On Linux, Chrome uses lsb_release (a python script) to determine the name of ...

base/linux_util.cc

 // Copyright (c) 2009 The Chromium Authors. All rights reserved.
 // Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style license that can be
 // found in the LICENSE file.
 
 #include "base/linux_util.h"
 
 #include <stdlib.h>
 
 #include <vector>
 
@@ skipping 103 matching lines @@
 }
 
 // We use this static string to hold the Linux distro info. If we
 // crash, the crash handler code will send this in the crash dump.
 std::string linux_distro = "Unknown";
 
 std::string GetLinuxDistro() {
   LinuxDistroHelper* distro_state_singleton = LinuxDistroHelper::Get();
   LinuxDistroState state = distro_state_singleton->State();
   if (STATE_DID_NOT_CHECK == state) {
+#if defined(OS_CHROMEOS)
+    linux_distro = "CrOS";
+#else // if defined(OS_LINUX)
     // We do this check only once per process. If it fails, there's
     // little reason to believe it will work if we attempt to run
     // lsb_release again.
     std::vector<std::string> argv;
     argv.push_back("lsb_release");
     argv.push_back("-d");
     std::string output;
     base::GetAppOutput(CommandLine(argv), &output);
     if (output.length() > 0) {
       // lsb_release -d should return: Description:<tab>Distro Info
       static const std::string field = "Description:\t";
       if (output.compare(0, field.length(), field) == 0)
         linux_distro = output.substr(field.length());
     }
+#endif
     distro_state_singleton->CheckFinished();
     return linux_distro;
   } else if (STATE_CHECK_STARTED == state) {
     // If the distro check above is in progress in some other thread, we're
     // not going to wait for the results.
     return "Unknown";
   } else {
     // In STATE_CHECK_FINISHED, no more writing to |linux_distro|.
     return linux_distro;
   }
@@ skipping 41 matching lines @@
       return "KDE4";
   }
   return NULL;
 }
 
 const char* GetDesktopEnvironmentName(EnvironmentVariableGetter* env) {
   return GetDesktopEnvironmentName(GetDesktopEnvironment(env));
 }
 
 }  // namespace base