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Google's Fuchsia will have a Non-Linux Hue

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Some have speculated that Google’ s next step is to apparently built a new OS called Fuchsia, after Chrome OS and android &ndash both built using Linux kernel, after the images and videos about the said OS has been released recently.

The main feature of Fuchsia OS is that it has a Vulkan-based graphics renderer called “ Escher” that lists “ volumetric soft shadows” which seems custom-built to run Google' s shadow-heavy " Material Design" interface guidelines. Fuchsia’ s interface and apps are written using Google’ s Flutter SDK, a project that actually produced cross platform code that runs on Android and iOS.

Google decided to develop Fuchsia OS with a new, Google-developed microkernel called Magenta. Magenta is designed to be lightweight, but it can scale up its capacity for more powerful systems. Google’ s Fuchsia page notes that the project is targeted at “ modern phones and modern personal computers” that have fast processors and lots of RAM.

Further it was stated that, “ Google will not only be dumping the Linux Kernel, but also the GPL (General Public License).”

Armadillo is said to be the official default system UI for Fuchsia, written in Flutter and can run on any platform which supports Flutter such as Android and iOS. Armadillo User Shell is a thin wrapper around Armadillo that obtains its data from the Fuchsia system and interacts with the Fuchsia system' s services via FIDL interfaces. Models within Armadillo serve several purposes like performance, simplicity, coordination, and abstraction.

Regarding legal concerns, Fuchsia is entangled with in an epic US$9 billion legal battle between Google and Oracle. The Oracle is fighting got the copyright of Oracle APIs used in Android. These may be the reasons for Google to move away from Linux to avoid future legal battles.

A principal analyst from Tirias Research Paul Teich says that, " Google may be building a real-time OS that spans small connected things to large connected data centers," he surmised -- " one code base that can be pared back if the UX isn' t needed, but also scales to varying U.S. requirements."

The development of new OS may be driven by security concerns that if left unchecked or uncontrolled could potentially cost Google billions of dollars and the Google team is reining in to control both quality and timing of the updates to the OS.

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Frequently asked questions ( 5 )

Q

What is Google Fuchsia OS?

A

Fuchsia is an evolving pile of code. It was originally added to Google's code depository and on GitHub in 2016. The code is the early beginnings of an all-new operating system. Interestingly, it's not based on Linux Kernel - the core underpinnings of both Android (Google's mobile operating system) and Chrome OS (Google's desktop and laptop operating system). Fuchsia is an altogether different beast.

Q

What's the point of Google Fuchsia OS?

A

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). However, recently surfaced documents and different bits from the code and UI assets suggest the OS likely isn't a fusion of Android and Chrome OS, nor is it any OS. It’s just a core of an operating system, at this point - a kernel.

Q

Will Google Fuchsia OS replace Android?

A

Android has fragmentation issues. This is caused by hundreds of devices from dozens of manufacturers using different, custom versions of Android - rather than the latest, purest version. Android also has update issues, stemming from the operating system being open source. Google has an annual release schedule for Android updates, but it takes about four years for an update to fully flood the ecosystem.

Q

What does Google Fuchsia OS look like?

A

Fuchsia has already been given an early user interface with a card-based design, according to Ars Technica, which posted a video and images of the software in 2017. The interface, reportedly called Armadillo, was actually first discovered by Kyle Bradshaw at Hotfix.

Q

Why is the Google Fuchsia OS code public?

A

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."

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