromium vs Chrome: what are the differences?

There are several differences between this web browser and the final version of Chrome. Here are some of those that you can find in Google's web browser but aren't present in Chromium:

• Chrome's Google Update system.
• Integration with Adobe Flash Player with proprietary code and license.
• PDF reader.
• Multimedia codecs compatible with H.264, AAC, and MP3.
• A restriction that disables extensions not hosted in the Chrome Web Store.
• The registered trademarks of Google and Chrome.
• The option to send usage statistics to Google from within the browser.

Although both browsers are based on the same code, the final stable version is the one you can download from Google's servers. The latter is used by other developers to create other browsers or by people that need to use open-source software so they don't have to pay any licenses as in the case of Linux, where we can find distros that use Chromium. So, as you can imagine, we can't say which one's better... it will all depend on how you're going to use them.

With regard to which PC browsers are based on this project, there are quite a few of them. These are probably the most popular ones: CodeWeavers, Dartium, Epic Browser, Maelstrom, Opera, Sleipnir, SRWare Iron, Torch, Vivaldi or Yandex, amongst others.

The existence of this open-source project has led to the development of browsers based on its engine and features for several different platforms. Not only for Windows and the above-mentioned Linux, but also for Android, Mac, and iOS. However, if you come across a Chromium for iPhone, you should know that it's fake. There's no such thing.