Google seems to have decided to ditch the space entirely and rename its desktop operating system “ChromeOS.”
renew: Google has begun a rebranding effort, with changes appearing in pre-release versions of Chrome OS.
For more than a decade, Google and its partner companies have been offering laptops running an operating system centered on the Google Chrome browser. These devices are of course called “Chromebooks” — a word. Meanwhile, the system they run is officially called “Chrome OS” — two words — although in some places it’s seen as “chromeOS” (with a lowercase “c”).
Unsurprisingly, this has caused a bit of confusion, or at least inconsistency, in the Chrome OS community, with some including the space and others not. Based on the newly released code changes, it now appears that Google has decided to change its stance on this particular debate. While still a work in progress, Google changed about 1,000 instances of “Chrome OS” in the code — from text visible to Chromebook owners to internal comments that only developers can see — to “ChromeOS.”
According to the description listed, these “brand changes” are intended to “unify” the name across the board. If nothing else, this could bring some much-needed consistency, although it remains to be seen how long Google’s various docs and official website will take to fully switch to the new name. Another adjustment happening at the same time is that the fully open-source version of the Chromebook software will also give up space, renaming it from “Chromium OS” to “ChromiumOS”.
Given the timing of the code changes, it’s likely that we won’t see this broad renaming of Chrome OS to “ChromeOS” until version 102 (scheduled for late May).
Update 4/29: Over the past few weeks, Google has continued to make progress on its “ChromeOS” rebrand, including breaking the changes into smaller pieces [1, 2, 3, 4] It has since been accepted. Somewhat humorously, Google referred to the rebranding effort as “Chrome No Space OS” or “chromenospaceos” in some places.
Also, in the latest version of ChromeOS Canary, you can see the effect of the name change, with common instances of “Chrome OS” now showing as “ChromeOS”. The latest version of Canary is based on version 103, which means we should see Google’s “unified” ChromeOS branding available to all Chromebooks by the end of June.
What do you think of this broad but minor rebranding of Chromebooks? Do you prefer “Chrome OS” or “ChromeOS”? Let us know in the comments.
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