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posted by mrpg on Saturday July 21 2018, @01:22AM   Printer-friendly
from the the-ad-team-prevailed dept.

Bloomberg reports that Google's Project Fuchsia may eventually succeed Android.

Here's what's already known about Fuchsia: Alphabet Inc.'s Google started quietly posting code online in 2016, and the company has let outside app developers tinker with bits of the open-source code. Google has also begun to experiment with applications for the system, such as interactive screen displays and voice commands for YouTube.

But members of the Fuchsia team have discussed a grander plan that is being reported here for the first time: Creating a single operating system capable of running all the company's in-house gadgets, like Pixel phones and smart speakers, as well as third-party devices that now rely on Android and another system called Chrome OS, according to people familiar with the conversations.

According to one of the people, engineers have said they want to embed Fuchsia on connected home devices, such as voice-controlled speakers, within three years, then move on to larger machines such as laptops. Ultimately the team aspires to swap in their system for Android, the software that powers more than three quarters of the world's smartphones, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing internal matters. The aim is for this to happen in the next half decade, one person said.

[...] The company must also settle some internal feuds. Some of the principles that Fuchsia creators are pursuing have already run up against Google's business model. Google's ads business relies on an ability to target users based on their location and activity, and Fuchsia's nascent privacy features would, if implemented, hamstring this important business. There's already been at least one clash between advertising and engineering over security and privacy features of the fledgling operating system, according to a person familiar with the matter. The ad team prevailed, this person said.


Original Submission

Related Stories

Now Is the Time to Start Planning for the Post-Android World 24 comments

Glyn Moody over at the Linux Journal brings attention to the idea that Android's days are probably numbered and that it is time to consider viable exit strategies and file them for when they are needed later. Android is currently on over 2-billion devices around the world but the EU, goaded by Microsoft partners and proxies, has decided to fine Google 4.34 billion euros over Android for breaching EU antitrust rules weakening its usefulness. With an obvious replacement, Fuchsia, nearing completion at Google, and with the smartphone manufacturers also exploring alternative plans, such as Tizen and eelo, Android is starting to get alternatives. Just as the ages of CP/M, MS-DOS, and MS Windows have ended, so too will the current age of Android draw to a close. Eventually. Someday.

Google Fuchsia

Previously on SN, Google Hopes to Replace Android with Fuschia[sic] in Five Years


Original Submission

Google Hires a 14-Year Apple Veteran to Bring Fuchsia to Market 30 comments

Google has hired 14-year Apple engineer Bill Stevenson to help bring the Fuchsia OS to market.

We learned in 2016 that Google was working on an entirely new operating system called Fuchsia. Development continues with new features and testing on a variety of form factors spotted regularly. Google has since hired 14-year Apple engineer Bill Stevenson to work on its upcoming OS, and help bring it to market.

[...] Remaining in the OS X organization, he became a Senior Engineering Program Manager four years later. New responsibilities included serving as PM and Technical Lead for AirPlay, Find My Mac, iCloud for Mac, and AirDrop from 10.6 Snow Leopard to 10.9 Mavericks. Most of these features are notably backed by cloud services.

[...] It’s not surprising why Google would want someone with that background and experience to bring up Fuchsia. In a LinkedIn post shared yesterday, Stevenson specifically notes “joining Google to help bring a new operating system called Fuchsia to market.”

Google seems to be all aboard the Fuchsia train.

Previously: Google Hopes to Replace Android with Fuchsia in Five Years
Google's Fuchsia OS Adds Emulator for Debian Linux Applications
Google to Add Swift Language Support to Fuchsia OS


Original Submission

Google's Fuchsia OS Appears ... on a Nest Hub 11 comments

Google is officially releasing its Fuchsia OS, starting w/ first-gen Nest Hub

Google's long-in-development, from-scratch operating system, Fuchsia, is now running on real Made by Google devices, namely, the first-generation Nest Hub.

Google has told us that as of today, an update is beginning to roll out to owners of the first-generation Nest Hub, first released in 2018. For all intents and purposes, this update will not change any of the functionality of the Nest Hub, but under the hood, the smart display will be running Fuchsia OS instead of the Linux-based "Cast OS" it used before. In fact, your experience with the Nest Hub should be essentially identical. This is possible because Google's smart display experience is built with Flutter, which is designed to consistently bring apps to multiple platforms, Fuchsia included.

We've been tracking the development of Fuchsia since 2016, starting from an ambitious experimental UI, to running on Google's many internal testing devices for Fuchsia, ranging the full gamut of Google's smart home and Chromebook lineup. In the time since then, the OS has gradually progressed and recently even begun a steady release schedule.

Google Fuchsia.

Also at The Verge and Notebookcheck.

Previously:

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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @01:27AM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @01:27AM (#710206)

    I won't run any OS that isn't written in a language that's inherently safe by design like Go, Rust or Ruby.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Saturday July 21 2018, @01:32AM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday July 21 2018, @01:32AM (#710207) Journal

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Fuchsia [wikipedia.org]

      Written in: Mixed: C, C++, Dart, Go, LLVM, Python, Rust, Shell, Swift, TypeScript

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      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @04:46AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @04:46AM (#710266)

      And you're typing this on ...?

      • (Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @06:19AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @06:19AM (#710297)

        An Amiga 500.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @07:06AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @07:06AM (#710304)

      In modern English it's spelled fuck-s-ya

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Dr Spin on Saturday July 21 2018, @08:31AM (1 child)

      by Dr Spin (5239) on Saturday July 21 2018, @08:31AM (#710320)

      I won't buy a new phone unless the boot loader is unlocked and it supports third party OSes. LineageOS provides far better long term support than any manufacturer.

      I have two Samsung phones that are barely useable because of UI stupidness.

      When Apple first entered the phone market, the attraction was not rounded corners, but ongoing software support - which people had grown to expect on PCs. Now we know you wont get it from most suppliers, some people stick with Apple, despite the phones getting thinner and less capable, while others upgrade less frequently. I assume there is a remote possibility that some other manufacturers will eventually wise up - but given the fact that laptop manufaturers are sill trying to go the "less capable" route, and laugh at the shrinking market, I am not very optimistic.

      --
      Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @04:14PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @04:14PM (#710466)

        There are a few that do, without having to resort to a 3rd party OS ( now with a limited future, apparently ). Of course you wont find that here in the US.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @10:54AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @10:54AM (#710354)

      I won't run any OS that isn't written in a language that's inherently safe by design like Go, Rust or Ruby.

      Insecure and/or unsafe code can be written in any language, including those three. Don't believe me? Here, hold my beer ...

  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday July 21 2018, @01:45AM (1 child)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Saturday July 21 2018, @01:45AM (#710211) Journal

    https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/07/18/2248251 [soylentnews.org]

    Funny - hardware people understand that security must be first - but Google doesn't? I guess we'll wait to see how badly they've shot themselves in the foot. Maybe the bullet got the femoral artery, on it's trajectory to the foot.

    • (Score: 2) by choose another one on Saturday July 21 2018, @10:01AM

      by choose another one (515) Subscriber Badge on Saturday July 21 2018, @10:01AM (#710339)

      > Funny - hardware people understand that security must be first

      They understand Now. After Spectre etc.

      Took a lot of harsh lessons to get that understanding, and it'll eventually be forgotten again through the next phase of the cycle where hardware isn't targeted so everyone forgets why it was a problem

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Saturday July 21 2018, @01:50AM (6 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday July 21 2018, @01:50AM (#710212) Journal

    4.4 KitKat was in 2013. Followed by Lollipop, Marshmallow, Nougat, Oreo, and soon "P". The latter of these and subsequent versions will be hanging around for years.

    The smartphone makers could rebel and re-envision Android themselves. And this thing with the ad team weakening privacy features is not too inspiring. Fuchsia might end up relegated to Chromebooks and some tablets, if it doesn't get killed off entirely.

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    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday July 21 2018, @02:14AM (5 children)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Saturday July 21 2018, @02:14AM (#710220) Journal

      I feel compelled to remind everyone that the smartphone makers have failed to enhance Android security. In fact, they often undermine Android's inherent securities, then permit the various telcos to further undermine that security.

      It's a damned shame that we aren't seeing more of those modular phones, or Linux phones, or much of anything that puts security ahead of marketing.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @02:34AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @02:34AM (#710225)

        Which is exactly what Essential SHOULD have concentrated on.

      • (Score: 2) by Apparition on Saturday July 21 2018, @02:54AM (1 child)

        by Apparition (6835) on Saturday July 21 2018, @02:54AM (#710229) Journal

        The reluctance of smartphone manufacturers to release newer versions of Android on older hardware or even security updates is one of the primary reasons that Google began work on a new operating system, one they can maintain more control of. The other two primary reasons are voice control (because they believe that Android isn't well enough equipped to handle voice commands for whatever reason), and getting around the Java/Oracle debacle.

        Unfortunately, the Google advertising executives have already neutered at least some of Fuchsia.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @02:25PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @02:25PM (#710423)

          It's also why they've been moving more and more core functionality into stand alone packages that can update via the play store.

          Personally, I wish we had a viable alternative to Android that wasn't so massively over priced as Apple.

          As it stands I'll probably upgrade to an Android One device where I can at least be free of the bloat, but thanks to Google permitting manufacturers and carriers to lock the loader, it can be a problem to maintain any security at all.

      • (Score: 2) by stormreaver on Saturday July 21 2018, @10:59AM (1 child)

        by stormreaver (5101) on Saturday July 21 2018, @10:59AM (#710356)

        It's a damned shame that we aren't seeing more of those modular phones, or Linux phones, or much of anything that puts security ahead of marketing.

        The phone that fills that need is Librem, which I hope to buy when it's released to the masses.

        • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @10:01PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @10:01PM (#710583)

          Will its modem/baseband still have hypervisor-level access to the hardware though? If so, not holding my breath. I can secure an Android phone reasonably enough against would-be surveillance capitalists trying to spy on me with no-GAPPS-LineageOS + Xprivacy.

          I object to carrying a device that a state-level actor (or Batman) can turn into a telescreen at the push of a button though.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by eravnrekaree on Saturday July 21 2018, @02:56AM (1 child)

    by eravnrekaree (555) on Saturday July 21 2018, @02:56AM (#710230)

    This seems for Googles SAAS schemes which are a way to give control over your intellectual property essentially over to Google's Cloud. I am in the Richard Stallman camp on this, SAAS is designed to take away your freedom. Google devices make it difficult store data to a local drive because they do not contain much of a local drive. Its really a throwback to the bad old mainframe days. Its regressive, the hipsters think that its cool to have to use the cloud for everything, thanks to them people are giving up privacy, control over their data, their ability to actually physically possess data, use the data without expensive data plans and network connections, story large amounts of data without paying google a fee, etc. All of these freedoms that the PC won they are throwing away because the ignorant hipsters think that basically using a glorified mainframe on modern hardware is cool and 'new'. Its not new, it s a throwback to 1960s mainframes. Thanks, but no thanks.

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @05:33AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @05:33AM (#710284)

      No wonder the people at Google joked calling the project It Fucks Ya!

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @06:11AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @06:11AM (#710296)

    I've read a bit about the alleged M$ making $ per android device.

    I don't really know what's happening but could this be a way to free themselves of paying M$ anything?

  • (Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Saturday July 21 2018, @08:20AM (3 children)

    by linkdude64 (5482) on Saturday July 21 2018, @08:20AM (#710315)

    What a tragic sentence. "Let them tinker with bits of the open source code."

    Fuck Google, and fuck the "open source" meme they've pushed. As a necessary disclaimer to save lurking freetards some time, I am of course differentiating open-source from libre software.

    • (Score: 2) by Dr Spin on Saturday July 21 2018, @08:24AM (2 children)

      by Dr Spin (5239) on Saturday July 21 2018, @08:24AM (#710317)

      I have no idea what your post means. Try again, this time in English:

      --
      Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @08:47AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @08:47AM (#710325)

        It means that Fucks Ya! is the new Google's post-Don't be evil! motto.

      • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Monday July 23 2018, @02:02PM

        by urza9814 (3954) on Monday July 23 2018, @02:02PM (#711218) Journal

        It's perfectly comprehensible...Google claims the code is "open", yet they also claim a right to retain full control over that code. That's really not how open source works.

        Google has their own version of the Embrace, Extend, Extinguish...they release a large collection of open source apps, then once those have captured the market they stop supporting the open code and start replacing it with proprietary garbage one component at a time. They did it fairly successfully with base Android, but alternative open source projects like Cyanogenmod/LineageOS got enough traction to challenge Google, and companies like Amazon were able to drop Google's proprietary components (and the restrictions which come with them) in favor of their own in-house solutions. The last thing they have to replace is Android itself, and they aren't likely to let others have as much control this time. I'd bet they're banking that they can bring all of the Android app developers over to Fuchsia (which shouldn't be hard), thus cutting off other manufacturers and forcing them to either accept Google's new terms for Fuchsia or rebrand the dated open source components of Android and try to go it alone. Google has been slowing making Android less open for many, many years now...and now they're going around touting that their new Android replacement has tiny components that they've decided to open up and claiming that this means it's open source just like Android.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @04:08PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @04:08PM (#710464)

    Great, so every device will now be dead, in effect. Sure, you can use an android device without the market, but its not overly practical for most of us, and limits its usefulness.

    Sounds more like they just want to cut out all the non-oem android protects and lock things down, even more. Be more like Apple.

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