Google's Fuchsia OS is out in the open and shrouded in mystery

Android and Chrome OS use the Linux kernel, but Fuchsia doesn't.

Google's Fuschia is an experimental open-source operating system based on Magenta, a combination microkernel and set of user-space services and hardware drivers. • Credit: Rob Schultz

Google is developing a new operating system named Fuchsia, and the early source code is already public. Google itself and Fuchsia’s developers haven’t explained what the OS is for—but we can dig into the source code to learn more.

Pink + Purple == Fuchsia

Fuchsia is a new, open-source operating system being worked on by Google employees. “Pink + Purple == Fuchsia (a new Operating System),” reads the cryptic description on the project’s GitHub page. The source code is also available on GitHub, as well as on Google Source.

That’s it, though. While the project’s source code is available and we can see who specifically is working on it, there’s been no official announcement from Google or explanation from the individual developers as to Fuchsia’s purpose.

If no one’s ready to comment on it, why is it already public? As Google’s Brian Swetland reportedly explained on the project’s IRC channel: “The decision was made to build it open source, so might as well start there from the beginning.” From the same conversations, the developers report that the Fuchsia operating system is “currently booting reasonably well on Broadwell and Skylake NUCs and the Acer Switch Alpha 12, though driver support is still a work in progress.” Raspberry Pi 3 support is also coming soon.

Magenta, Escher, and Mojo

While there hasn’t been much news officially announced, here’s what we can glean from the available source code.

The Fuchsia operating system is based on Magenta. Magenta is a combination microkernel and set of user-space services and hardware drivers. This is a big departure from Google’s use of the Linux kernel across both Android and Chrome OS.

Fuchsia includes Escher, a “physically based renderer” that provides volumetric soft shadows, color bleeding, light diffusion, and a lens effect. This suggests that Fuchsia won’t be just a bare-bones embedded operating system, but will be capable of providing graphical user interfaces.

It appears that Mojo is the application framework and runtime for applications. The primary programming language for Fuchsia seems to be Google’s own Dart.

What’s it for?

While Fuchsia is an extremely interesting project, any speculation that Google is on the verge of replacing Android and Chrome OS with Fuchsia is unfounded and way too early. Even if this was the long-term goal for the project, it will likely take quite a few years before anything is ready for a consumer release. We should be hearing a lot more about Fuchsia from Google in the future, and it’ll be interesting to see what plans Google has up its sleeve.


Source: PC World
Author: Chris Hoffman | @chrisbhoffman

Chris Hoffman is a tech geek who's been writing about everything technology-related for years. When he's not writing about gadgets and software, he's probably using them in his spare time.

Tech Talk: Is Google’s Fuchsia The Next Android?

Android, for phones and tablets, and Chrome OS, for laptops, are the active operating systems that Google currently offers. Both are based on Linux and have been used to power consumer devices for years, with Android first released on a phone in 2008 and Chrome OS released in 2011 after initially being announced in 2009. Now Google is working on another operating system called Fuchsia. It’s open source, with the code available in GitHub for any developers that want to try it out. It’s also based on an entirely different set of code from both Android and Chrome OS.

The interesting promise for Fuchsia is that it is being designed to run on any device. So the same or similar operating system could be running on a PC, laptop, tablet, phone, watch, or even something less powerful. The key benefit of having the same system on multiple devices is allowing them to communicate with each other more effectively to offer a consistent and unified experience for consumers.

The main driving force behind the development of Fuchsia may well be the Internet of Things. Connected home devices are hugely varied in terms of their processing power, from a simple light bulb to a full entertainment system or robotic device. Google, along with its major competitors, wants control over the protocols for how those devices will communicate with each other and Fuchsia could be a way to achieve that. The kernel of Fuchsia was originally designed for use in very low-powered devices and the Google developers assigned to the project are experts in that field. Google do already have an operating system in that arena, called Brillo, but Fuchsia far is more ambitious in it’s scope and potential.

So could Fuchsia become a replacement for Android? It’s certainly possible if the project gathers momentum and starts to become a viable consumer product, but there is really no way of knowing right now as these are the still the very early days of Fuchsia. Google are known for starting new projects as experiments and being relatively public about them. They then evaluate the projects over time for the potential benefits. Many Google projects have even become popular consumer products and services, only to be dropped later. It is a promising proposition to have one operating system across the widest possible range of devices, but it will be sometime before it becomes clear whether Fuchsia will be that system.

Source: AH - Android Headlines
Author: Alastair Arthur

Tech Talk: Google’s Fuchsia OS Isn’t Linux Based

Google recently unveiled a new operating system project called Fuchsia, described on GitHub as “Pink + Purple = Fuchsia (a new Operating System).” Firstly, it might be confusing and surprising to think about the fact that Google are developing a new operating system, and secondly, it might be even more confusing to learn that Fuchsia is not based on Linux. Linux has become one of the world’s most important platforms and all of Google’s other operating system platforms are based on Linux. Fuchsia is something of a departure. The new operating system may be trialed on a device based around either an ARM, Intel, or virtual computer and the team are working on porting it to the Raspberry Pi in order to see how well it performed in very limited hardware. The new operating system runs on a newly developed Magenta kernel, which itself is based on the Little Kernel project. In other words, the platform is looking like it will be developed entirely in-house at Google. It’s too soon to say if it will be a “better” platform than Linux, or more efficient.

Fuchsia uses Google’s own Dart language and is being designed for “modern phones and modern personal computers.” That sounds like the Android platform, which Google has already successfully reworked for other types of platform (such as Android Auto, Android TV and Android Wear) and is based on Linux. However, Fuchsia can also be run on embedded devices, such as the billions we are expecting to join the internet as part of the Internet of Things revolution that’s right around the corner. This sounds like Google’s Brillo platform, which is essentially “Android Lite” and could at a stretch be included in the list of sub-Android operating systems above. Are Google planning on reinventing the Android platform into Fuchsia? Or are they planning on combining Android and Chrome into Fuchsia?

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, and let’s first take a deeper look into Fuchsia. Fuchsia is more than a simple low powered operating system designed for simple devices. It has mature operating system functionality including advanced graphics, 64-bit processing support and, importantly, a capability-based security system. The fact that Fuchsia has these features and isn’t based on Linux, a constantly developed, open source platform that has been adopted the world over, is interesting. It also points out that Google has perhaps realized that Android cannot be the platform for absolutely everything, even though the plethora of Android-based platforms might suggest otherwise. There are good reasons why Android is central to Google’s computing strategy – over a billion reasons residing in the Google Play Store as it happens. It is no surprise that whilst Google is committed to keeping the Android and Chrome OS platforms separate, it is keen to integrate certain Android features on the Chrome platform and the Play Store was one of them. This is likely something that Google will look to replicate with Fuchsia in the future.

Microsoft is a business that has changed its mobile platform ambitions in the last couple of years. In 2014, Microsoft pumped time, effort and money into a number of mobile operating systems from Windows CE to PocketPC to Windows Phone before finally deciding that it wasn’t able to compete from a platform perspective, and switched its focus to providing great quality applications and services that could run on whatever computer hardware and platform the customer was using. That’s why we can use Microsoft Office 365 on anything from an iPhone to an Android tablet to a Chromebook to a Windows 10 desktop. Google have a similar approach from some perspectives: yes they have saturated the smartphone market with Android, but their revenue generation is predominantly from advertising revenue, which relies on the Google services. Android is a means of delivering these services – especially search – to customers such that the company can sell this information. It doesn’t matter if a customer is using a Windows 10 laptop, Macbook, or Chromebook to search Google, the information derived is still worth something to Google. Fuchsia drops right into this line of thinking as another means of delivering the Google services to customers.

One of the golden rules of computing is that one doesn’t pick the best platform based on hardware specifications, memory, chassis color or charging port, but instead one should pick the best platform to run whatever applications that are needed. To look back at the console wars between Microsoft and Sony, it doesn’t matter if the Xbox is a technically superior product if one wants to play a Sony-exclusive title, such as Gran Turismo – you need to use the Sony hardware. Google’s Fuchsia project may well be about bringing a “better platform” to a certain type of device to allow customers to access Google’s services. In order to do this, Google will need to ensure that Fuchsia is compatible with everything people love and use about Android and Chrome OS. That may simply mean ensuring that third party applications can run on the new operating system. In the short term it could mean a form of emulation and in the longer term it might mean developers building a universal application, similar in some respects to Microsoft’s plans with Windows 10.

It is too soon to say how the Fuchsia platform will evolve and when we might see devices running the software, or how it will compete or complement the existing Android and Chrome OS platforms. Details about Fuchsia are still limited. The new operating system might be a core part of Google’s ultimate long-term plan to resolve the fragmentation and update issues inherent with Android by incorporating a similar update scheme as we see with Microsoft’s Windows operating system: Fuchsia could be backwards compatible with the applications and services customers the world over have come to love with their Android devices, but running over a different technology. In 2016, it seems difficult to believe that Fuchsia could simply take over from Android, but in 2006 it was difficult to believe that the Android platform would take over from Nokia’s Symbian smartphone platform.

Source: AH - Android Headlines
Author: David Steele

Google Fuchsia OS: What is it and what does it power?

Google is developing an entirely new operating system.

But here's the thing: it's unclear at the moment what this operating system is for, including what devices it might power. Here's everything we know so far about the project, which is currently going by the name Fuchsia. Keep checking back, however, as we plan to update this piece over time with the latest reports, rumours, leaked information, and of course, any and all confirmations.

Google Fuchsia: What is it?

Fuchsia is an evolving pile of code. You can find it on the search giant's code depository and on GitHub. The code is supposedly the early beginnings of an entirely new operating system, though Google has yet to confirm those details. Interestingly, it's not based on Linux Kernel - the core underpinnings of both Android (Google's mobile OS) and Chrome OS (Google's desktop and laptop OS).

Google Fuchsia: What devices might it power?

The current school of thought is that Fuchsia is a new OS that could unify Chrome OS and Android into a single operating system (something that's been heavily speculated since 2015. Reports have claimed that OS will release in 2017. That said, Google's own documentation describes the software as targeting "modern phones and modern personal computers" with "fast processors" and "non-trivial amounts of RAM."

If Fuchsia is not a unifying OS, it could be used to power Internet of Things (IoT) devices, such as Google's OnHub router (pictured above).

Google Fuchsia: Why could it be an IoT OS?

Fuchsia is built on Magenta. It's a "medium-sized microkernel" based on a project called LittleKernel, which is meant for embedded systems, such as a device that has a specific purpose but doesn't require a whole OS, like a router or watch. Also, the two developers listed on Fuchsia's GitHub page - a senior software engineer at Google and  a former engineer on Android TV and Nexus Q -  are well-known experts in embedded systems.

Furthermore, Google's documentation notes Magenta supports user modes, graphics rendering, and a "capability-based security model". Although all this points to Fuchsia being an OS for Wi-Fi connected gadgets, it's worth bringing up that Google already has an IoT platform called Brillo.

Google Fuchsia: Will it replace Android?

Possibly. Android is riddled with problems that Google has yet to fix. First, there's fragmentation caused by hundreds of different devices from dozens of manufacturers using different, tweaked versions of Android rather than the latest, pure version. Second, there's an update problem. Google has an annual release schedule for Android updates, but it takes about four years for an update to fully flood the ecosystem.

Although many of these problems are related to Android being open source - which means Google gives it to OEMs and carriers and lets them tinker with it and load it onto random hardware, resulting in fragmentation, as Google can't then decide to push Android direct to these devices if any modifications and tinkering has been done - another problem is that Android is based on Linux.

Linux is not only old but is dogged by many legal issues - and subsequent licensing fees from Android hardware OEMs eat away at profit margins. The Linux kernel was also not originally designed for smartphones and IoT devices, and yet the kernel's been completely tweaked and loaded onto those devices, creating a prime environment for bugs and vulnerabilities to grow.

A new operating system and platform would solve all these issues. It wouldn't be shackled by pricey patent licensing deals. It would be safer, built, and optimised for today. It could also be modular and truly unified, meaning it would work across many devices. Google could even begin licensing it to hardware developers, solving those fragmentation and update problems.

Google Fuchsia: What else could it be?

Hacker News users have suggested Fuchsia could be designed for augmented reality interfaces.

Google Fuchsia: Are there any other clues?

Nope. But the top of Fuchsia's GitHub page does say "Pink + Purple == Fuchsia (a new Operating System)".

Google Fuchsia: Why is the code public?

As for why the project/code is out in the public and thus was able to be discovered in such a low-key manner, Brian Swetland, one of Fuchsia's listed developers, reportedly explained: "The decision was made to build it open source, so might as well start there from the beginning."

Swetland also revealed Fuchsia is booting reasonably well on small-form factor Intel PCs and an Acer Switch Alpha 12 laptop.

Want to know more?

Check Pocket-lint's Google hub for related news.


Source: Pocket-lint
Author: Elyse Betters

Acer Switch Alpha 12

Acer Switch Alpha 12

View Acer site

Several sources revealed Google's Fuchsia OS is booting reasonably well on small-form factor Intel PCs and an Acer Switch Alpha 12 laptop.


Source: Fuchsia @ Spingoo
Author: Martina Bloom

Google Fuchsia eyes non-Linux things

Embedded is the web's next frontier

Google’s latest operating system project, Fuchsia, may be largely a mystery, but it reinforces a truth that the platforms vendors are having, grudgingly, to acknowledge: one operating system does not fit all. For a company which has put so much effort into making Android an OS for all purposes, Google has a remarkable number of potentially conflicting platforms, now including Chrome OS, Brillo and Fuchsia.

Even though it looks like an experimental OS for embedded devices, Fuchsia was described by its own Google team as being designed for “modern phones and modern personal computers”, which might be just how Android and Chrome OS would describe themselves too. So is Google hedging its bets, extending Android to cars, homes and wearables while developing alternatives just in case? Or is there a more coordinated master plan at work?

The failure of one-size-fits-all OSs

Many companies, of course, develop parallel systems, creating dilemmas for the marketing departments – especially companies with a culture of innovation and semi-open source activity like Google (though the same parallelism used to characterize the far more controlled Samsung too). But Google’s multi-headed OS hydra may well have a greater commercial logic behind it. If it can create a fully optimized platform for each key emerging area of connected experience, and then marry them all together at the applications layer with the ubiquitous Android, it might achieve what Unix, Linux and Java promised, but failed to deliver all these years.

All those, not to mention the proprietary unified OS attempts like successive generations of Windows, ran up against the huge challenges of extending a single OS across very different hardware systems, user and developer communities, and user experiences. The fragmentation becomes even worse with the rise of a new host of connected devices, and companies which missed out on the mobile market because of Android’s dominance have been eagerly grasping the opportunity to devise a fully optimized software environment for virtual reality headsets, for smart clothing, for industrial robots, for drones, for car dashboards, for connected light switches.

Can all these target devices, and many more, with their very varied screens, interfaces and applications, really be served by one OS? No, say the firms whom Android pushed aside, such as Samsung with Tizen and Huawei with LiteOS. Google increasingly seems to be saying no too, despite the proliferation of new Android strands for specific device types.

Chrome OS enables devices – initially lightweight laptops but now streaming gadgets like Chromecast and others – which are inherently cloud-connected, while Android, in its commercial implementations, is optimal with downloads and offline/online.

Then there is Brillo for embedded, ultra-low power devices – it is used in the Google Wi-Fi OnHub while its associated application layer framework, Weave, is used by the Nest home devices subsidiary, along with the Thread connectivity protocol – and access to Android apps and services.

This is the key – different OSs, but with various levels of integration with the huge Android base of developers and applications. Brillo is essentially a stripped-down version of Android, while Chrome OS is entirely separate, based on the Chromium code base which is increasingly strategic to Google (it also underpins the browser and the CoreOS containers). But Chrome OS has also become increasingly entwined with Android, enabling Chromebook users to harness those apps and offline services too.

Fuchsia’s early details

The details of Fuchsia are few and far between at this early stage, but it appears to be an ambitious project, with one core component drawing a lot of attention – it won’t be using the Linux kernel at all. It appeared on GitHub with just the description "Pink + Purple = Fuchsia (a new Operating System)". It can be trialled on an ARM or Intel computer or a virtual machine, and its next port is said to be to a Raspberry Pi to test its low power credentials further. It uses Google’s own Dart programming language.

While a non-Linux OS might be commonplace for very low end embedded devices, Fuchsia is more than a simple RTOS (real time OS), since it has "grown-up" capabilities such as advanced graphics and 64-bit support and a capability-based security model. This points to an attempt to create a Linux-free OS and potentially create a whole new approach to open OS development (and IPR) a quarter-century after Linus Torvalds made his breakthrough.

Fuchsia will run on the newly developed Magenta kernel (based on the Little Kernel project), instead of the Linux kernel that forms the heart of all Linux distros – including Android and Chromium. As such, Google’s new OS looks like it will be entirely homegrown.

The GitHub repository notes “LK is a kernel designed for small systems typically used in embedded applications. On the other hand, Magenta targets modern phones and modern personal computers with fast processors, non-trivial amounts of RAM, with arbitrary peripherals doing open-ended computation.”

Whether that makes it more efficient than the Linux kernel remains to be seen – after all, that codebase has existed for quite a long time now, but has been the source of near constant development from the open source community. Those open source advocates are likely going to be quite uncomfortable with a Googlespawned OS, but for Alphabet itself, there might be some strategic advantages to the homebrew platform.

This would most likely be targeted, in its commercial stages, to compete with the rising number of specialized lightweight systems which sit somewhere between a full platform and a real time OS (RTOS) like VxWorks. The latter’s developer, Intel unit Wind River, is playing in this space, as is ARM with mBED OS, and up the stack a little, there are numerous vendor efforts like Tizen, and open source alternatives.

The Magenta kernel has been designed to compete at the RTOS end, against the likes of FreeRTOS and ThreadX, which are operating systems designed for devices that are incredibly hardwareconstrained – and thus more likely to be found in remote IoT deployments. These embedded devices often use non-Linux kernels, and so that realm won’t be too unnerved by Google’s proposition.

How far will Fuchsia cannibalize Android, or ride on it?

But Magenta is also being built to scale up to far more powerful compute platforms such as phones and PCs, so if it succeeds there in future, Google will have to make difficult decisions about the risks of moving away from Linux; the level to which Magenta would be allowed to cannibalize Android; and how the two OSs could be converged. It seems impossible that the company would throw away the ingrained advantage that its Android base brings it, whether in embedded devices or new generation smartphones.

Fuchsia could conceivably be the basis of something like Android 7.0, or rather the open source AOSP component that underlines the OS itself, but it is more likely that Google will work on enabling Fuchsia developers and users to have Android compatibility where required.

But the sheer amount of work and risk to replace Android – even if Fuchsia proves more optimal for upcoming user experiences; even if the replacement takes place over many years – is daunting. Far better to keep Fuchsia focused on powering embedded or hardware- constrained devices at the network edge, and reworking Android as radically as necessary to enable it to leave iOS in the dust when mobile users start to embrace new experiences driven by hyper-contextual awareness, AI-driven search and query, voice and image recognition, and virtual/augmented reality.

The old OSs and tools will struggle to keep pace with all that, and Google may be recognizing this – in far better time than Microsoft did with Windows as the web and then the mobile eras dawned. But on phones and PCs, it is already introducing software which will revolutionize Android and Chrome without the need for a brand new platform.

Project Tango has had a rocky start, but promises augmented reality experiences which will become as natural to the user as the search box and the maps tools are today. And as part of the Chromium project, Google is working on bringing VR support to its Chrome browser, a move which could help transform the web and mobile experience.

According to Google’s Francois Beaufort, the Chrome Beta and Chrome Dev channels have a setting that “allows users to browse the web while using Cardboard or Daydream-ready viewers”. Daydream is the VR platform which Google unveiled at its I/O conference this year, while Cardboard is its low cost technology for turning a handset into a VR viewer.

These are the projects which will change the rules in the next phase of mobile and IoT usage, and will help to tie users and OEMs into Android, reluctantly or not. It seems impossible that Google would sabotage all that with yet another PC/phone OS, while in the embedded world, it may have a chance to burrow far more deeply into the IoT and all its many devices than it can with Android.

The Fuchsia team

A selection of the leaders of the Fuchsia development indicates the broad operating system heritage, spanning more than two decades and several iconic platforms, which is being tapped for Google’s latest adventure:

• Travis Geiselbrecht: worked on the failed but hugely influential BeOS from the 1990s as well as iOS and Danger’s Hiptop product, which was later acquired by Microsoft.
• Brian Swetland: also worked on BeOS and Hiptop, but has spent many years on the Android core too.
• Chris McKillop: yet another Hiptop alumnus and a member of the original iPhone team. He was also an original member of a team which created webOS – later owned by Palm and then Hewlett-Packard – and contributed to the QNX automotive OS which was acquired by BlackBerry.
• Adam Barth: a long-serving member of Google’s Chrome team who also built his own OS, called Tau. Most recently, he has helped develop Google’s Flutter tool which aims to make it easier to write software to run on both Android and iOS.

Copyright © 2016, Wireless Watch

Wireless Watch is published by Rethink Research, a London-based IT publishing and consulting firm. This weekly newsletter delivers in-depth analysis and market research of mobile and wireless for business. Subscription details are here.

Source: The Register UK
Author: Wireless Watch

Google Fuchsia: Inside Google’s new ‘Fuchsia’ OS

The Google Fuschia OS could be used for any number of purposes, from IoT to some kind of desktop/mobile OS.

What is Google Fuchsia? That’s a question being asked a lot – recently techies have been abuzz about a new operating system called Fuchsia being developed by, yes, Google. Here's what we've been told:

• It's not based on Linux.
• It's using the Dart scripting language.
• It's a command line only experience at the moment.
• You can navigate using a built in shell environment.

Other than this, the rest of Google Fuchsia's features and overall purpose remain unclear. In this article, I'll share what Google might have in mind and how each of these possibilities might affect existing platforms.

Google Fuchsia IoT (Internet of Things)

Google Fuchsia – it appears – addresses one of the "growth" areas that we see a lot of tech companies clamoring to get into, the IoT space. Companies like Amazon and others are sure it's the next big tech market.

Despite my feelings about it, I believe there is a very strong chance this is what Google is looking to jump into next. After all, they are already dipping their toes into the IoTs waters. And it seems logical for Google to create a new operating system that is based on open standards that would allow other companies to engage in this new frontier with Fuchsia.

Why would Google do this: Google, like many other companies out there, believe this is the next big push for market share. With a shrinking desktop market and Google already doing great in the smartphone arena, this would be a move that keeps their shareholders happy.

What's the value of this endeavor: If Google can address existing shortcomings found with existing IoT offerings, then they could definitely add value here.

• Providing a single "IoT standard" for compatible devices to rely on instead of dozens from multiple companies.
• Lending the Google brand to an IoT offering would certainly help with adoption among holdouts.

What are the negatives to Google getting into this: Combined with our Web habits and smart phones, Google would then have a magic "key" to our homes as well. Personally I find this terrifying, but I'm also one to be careful with how much information I share with a single omnipresent company.

I'm also concerned about what happens to Linux-based systems like Mycroft – suddenly their offering is put up against one of the most powerful companies in the world. Also using an "open source" OS, Mycroft would immediately find itself competing for market share in an already crowded space….this time with a "super-brand" like Google.

Google Fuchsia Desktop/Mobile

Perhaps the most popular belief is that Google plans on making Fuchsia it's Android/ChromeOS replacement. On the surface, this feels pretty far fetched. But when you consider Google's plans in the long haul, it suddenly seems in the realm of possibility.

If we're being absolutely honest about things, Android has become something of a bloated mess. Don't misunderstand me, I prefer Android over any other mobile alternative. But I think it's the application and phone selection that keeps folks running with what Google is offering on the Android front.

Potentially years down the road, Fuchsia could be the answer to this issue. In the years that follow, imagine a brand new core not based on Linux for Google's smart phones or laptops. Instead, we might see Fuchsia powering these devices instead.

Why would Google do this: To be honest, I'm not sure as to their motivation. It's possible there might be some secret benefit that we haven't sniffed out yet.

What's the value of this endeavor: The only value I can see here is control and limiting non-Google created layers. Even stripped down, the Linux kernel is still the Linux kernel. Perhaps Google is exploring a way to drop their dependence on Linux and other technologies by starting from scratch. If done properly, one might even surmise that Fuchsia could speed up the process to blur the lines between Android and ChromeOS.

What are negatives to Google getting into this: To be honest, I don't actually see any negatives here. At its best, this would provide a better experience with Google consumer products. At its worst, we might see less contributions from Google to Linux itself.

Google Fuchsia Server

The last possibility is, in my opinion, the least likely. However, it's not impossible that Fuchsia might be focused on Google's server needs. Years ago, I attended a Linux convention in which Google gave a presentation. Before the presentation started, I was told point blank that I could not record any images of a slide showing off Google servers. Mind you, this was an outdated image and the servers were in the dark. It seems that Google is pretty serious about secrecy.

The presenter mentioned that Google (at that time) uses oodles of Linux in their server environment, along with a lot of specialized stuff he's not able to talk about. Based on this information, doesn't it stand to reason that something like Fuchsia could be used to as a core element for future plans in Google's server space? Perhaps not in its current form, but perhaps the public code for Fuchsia is merely a part of a much larger picture?

Why would Google do this: Anything that makes Google's servers hum along better, faster and with greater success is adding value to Google's offerings.

What's the value of this endeavor: Assuming such a thing was true, then it's fair to assume there is some sort of speed/stability/cost benefit here someplace. Imagine if this even meant Google was able to incorporate new functionality not possible previously? I realize I'm reaching here, but stranger things have happened.

What are negatives to Google getting into this: The only downside I can think of is if there are new privacy implementations not present previously. Unlikely, but I have to put it out there. Short of that, I can't think of anything negative that comes to my mind.

Fuchsia in Google's future

So which one of these scenarios has the most teeth? Short term, the winner in my opinion will be the IoT (Internet of Things). Long term however, I see all of these as possibilities. Especially if things work out well with the IoT efforts. From there, who is to say that the blending of ChromeOS and Android won't be using Fuchsia at its core.

Then we have the servers in Google's midst. Honestly, I have the most difficult time getting my head around this end of it, as what they have now seems to be working great. Yet twenty years from now, who knows. Maybe some project is written on a napkin somewhere that could end up using Fuchsia as its core and will one day benefit Google in this space as well.

What say you? Do you believe Google Fuchsia is basically over-hyped nonsense that the media has taken completely out of context? Perhaps instead, you think that one of the possible scenarios described above is perfectly plausible? Hit the Comments and let me know what you think Fuchsia will be used for.

Source: Datamation
Author: Matt Hartley

Why On Earth Is Google Building A New Operating System From Scratch?

Its latest operating system experiment throws out decades of software history in pursuit of smaller-scale devices.

Last week, a group of Googlers did something strange: They quietly revealed a new operating system that theoretically competes with Google's own Android OS.

Dubbed Fuchsia, the open-source OS-in-progress could run on everything from lightweight, single-purpose devices (think ATMs and GPS units) all the way up to desktop computers. But unlike Android, Fuchsia isn't based on Linux, nor is it derived from any of the other software that underpins nearly all personal computing and communications today. Instead, it's an attempt to start from scratch.

Google has yet to make any big announcements about how it might use Fuchsia, which is still in early development and could be nothing more than an experiment. Still, Google has plenty of reasons to hit reset on decades of software history.

CRUSTY KERNELS

Here's something you might not realize about your phones, tablets, and laptops: For the most part, they're adaptations of software "kernels" that are quite old. Android uses the Linux kernel, which began development in 1991. Mac OS X, iOS, and other Apple platforms are based on Unix, which originated at AT&T's Bell Labs in 1969. Windows computers are based on the Windows NT kernel, which dates back to 1993.

The purpose of a kernel is to manage the deepest levels of an operating system. It handles requests from hardware devices such as keyboards, schedules tasks, and manages files and memory. In doing so, it abstracts the intricacies of the operating system, which is helpful, say, for allowing an app to print without its developers having to know anything about specific printer models.

The resilience of old kernels like Unix, Linux, and Windows NT may seem paradoxical for an industry obsessed with the state of the art, but industry analyst Horace Dediu argues that that at its lowest levels, computing is fundamentally the same as it was a few decades ago. For instance, today's Windows computers use chips that are direct descendants of the Intel processor in the first IBM PC. In that sense, the kernel is just a commodity.

"We are still using exactly the same architecture, we're using exactly the same notions of computing—registers, gates, transistors—so for that reason, there's no need to make a better kernel," Dediu says. "Kernels have been figured out."

Or so we thought. These days we're packing sensors and computing power into more things, turning ordinary homes, for instance, into smart ones, and generally making everything more connected (Internet of Things, in industry jargon). The thinking behind Fuchsia may be that aging kernels such as Linux are inadequate for this new wave of devices. As such, its creators are imagining a new one for modern times. (The kernel itself is called Magenta, which is based on another recent Google experiment called LittleKernel.)

Zach Supalla, whose company Particle offers hardware kits and developer tools for the Internet of Things, notes that Linux poses a couple of problems for these small-scale computing devices.

A general-purpose operating system like Linux can also be less secure for Internet of Things applications.

For one thing, Linux is large for this type of application. Even though the Linux kernel is modular, allowing developers to strip away unnecessary parts, it still ends up occupying megabytes' worth of space. That means it's harder to cram the Linux kernel onto cheap microcontrollers, which in turn necessitates processors that are much larger, pricier, and more power-hungry.

"You haven't jumped the gap into this whole other supply chain of stuff that's manufactured at much higher qualities, and for much, much cheaper," Supalla says.

The other problem is that Linux isn't "real-time." Unlike the embedded operating systems found in ATMs, medical products, and other single-purpose devices, Linux uses a schedule to handle a multitude of tasks. While this can maximize performance in general-purpose computers, it causes problems for devices that require precise timing, like 3D printers or the many motorized controls inside automobiles.

"If you want to make sure that this thing fires at exactly the right microsecond, you don't really want to have a process in there deciding what runs when," Supalla says.

A general-purpose operating system like Linux can also be less secure for Internet of Things applications, Supalla says. There's more code, which means more potential security loopholes that need to be addressed or locked down through firewalls and virtual private networks.

"One of the values of running a [real-time operating system] or embedded system is, there's nothing to lock down," Supalla says. "It's not running a bunch of stuff you have to be concerned about. It isn't running anything at all except the software that you write."

Supalla speculates that Fuchsia is an attempt to get the best of both worlds between Linux—which is still better at allowing apps and hardware to communicate through the operating system—and today's embedded systems, such as FreeRTOS and ThreadX.

"They'd probably like to have something that has the level of abstraction of a Linux, but the performance, the small size, and the real-time nature of an RTOS," Supalla says. "That would be a very valuable thing for one to have, and I think in theory it can be done. It's just never been done before."

SCALING UPWARD

If Fuschia only targeted small-scale devices, it might not be that noteworthy. But Fuchsia's developers have broader ambitions in mind, claiming that the operating system can scale to smartphones and desktop computers. In theory, that would make Fuchsia a direct alternative to Google's Android and Chrome OS.

What's the motivation? According to Supalla, it's possible that starting from scratch would allow for a more efficient operating system, which in turn could power more efficient servers—something Google is always interested in. He also notes that desktop compatibility could help with simulating a large number of smaller devices running at once, to ensure they work at scale.

"It's much easier to have a thousand servers that you spin up, that are each running a thousand copies of the software application at the same time, than it is to go get a million chips and boot them all up, so it's better for testing," Supalla says.

Fuchsia's developers say they'll document and announce the operating system eventually.

Dediu has a different theory: A fresh operating system could be free of the intellectual property licensing issues that have hounded Google with Android. "Because it's a clean-sheet design, it doesn't have any IP that anybody else is going to line up for," he says. "That might be a reasonable assumption, because Linux does have some hairy IP issues."

Keep in mind this could all be academic. Fuchsia's developers say they'll fully document and announce the operating system eventually, but that could be a long way off, and it's unclear whether Google will throw any weight behind the effort. The Android ecosystem is already huge (and is starting to merge with Chromebooks). Meanwhile, Google is also scaling a version of Android down to Internet of Things devices with an embedded variant called Brillo—downsides of Linux be damned—and it's shaping up to be a full-blown platform, not just a bare-bones operating system.

Then again, Unix got its start as a volunteer project with no organizational recognition from Bell Labs, and Linux Torvalds started working on Linux as a hobby. Maybe in a few decades we'll be talking about Fuchsia's unlikely origins within the Googleplex.

Source: Fast Company

Author: Jared Newman

What is Google Fuchsia?

Google posted code for a new operating system that could run on phones and PCs. The odd part is that the code isn't related to Android or Chrome OS.

Google Fuchsia was quietly posted to online repository GitHub. The company has not explained too much what the Fuchsia operating system is destined for. However, digging around online brings up a few things. Fuchsia uses a different kernel than Android or Chrome OS. The kernel is the first thing that loads when an operating system is loaded. Google's documentation says Fuchsia's kernel would be able to run on modern phones and computers. Where this new OS will end up is not known yet. Maybe it's the base for a new Android. Maybe it's just a project that will go nowhere. We'll see.

SEE VIDEO

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Source: C|NET
Author: Iyaz Akhtar

Github / fuchsia-mirror / magenta

# Magenta

-Magenta is a new kernel that powers the Fuchsia OS.
+Magenta is the core platform that powers the Fuchsia OS.  Magenta is
+composed of a microkernel as well as a small set of userspace services,
+drivers, and libraries necessary for the system to boot, talk to hardware,
+load userspace processes and run them, etc.  Fuchsia builds a much larger
+OS on top of this foundation.
+
+The Magenta Kernel is a medium-sized microkernel.  It provides services
+(via syscalls) to manage processes, threads, virtual memory, inter-process
+communication, waiting on object state changes, and locking (via futexes).
+
+Currently there are some temporary syscalls that have been used for early
+bringup work, which will be going away in the future as the long term
+syscall API/ABI surface is finalized.  The expectation is that there will
+be 10s, not 100s of syscalls.
+
+Magenta syscalls are generally non-blocking.  The wait (one, many, set)
+family of syscalls, ioport reads, and thread sleep being the notable
+exceptions.

 This page is a non-comprehensive index of the magenta documentation.

Source: GitHub

What is Google building its new OS, Fuchsia, for?

Google has acknowledged that a new OS is being built. We try to find out why.

Google has started work on building a new operating system, called Fuchsia. It has been noted in Google’s code depository on GitHub, and the pile of codes have revealed that it is not based on the Linux kernel, hence differentiating it from Google’s existing operating systems -- Chrome OS and Android. While the signs of a new operating system is indeed matter of excitement, what remains shrouded in mysteries is what the OS will be used for. The only thing that is mentioned by Google above the pile of code is, “Pink + Purple == Fuchsia (a new Operating System)”.

What could Fuchsia be meant for, then? The core code of the operating system appears to focus on keeping in light on resources, and as The Verge notes, could be the operating system that fuses Google’s Chrome OS and Android into one. Reports about this had surfaced late last year, but Google had subsequently quashed such rumours, and Chrome OS lived on as an individual entity. The possibility, though, has been rekindled with Fuchsia’s advent, along with other sources claiming that Fuchsia may be used for peripherals like Google’s OnHub router, or Google’s lineup of Internet of Things (IoT) devices. A part of Google’s Fuchsia code states that it is built on Magenta, not the Project Magenta, but a micro-kernel used in embedded computing devices like a car’s connected entertainment system or smartwatches. That may be a possible scope of usage for Fuchsia, and more relevance is added to this idea as the two developers listed on GitHub - Christopher Anderson and Brian Swetland - are senior software engineers, and have previously worked on projects like Android TV - an embedded computing hardware.

Many, though, are claiming that only this will be a very marginal case of use of Fuchsia. Google’s documentation of the Magenta micro-kernel states that it has “first class user-mode support”, and “targets modern phones and modern personal computers with fast processors, non-trivial amounts of ram with arbitrary peripherals doing open ended computation.” Fuchsia also includes support for graphics rendering, and these two evidences combined suggest that the OS may indeed be used for something greater than embedded systems. Google already has its own Android-based IoT platform Brillo, which can be used for the smaller systems.

As The Verge reports, Google is already testing Fuchsia, and it is working fairly well. Fuchsia has been running well on small-form Intel PCs and even an Acer Switch Alpha 12 laptop, and support will soon be added for Raspberry Pi 3. Google has reportedly decided to build it open source, so we can expect more details to be unveiled soon.

And, well, with the amount of mystery shrouding the project right now, we cannot help but hope Fuchsia will lead to much greater software innovation than what we’re guessing for now.

Source: DIGIT
Author: Souvik Das

YouTube: Google's Fuchsia OS | Source. Compile. Run.

Fuchsia – Google’s New Open Source Operating System

Project Fuchsia is Google’s attempt to expand its holdings with a new operating system for use with personal computers and phones. Google was very successful with its Android OS which has grabbed 65.5 percent of the U.S. market. Google now sets it sites on the PC world and similar success.

Google was very successful with its Android OS which has grabbed 65.5 percent of the U.S. market. Google now sets it sites on the PC world and similar success.

Fuchsia is in its infancy, but is currently up and running on an Acer Switch Alpha 12 hybrid tablet.

There are plans for running Google Fuchsia on a Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi 3 Model B will probably be the model that gets Fuchsia.

Fuchsia is an open-source project which allows view the code, learn from it, copy it, share it, edit it, and use it in their own projects. The open source community promotes collaboration and sharing of source code for millions of projects by millions of programmers.  As a result Google’s Fuchia could see improvements in reliability, security, and quality.

You can find the Fuchsia project on Google's website and on Github.

Source: Daily Tech
Author: Elroy Bethell

What the Fuchsia? Google's trying out a mysterious new operating system

The software is designed for "modern phones and modern personal computers," which suggests Google intends to compete against Microsoft's Windows and possibly its own Android.

First there was Windows vs. Mac. Then came iOS vs. Android. Now with a project called Fuchsia, Google could be starting a new software platform war -- but we don't yet know who's on the other side of the battle line.

Fuchsia, which emerged Friday, is an operating system designed for "modern phones and modern personal computers," Google says. For those devices, the tech titan already has Android and Chrome OS, raising the possibility that Fuchsia will compete with Google's own work.

It's hard to launch a new mainstream operating system. But with Android, Google became one of the few companies to successfully do so, and the Fuchsia team includes veterans of operating systems including the legendary BeOS. And as Apple showed with iOS on its iPhones, a new operating system can bring dramatic new benefits to consumers.

You may be happy with Windows, Android, MacOS or iOS. But there's still room for improvement. A fresh start in the world of operating systems could mean stronger security, more responsiveness, longer battery life, and an easier time for programmers writing sophisticated apps.

OS hurdles

Building an operating system is technically hard, especially one like Android or Windows that has to handle a wide variety of hardware. And when building a new OS, it's hard to get developers to write software tailored for it -- a key problem that doomed many operating systems, including Windows Phone, Mozilla's Firefox OS, Palm's WebOS and Ubuntu Touch. If people aren't using the software, there's no incentive for developers to support it.

And getting consumers excited about operating systems is tough. "Users really don't want to run operating systems -- they want to run apps," said Gartner analyst Michael Silver.

Google could help a fledgling operating system by making it compatible with Android. But that would also make it harder for Google to make a true fresh start.

Operating systems can also succeed in narrower domains -- anything from network equipment to microwave ovens, for example. And it's not yet clear what Google's Fuchsia ambitions are. The company declined to comment further on Fuchsia.

An operating system manages a device's most basic operations. It registers keyboard clicks, sends data over a network, juggles the tasks running on a processor, stores files on a drive, displays graphics on a screen and controls a phone camera. At the center of the OS is software called a kernel, which in Fuchsia's case is called Magenta.

Android is based on the open-source Linux kernel that has been around since 1991.

Fuchsia is still in its early stages. Google has it up and running on an Acer Switch Alpha 12, a laptop-tablet hybrid, but apparently also wants to get it running on a Raspberry Pi, a much less powerful machine. It also runs on devices powered by ARM chips, the type that powers almost all phones and tablets.

Fuchsia team

Some notable developers are contributing to the project. Among them:

• Travis Geiselbrecht, who worked on a failed but influential operating system from the 1990s called BeOS, the iPhone and the OS for the Danger Hiptop operating system, which T-Mobile sold as the original Sidekick.
• Brian Swetland, who worked on BeOS, the Hiptop OS and who spent many years toiling on the core parts of Android.
• Chris McKillop, a member of the original iPhone team and the original WebOS team who also worked on the QNX operating system used in cars and some BlackBerry devices. He also worked on the Danger Hiptop.
• Adam Barth, a longtime member of Google's Chrome team who more recently has been working on a Google tool designed called Flutter to make it easier for programmers to write software that runs on Android and iOS. He also built an operating system of his own called Tau.

Fuchsia is an open-source project, meaning anyone can see the underlying programming instructions, modify them and use them for their own purposes. It's hard to sell open-source software the way Microsoft sells Windows or Adobe Systems sells Photoshop, but it's easier to attract outside programmers to contribute an open-source project, and it's more likely the software will be used and improved as a result.

The Fuchsia project is hosted both on Google's own site and on the publicly available Github.

Source: C|NET
Author: Stephen Shankland

What we learned from running Fuchsia, the mysterious new OS from Google

Computers are like cars, we are used to just starting them up and using them. We often forget the complexities and intricacies of what is happening under the hood. Android, Windows, OS X, and Linux are all complex operating systems, but what we use today is the mature product that has been in development for years. Fuchsia isn’t like that. It is new, it is in its infancy, it is a work in progress, it is incomplete and it is a mystery.

When I wrote about Fuchsia a few days ago, I included a link to the build instructions, how to take the source code and build it to make a bootable version of the OS. Having written about it, the next logical step was to follow the instructions and see what pops out the other end.

Compiling Fuchsia OS

The easiest way to build Fuchsia is to use a 64-bit Intel Ubuntu Linux machine. Apparently it will also build on OS X and it might work on other Linux flavors like Debian etc. If you aren’t familiar with Linux or you don’t have command-line ninja skills then this isn’t a task for you, but don’t worry I have done all the hard work for you!

At the moment Fuchsia is made up of two big parts. Magenta, which is the kernel, and the various tools, libraries and programs which take the raw Magenta kernel make it Fuchsia. At the heart of Magenta is the Little Kernel (LK), a small OS suited to small embedded devices and bootloaders. LK is tiny and has limited functionality beyond those needed for embedded systems. Magenta builds on top of LK to make an OS that is designed for systems which have more memory and which have peripherals (meaning it understands device drivers). For example, Magenta has the concept of a process whereas LK does not, Magenta has a user mode (where user programs run) whereas LK does not, and so on.

So to build Fuchsia you need to do two things. First is to build the tools and libraries which will run in user space, including a simple shell program called “mxsh”. The second is to build LK/Magenta. Once that is all done you can boot Magenta using a filesystem that has the Fuchsia user space executables.

Running Fuchsia OS

The simplest way to run Fuchsia is using qemu, the popular open source machine emulator. In fact, the Fuchsia source tree contains its own copy of qemu which is compiled as part of the overall build process.

When you boot Fuchsia you get lots of kernel level debug messages telling you about the system as it boots. The initial message says “welcome to lk/MP” and then the kernel goes on to initialise various subsystems like threads and  timers. After that comes the CPU detection, the scheduler, the device manager and networking. Once booted you get access to a simple shell called mxsh.

mxsh has a few built in commands including cd, cp, echo, ls, and rm. If you type in a word that isn’t a built-in command then the shell will try to run a program of that name found in /boot/bin/. The /boot/bin directory has lots of different executables, most of which are to do with the testing and further development of Fuchsia. For example one program is called “thread-depth-test” which tests the thread creation abilities of Fuchsia. There are also some simple executables like fortune and cowsay.

Most importantly is the support for Dart, Google’s scripting language which was originally earmarked as a replacement for Javascript. However Dart has grown since then and is now a fully fledged interpreted language which Google uses for its own in-house systems including AdWords. In general Dart can be run in one of two ways, by compiling it to Javascript (and then running it through a Javascript interpreter) or by interpreting it directly via the stand-alone Dart VM. The latter approach is used by Fuchsia.

To test Dart on Fuchsia there is a simple Dart script in /boot/apps called hello_fuchsia.dart which just prints “Hello, Fuchsia!” to the console. To run it type: dart /boot/apps/hello_fuchsia.dart

Seeing “Hello, Fuchsia!” on the console might not seem much, but actually that is quite impressive. It means that Fuchsia is advanced enough to run a complex interpreter environment, and run the script. This implies process management, thread management, memory management, file I/O and much more. It reminds me of Linux when it was first released, pre v1.0.

What does it all mean?

The first thing we can glean about Fuchsia OS is that Dart will play an important role. The current distribution doesn’t include and C compilers or other high level languages like Java, however Dart is there and working. Since Google has invested heavily in Dart this could mean that Google is working on a device that runs Fuchsia and will be programmed via Dart. A VR device maybe?  A home automation product? An intelligent device for accessing Google’s huge AI infrastructure? We also know that the Flutter project now works on Fuchsia. Flutter is a way to build high-performance, cross-platform mobile apps using Dart.

We also know that Fuchsia isn’t aimed at embedded systems (with just a few K of memory), it is for larger devices, from smartphone sized upwards. The idea that Fuchsia is some kind of desktop OS to compete with Windows or OS X, is in my opinion absurd. As are the notions that it is a replacement for Android or Chrome OS. For any OS to succeed commercially it needs to have a thriving and dynamic developer community. Google has invested millions in building up a developer community around Android and it isn’t about to jeopardize that.

Lastly it is worth repeating that Fuchsia is in its infancy. There is currently no graphical user interface (and it isn’t guaranteed that there will be one in the end). There is no consumer level distribution or installer, everything needs to be built from source. The number of commands and libraries is limited and so on. Having said that for those who understand the complexities of OS design, Fuchsia is progressing nicely.

The purposes and goals of Fuchsia are still a mystery, however it is a serious undertaking. Dart is certainly key, as is Flutter. It will be interesting to see where this goes. Any thoughts? Please let me know in the comments below.

Source: Android Authority
Author: Gary Sims

Why is Google working on the new Fuchsia operating system?

Could this be the first step in the unification of all of Google’s operating systems?

Google, it seems, is working on a new operating system (OS). The project’s current name is Fuchsia, and it is currently just another piece of potential software in the massive pile of software code. (See more ) But what this software is designed for is currently a mystery.

Google makes the world’s most popular smartphone operating system, called Android. It also has an OS for computers called the Chrome OS as well as a software called Android Wear for wearable devices, such as smartwatches, apart from Android TV, CarPlay and OnHub. But the answer to unlocking this mystery could actually be hidden in these three operating systems—they are basically built on the open-source operating system called Linux. Fuchsia, on the other hand, is not.

One of the reasons why Google is shifting from Linux could be the fact that Magenta will also offer better security features, something that they have struggled with, particularly on Android, over the past few years. Photo: Bloomberg

Fuchsia opts for a different kernel to create a lightweight OS. It is believed that Google is using Magenta, a “medium-sized microkernel” that itself is based on a project called LittleKernel. The idea is to build a leaner and equally capable OS compared to the current ones. Magenta is designed for scale, and can work on a variety of devices such as smartphones and PCs.

Also Read: What we learned from running Fuchsia, the mysterious new OS from Google

The question is could this be a software for the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem? Google currently has the Android-based IoT platform called Brillo. Or is Google looking to unify Android, Chrome and others into a single operating system? One of the reasons why Google is shifting from Linux could be the fact that Magenta will also offer better security features, something that they have struggled with, particularly on Android, over the past few years.

At present, based on the little proof there is of Fuschia’s existence, it is difficult to say what Google plans to do ultimately with this software code. Software companies often publicly test new pieces of software to get help from more and more developers to spot and iron out issues and improve the performance. However, these pieces of software are also often ditched and not heard of again. No one can say right now whether Fuchsia will meet a similar fate, but it would not be surprising if it does. Google tends to work on a large number of open-source projects at any given point of time, across different stages of development, and many do fade away.

Source: livemint
Author: Vishal Mathur

Google is working on a new operating system named Fuchsia

'Pink + Purple == Fuchsia (a new Operating System).'

Here's a puzzle: Google appears to have started work on a completely new operating system, but no one knows quite what it's for. The project's name is Fuchsia, and it currently exists as a growing pile of code on the search giant's code depository and on GitHub, too. The fledgling OS has a number of interesting features, but so far Google has yet to comment on its intended function. All we really know is that this looks like a fresh start for Google, as the operating system does not use the Linux kernel — a core of basic code that underpins both Android and Chrome OS.

So what is Fuchsia for? There have been a number of suggestions. Some people think it could be used to "unify" Chrome OS and Android into a single operating system (a plan that was first rumored last year, with the new OS said to be scheduled for a 2017 release), while others say it could be used to power hardware like Google's OnHub router or third-party Internet of Things devices.

FUCHSIA'S CORE CODE IS DESIGNED TO BE LIGHTWEIGHT

However, the Magenta kernel can do a lot more than just power a router. Google's own documentation says the software "targets modern phones and modern personal computers" that use "fast processors" and "non-trivial amounts of RAM." It notes that Magenta supports a number of advanced features, including user modes and a "capability-based security model." Further evidence that Fuchsia is intended for more than just Wi-Fi-connected gadgets include the fact that Google already has its own IoT platform (the Android-based Brillo), and the fact that the new OS includes support for graphics rendering. Some users of Hacker News have even suggested that Fuchsia could be use for augmented reality interfaces. (Google itself has yet to respond to requests for comment.)

This is just speculation for now, and the only real description we have of Fuchsia is what it says at the top of the GitHub page: "Pink + Purple == Fuchsia (a new Operating System)." The question of why the project would be revealed in this way is also confusing, although when pressed on the subject during an IRC chat, Swetland reportedly said: "The decision was made to build it open source, so might as well start there from the beginning."

Well, we've certainly got the beginning of Fuchsia, but where it goes next isn't clear. From what we can see, it's currently being tested on all sorts of systems. Swetland says it's "booting reasonably well" on small-form factor Intel PCs (NUCs) as well as an Acer Switch Alpha 12 laptop ("although driver support is still a work in progress"), while another Google developer involved in the project, Travis Geiselbrecht, says they'll soon have support for the Raspberry Pi 3. At this rate, it looks like Fuchsia will be popping up all over the place.

Source: The Verge
Author: James Vincent

Google's Fuchsia operating system runs on virtually anything

The open source software appears to be just an experiment, but could lead to bigger things.

Google is no stranger to creating whole platforms when it needs them, but its latest project might be something special. It's working on Fuchsia, an open source operating system that's designed to scale all the way from Internet of Things devices through to phones and even PCs. Its kernel includes 'grown up' OS features like user modes and a capability-based security model, Android Police notes, and it supports both advanced graphics as well ARM and 64-bit Intel-based PCs. To no one' surprise, it's using Google's own Dart programming language at its heart.

You can run Fuchsia either on a computer or a virtual machine if you'd like to give the early code a try, and Google's Travis Geiselbrecht adds that you'll soon see it running on the Raspberry Pi 3.

We've asked Google if it can shed some light on Fuchsia, and we'll let you know if it has something to say. Whatever its answer, there's no guarantee that this will be the next Android, Brillo or Chrome OS. Right now, it comes across as an experiment that could lay the groundwork for bigger efforts. Given that the company is branching out into making smart household gadgets like Google Home, though, Fuchsia might make sense. It could be the platform that Google uses when it wants more flexibility and power than a platform like Brillo can offer, but doesn't need the deep feature set (and resulting overhead) of something like Android.


Source: Engadget
Via: Android Police
Author: Jon Fingas, @jonfingas

Google is developing an OS called “Fuchsia,” runs on All the Things

Every single operating system developed by Google to date has one thing in common: they're based on the Linux kernel. Chrome OS, Android, Chromecasts, you name it. Linux has powered Google hardware for years.

However, the Linux kernel is not ideal for every situation. Especially in the case of embedded devices like car dashboards or GPS units, full-blown desktop kernels like Linux impact performance and cause other issues. There’s a massive ecosystem of operating systems designed for embedded hardware, and Google may be working on their own.

Enter “Fuchsia.” Google’s own description for it on the project’s GitHub page is simply, “Pink + Purple == Fuchsia (a new Operating System)”. Not very revealing, is it? When you begin to dig deeper into Fuchsia’s documentation, everything starts to make a little more sense.

First, there’s the Magenta kernel based on the ‘LittleKernel’ project. Just like with Linux and Android, the Magenta kernel powers the larger Fuchsia operating system. Magenta is being designed as a competitor to commercial embedded OSes, such as FreeRTOS or ThreadX.

However, Magenta is designed to scale much better, enabling Magenta to work on embedded devices, smartphones, and desktop computers. For this to happen, Magenta improves upon its LittleKernel base by adding first class user-mode support (a necessity for user accounts) and a capability-based security model (which would enable something like Android 6.0’s permissions to work).

But that’s just the kernel; what about the rest of the OS? It looks like Google is using Flutter for the user interface, as well as Dart as the primary programming language. The icing on the cake is Escher, a renderer that supports light diffusion, soft shadows, and other visual effects, with OpenGL or Vulkan under the hood. Shadows and subtle color reflections are a key component of Material Design, so it seems Flutter and Escher could be designed for the Material Design UI in mind.

We know it has support for both 32-bit and 64-bit ARM CPUs, as well as 64-bit PCs. If you have the technical prowess, you can even compile it yourself and run it on a real PC or a virtual machine. Travis Geiselbrecht from Google also confirmed it will soon be available for the Raspberry Pi 3.

So, why? Why is Google quietly developing a brand new OS and kernel, with support for smartphones and PCs, possibly built with Material Design in mind? The most obvious guess, and the most exciting, is that Google hopes to one day replace Chrome OS and Android with Fuchsia. But perhaps Google will treat Fuchsia like Samsung treats Tizen OS; a lightweight OS used on hardware not suited for full-blown Android. Google’s collection of embedded hardware, such as the OnHub router and Google Home, is growing. Perhaps Fuchsia is only being developed for devices like these?

But there is always the possibility that this is simply a Google experiment, and may never see the light of day in a commercial product. Developing an entire kernel and operating system is a massive task, and Google currently seems content to continue using Android, Chrome OS, and their derivatives for their hardware offerings.

We shall have to wait and see.

Source: Android Police
Author: Corbin Davenport