Google Fuchsia

2021: Start using OS on consumer devices

At the end of May 2021, Google announced the start of using its Fuchsia operating system on consumer devices. Owners of first-generation Nest Hub smart displays can evaluate the capabilities of Fuchsia.

The main feature of the Fuchsia OS is that it is not built on the Linux kernel, the product uses the Zircon microkernel.

You do not launch a new operating system every day, but today is just such a day, "said Fuchsia project manager Petr Hosek on his Twitter blog.

Fuchsia OS began to be used in Nest Hub smart displays

According to ZDNet, the deployment of Fuchsia starts on May 25, 2021, at the initial stage the update will be available only to participants in the pre-test program. Later, the new Google operating system will be expanded to more Nest Hub devices. It is expected that a full upgrade process will take several months.

This is not just about phones and computers. The world of the Internet of Things is growing in the number of devices that require operating systems, new runtimes, and so on. I think there is a lot of room for several operating systems with different advantages and specialization. Fuchsia is one of these things, so follow the updates - said Hiroshi Lockheimer, senior vice president for Android, Google Play and Chrome.

He also added that the purpose of Fuchsia is to move scientific and technological progress in terms of the development of operating systems and things. The results obtained by Fuchsia can be used in the development of other products.

Despite the actual replacement of the operating system in the Nest Hub, device users, according to ZDNet, will most likely not even notice changes, as the interface and functions will remain unchanged. Google calls Fuchsia "a safe, updatable, inclusive and practical OS designed for industrial operation^[1]

2018: OS Development Details

On July 20, 2018, details of the development of the Fuchsia operating system became known. The OS, developed secretly by a hundred Google engineers "from scratch," will be able to work everywhere - from sensors to laptops, and is positioned as a response to Apple iOS, but with better performance and privacy than Android.

According to the Bloomberg business portal, citing information from anonymous industrial sources, Fuchsia is being developed as a single universal operating system for working on any Google gadgets and other companies, including smartphones, smart speakers, sensors, laptops and other smart devices. Thus, sources emphasize, in the future, Fuchsia OS will be able to replace not only Android and even Chrome OS, but will also be used in areas such as the Internet of Things.

According to Bloomberg sources, Google engineers plan to submit a commercial version for the work of the Fuchsia platform as part of home electronics over the next three years. Ultimately, Bloomberg sources note, the development team intends to introduce Fuchsia as a full-fledged replacement for Android in smartphones and even laptops "in the next half decade."

What is known about Google's secret project

For the first time, the source code of Fuchsia was posted on the resource GitHub in August 2016. Unlike Android, made on the Linux kernel, the Fuchsia kernel, called Zircon, is based on Magenta and LK (Little Kernel).

The company initially aimed to open access to third-party application developers to the source OS code. In addition, Google developers have also openly experimented with a number of applications for Fuchsia OS, for example, for working with interactive displays or voice control on the YouTube portal.

From the very beginning, the developers of the Fuchsia project set the goal of not repeating the restrictions laid down in the Android platform. So, unlike Android, created on the basis of Linux, Fuchsia is completely created "from scratch."

Android was developed at a time when phones only acquired the first touch screens. In addition, in those days there was no talk of practical implementations of voice management technologies, behind which Google sees a great future.

In contrast, Fuchsia is already being developed with integrated voice control and with flexible settings for any screen size - from TVs, cars and refrigerators to smartphones and laptops.

Sources report that Fuchsia includes significantly tougher security compliance features than Android. So, in the code posted on the Web, company engineers built encrypted user keys - a privacy tool that protects information every time the software is updated.

Initially, the Fuchsia project was positioned as an alternative OS. As the project progressed, it was enriched with voice control, support for regular security updates, and other features. Besides, development of Fuchsia completely keeps within the strategic plan of the head of Google Sundar Pichai who pursues policy of implementation of artificial intelligence in all products and services of the company for continuous interaction from consumers.

However, Google management is trying once again not to advertise work on the platform - even though in two years the staff of Fuchsia developers has grown to hundreds of engineers. When the Fuchsia project is discussed publicly, the company's management prefers to position it as an example of a "silent" creative approach to product development. Google sees this as "open source experiments - as an investment in innovation."

"Moving away from Android can give Google the opportunity to press the reset button of any errors made, in their opinion, a decade ago. They can also regain the benefits that have been lost to device manufacturers and telecom operators. "

When releasing security updates to the Android operating system, Google is forced to rely on phone manufacturers and wireless network operators, who, in turn, are not as interested as Google in promoting the latest updates: smartphone manufacturers prefer to promote their new products, the telecom has completely different priorities.

In addition, replacing Android with Fuchsia in the future could bring Google advantages in confronting a key competitor in the smartphone market Apple , Inc. Despite the 85% market share of Android devices, smartphones Apple iPhone has certain advantages in such areas as performance, privacy and security, as well as integration into other Apple products and services. In addition, many users iPhone regularly update the firmware of their smartphones with the release of the next version, iOS while among Android smartphone users only 10% do this.

Problems of the Fuchsia project

According to Bloomberg sources, the company's management does not yet have a clear vision of Fuchsia's prospects and is very careful about the project. Any change in Android plans affects the interests of dozens of companies - hardware platform developers, thousands of software developers and billions of dollar mobile advertising.

In addition, the Android platform is also the subject of legal disputes and close attention from regulators around the world. So, in July 2018, EU antitrust regulators imposed a fine of more than $5 billion on the company for using mobile software to distribute its services.

According to Bloomberg sources, the peculiarities of the Fuchsia project in the field of confidentiality cause debate in the company about its future. A number of principles laid down by Fuchsia developers in the project are contrary to the Google business model, based on obtaining a lion's share of advertising revenue. Google's advertising technologies, in turn, are based on targeting users by their location and activity. The privacy features laid down in Fuchsia can hit this business hard. According to an anonymous Bloomberg source familiar with this issue, the company already had at least one serious clash between the advertising department and developers of security and privacy functions in the operating system, while the opinion of the advertising department prevailed, the source said.

Some risks for developers also carry the transition to Fuchsia with Android and Chrome OS, since the existing huge ecosystem of hardware and software solutions can hardly be quickly ported to the platform being created.

Finally, some risk also comes from the architecture of the Fuchsia operating system. The Linux kernel is the basis of the Google Android and Chrome OS operating systems, where instructions tied to the hardware and software structures of smartphones and other gadgets are processed.

The Fuchsia kernel is deliberately protected from many old Linux problems, and at the same time is completely incompatible with it, which in the future can lead to incompatibility of a number of already released devices with Fuchsia.

At the same time, the transition to Fuchsia and the departure from the use of Android/Linux may protect the company from further litigation at Oracle, which has been litigating for many years, accusing Google of stealing and using Java technologies in the Android OS.^[2]

2017: Fuchsia has a graphical interface

On May 8, 2017, it became known about the appearance of the graphic interface of the Fuchsia OS - this is the Armadillo card interface with the ability to share the screen with applications.

Resource Ars Technica published screenshots of the OS from Google. They allow you to conclude that this OS has a graphical shell. According to Ars Technica, Fuchsia is focused on using mobile devices with powerful processors and a large amount of RAM^[3].

Screenshots of the mobile device window, (2017)

The OS is organized on the core of Google Magenta. Fuchsia is free software licensed according to a mixed scheme.

The mystery of the product gives analysts a misunderstanding of objectivity in the application of the OS. The apparent uncertainty and speculation of the media forced Travis Geiselbrecht, the developer of Fuchsia, to declare that... "this is not a toy, and not a 20% project...." With this, the company made it clear that the project will not be left alone.

At the time of publication in August 2016, the OS did not have a graphical user interface, only a command line. The interface appeared and was called Armadillo. It was created through the cross-platform Google Flutter SDK. Flutter SDK applications are written on Dart, a proprietary interpretation of Google JavaScript. They are designed for high device performance and support for a 120 fps frame change rate.

Applications in Armadillo are shown as cards collected in tape, which the user can sheet vertically. A desktop with app icons specific to Android is probably missing. The clock and battery charge indicator are shown below, not at the top of the screen. Below is a panel of the personalized search service Google Now.

An open application does not occupy the entire screen, as it is implemented in Android - a desktop bar remains under the application window. If the card of one application is "dragged" to the card of another, Armadillo will start the split screen mode, in which both applications will be displayed at once. The system allows you to place up to four applications on the screen.

2016: Fuchsia

Google is developing a new Fuchsia operating system in 2016. The difference between this system and those already created by Android and Chrome OS is that it is not based on the Linux kernel ^[4].

Android Police^[5] found fragments of the Fuchsia code^[6] the GitHub^[7]) related to Fuchsia.

The full name of the repository reads: "Pink + Purple = Fuchsia (new operating system)."

The system is built on the core of Magenta, which, in turn, is a development of the core of LittleKernel. LittleKernel is designed for built-in systems (that is, it works on devices with very limited resources), while Magenta was developed for modern computers and phones.

Components and Technologies

As noted by Android Police, Fuchsia will also work on both computers and phones. One of the system's developers, Travis Geiselbrecht, promised that a version of the Raspberry Pi 3 microcomputer system would soon appear.

The Fuchsia GUI is based on the Flutter project, and the Dart language is the main programming language. Complementing all this is the Escher 3D engine, which supports the creation and rendering of complex objects, light scattering, soft shadows and other effects (based on the OpenGL specification and the Vulkan API^[8].

Fuchsia supports 32- and 64-bit processors with ARM architecture, as well as 32- and 64-bit processors with x86 architecture. If necessary, the developer can compile the system code himself and run it on a PC or in a virtual machine. According to Geiselbrecht, it will also be possible to start the system on a single-board Raspberry Pi 3 computer.

The name of the repository, namely the addition of two colors, immediately gave rise to speculation that the developers are trying to "combine" Chrome OS and Android into a single operating system. Indeed, in October 2015, The Wall Street Journal reported that Android and Chrome OS were preparing to merge. According to the publication, the dominant position of the Android mobile OS led Google to the idea that it can be adapted to work on laptops and desktops. In fact, the company was waiting for the transformation of Chrome OS into something more reminiscent of a popular operating system with support for the Google Play Store.

Privacy of the project

Google did not make any official announcements about Fuchsia. There is practically no documentation for the project. And in its description is there one phrase: Pink + Purple = = Fuchsia (a new Operating System). At the same time, the Fuchsia team includes some leading developers who took part in the creation of NewOS, BeOS, Danger, iOS and webOS, including Travis Geiselbrecht, one of the developers of NewOS, Danger and BeOS, and Brian Sweetland, a participant in the project BeOS.

It is not known whether Google will use Fuchsia and, if so, what devices. Android Police offers two ways: either the corporation intends to replace Android and Chrome OS with this system in the future, or it will use Fuchsia in embedded systems - such as a router OnHub or a Google Home smart column.

Purpose of the new project

According to Android Police and other publications, Fuchsia is intended to replace Android and Chrome OS in the future. This is the most obvious assumption. But it is likely that the idea is much simpler - to create a new system that is suitable for tiny devices for which Android is too clumsy

Notes