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

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

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.

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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

Fuchsia, Pink + Purple == Fuchsia (a new Operating System)

GITHUB

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














#fuchsia on freenode.org
Google Git
Github

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