Chromium on Linux has two general flavors: You can either get Google Chrome or chromium-browser (see Linux Chromium Packages). This page tries to describe the differences between the two.
In short, Google Chrome is the Chromium open source project built, packaged, and distributed by Google. This table lists what Google adds to the Google Chrome builds on Linux.
- Colorful logo
- Reports crashes only if turned on. Please include symbolized backtraces in bug reports if you don't have crash reporting turned on.
- User metrics only if turned on
- Video and Audio codecs (may vary by distro)
- AAC, H.264, MP3, Opus, Theora, Vorbis, VP8, VP9, and WAV
- Sandboxed PPAPI (non-free) Flash plugin included in release
- Code is tested by Chrome developers
- Sandbox is always on
- Single deb/rpm package
- Profile is kept in
~/.config/google-chrome - Cache is kept in
~/.cache/google-chrome - New releases are tested before being sent to users
- Google API keys are added by Google
- Blue logo
- Does not ever report crashes. Please include symbolized backtraces in bug reports.
- User metrics are never reported.
- Video and Audio codecs (may vary by distro)
- Opus, Theora, Vorbis, VP8, VP9, and WAV by default
- Supports NPAPI (unsandboxed) Flash plugins, including the one from Adobe in Chrome 34 and below
- Code may be modified by distributions
- Sandbox depends on the distribution (navigate to about:sandbox to confirm)
- Packaging depends on the distribution
- Profile is kept in
~/.config/chromium - Cache is kept in
~/.cache/chromium - New release testing depends on the distribution
- Distributions are encouraged to track stable channel releases: see http://googlechromereleases.blogspot.com/, http://omahaproxy.appspot.com/ and http://gsdview.appspot.com/chromium-browser-official/
- Google API keys depend on the distribution