<P> Chrome OS has an integrated media player and file manager . It supports Chrome Apps, which resemble native applications, as well as remote access to the desktop . A few Android applications have been available for the operating system since 2014 . Reception was initially skeptical, with some observers arguing that a browser running on any operating system was functionally equivalent . As more Chrome OS machines have entered the market, the operating system is now seldom evaluated apart from the hardware that runs it . </P> <P> Chrome OS is only available pre-installed on hardware from Google manufacturing partners . An open source equivalent, Chromium OS, can be compiled from downloaded source code . Early on, Google provided design goals for Chrome OS, but has not otherwise released a technical description . </P> <P> Initially, Chrome OS was almost a pure web thin client operating system that rely primarily on servers to host web applications and related data storage . Google gradually began encouraging developers to create "packaged applications", and later, Chrome apps . The latter employs HTML5, CSS, Adobe Shockwave, and JavaScript to provide a user experience closer to a native application . </P> <P> Meanwhile, in September 2014, Google launched App Runtime for Chrome (beta), which allows certain ported Android applications to run on Chrome OS . Runtime was launched with four Android applications: Duolingo, Evernote, Sight Words, and Vine . </P>

Runs a traditional desktop operating system and is lightweight