Why is Chromium browser open source but Chrome is not?

Well, Google Chrome is like a branch of Chromium. It was Google choice to keep it private. > The Chromium projects include Chromium and Chromium OS, the open-source projects behind the Google Chrome browser and Google Chrome OS, respectively. read more

Chromium OS - The Chromium Projects The Chromium OS is open source. This is the OS you were asking about. Google uses the name Chrome rather than Chromium on their deployed versions for brand recognition. read more

Chromium is an open-source browser project that forms the basis for the Chrome web browser. But let’s take a little deeper look at what that means. Chromium is an open-source browser project that forms the basis for the Chrome web browser. read more

Well, for one, Google Chrome itself is not open source. It is based off the open source Chromium project however, so it is powered by open source rather than being open source itself. read more