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
Related Stories
Google will contribute changes to Apple's Swift programming language, and will support the language in the Fuchsia OS, a presumed replacement for Android, ChromeOS, etc. that is designed to work on all devices:
Fuchsia is Google's not-at-all-but-kind-of-secret operating system that's being developed in the open, but with almost zero official messaging about what it's for, or what it's built to replace. (Android? Chrome OS? Both? Neither?) The operating system's core is written in mostly C and C++, with Dart for the default "Flutter" UI, but other languages like Go, Rust, Python, and now Swift have also found a home in the project.
Of course, just because you'll be able to compile Swift to run on Fuchsia doesn't mean you'll be able to instantly port any iOS app to Google's new OS when or if it ships. While Apple has open sourced the Swift language itself, much of the iOS platform (like the UI stuff, for instance) is closed source, so code that relies on those closed Apple libraries won't be portable.
One possible future in a world where Fuchsia is an important and relevant platform for apps is that you write the "core logic" of your app in your language of choice — Swift, Go, Rust, JavaScript, etc. — and then you build a custom UI for each platform — Android, iOS, Fuchsia, Linux, Windows, the web — using the appropriate tools for each.
Also at Android Police.
Previously: Google's New Non-Linux OS: Fuchsia
Google's Not-So-Secret New OS
Google Fuchsia UI Previewed
Google's Fuchsia OS will support Linux apps
Google's non-Linux-based Fuchsia OS has added an emulator for running Debian Linux apps. Like its upcoming Linux emulator for Chrome OS, Fuchsia's "Guest" app will offer tighter integration than typical emulators.
Google has added a Guest app to its emergent and currently open source Fuchsia OS to enable Linux apps to run within Fuchsia as a virtual machine (VM). The Guest app makes use of a library called Machina that permits closer integration with the OS than is available with typical emulators, according to a recent 9to5Google story.
Last month, Google announced a Project Crostini technology that will soon let Chromebook users more easily run mainstream Linux applications within a Chrome OS VM. This week, Acer's Chromebook Flip C101 joined the short list of Chromebooks that will offer Linux support later this year.
Previously: Google's New Non-Linux OS: Fuchsia
Google's Not-So-Secret New OS
Google Fuchsia UI Previewed
Google to Add Swift Language Support to Fuchsia OS
ChromeOS Gains the Ability to Run Linux Applications
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.
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.
Also at The Verge and Notebookcheck.
Previously:
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 27 2019, @04:16PM (7 children)
WAT? only 14 years old? i guess computers ARE making people smarter ...
(Score: 4, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday January 27 2019, @04:24PM (3 children)
Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Google & Amazon, they want them young. And they don't want them too old. Although, I would say that's a little TOO young. You get into 16 or 17 and that's great. That's just great. That's the sweet spot.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 27 2019, @05:53PM (1 child)
Looks like sockpuppet moderation here.
https://soylentnews.org/meta/article.pl?sid=19/01/25/0435205 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday January 27 2019, @08:40PM
How are we to distinguish sockpuppet moderation from "run-of-the-mill", old school shilling?
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 27 2019, @07:10PM
IBM envious came last place and with a heavy load of too old useless people, happily they are taking measures, but have a long way to catch up the rivals.
(Score: 2) by datapharmer on Sunday January 27 2019, @06:26PM (1 child)
Yeah, I mean at what age did he start at Apple?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 27 2019, @10:19PM
He's *not* 14-years-old (which is how I also read the headline), but rather has worked for Apple for 14-years. Notice the absence of "old":
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 27 2019, @07:06PM
Their internal joke:
Google Fuchsia = Google FucksYa.
It's actually no joke for you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 27 2019, @04:56PM (3 children)
"PM and Technical Lead for AirPlay, Find My Mac, iCloud for Mac, and AirDrop from 10.6 Snow Leopard to 10.9 Mavericks"
what a fucking douche.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday January 27 2019, @05:14PM
Ended in the gutter now we dead.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 27 2019, @06:10PM
"AirPlay, Find My Mac, iCloud for Mac, and AirDrop"
This boot-licking toadie is going to release an operating system?
Guess all the smart people moved to iOS
(Score: 2) by Apparition on Monday January 28 2019, @03:47AM
As TFA and TFS point out, it's mostly cloud services. It's telling that Google wants and hired a cloud guy to bring Fuchsia to market.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by takyon on Sunday January 27 2019, @05:03PM (2 children)
Google Hopes to Replace Android with Fuschia in Five Years [soylentnews.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday January 27 2019, @05:16PM
Wow, we never noticed the incorrect "Fuhcissiakhia" in the headline. Worst OS name ever.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Unixnut on Sunday January 27 2019, @05:47PM
> 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.
Of course they would prevail, and they always will prevail over Engineering for one simple reason. Google makes its money from ads, not from engineering. If Google sold/licensed the OS for a profit, then the engineering department would have some sway.
This way, Engineering is a cost centre. It (and the software/OS they design/build) is a business tool to provide a way for ad teams to make money, so the ad teams will prevail in what they want every time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 27 2019, @08:35PM (5 children)
That is a deal breaker for an OS.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Sunday January 27 2019, @08:41PM (4 children)
I think we both know that ain't true.
There are millions of Chromebook users, but I bet only a small fraction of them can identify the OS as "ChromeOS". Android is more well known because it's the name of the brand, but what I think will happen is Google will push Fucschiapet as a new "version" of ChromeOS and/or Android. Only people who want to know will know of Fuchsia's existence. Otherwise it will be known as "the Chromebook thing" or "Android Raspberry Rasputin" or whatever.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Apparition on Monday January 28 2019, @12:42AM (3 children)
Yep. Fuchsia can already run Android apps. I think Google fully intends to keep the Android name. Only people at Google and tech nerds like us would know that it is an entirely different OS. The average Joe will be blissfully unaware.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday January 28 2019, @01:57AM (2 children)
Well, there's one loose end. The phone manufacturers will probably resist what they will see as Google's attempt to consolidate power. Even though it could be a good thing that fixes the Android fragmentation and updates problem. Samsung tried to bust out of Android with Tizen but they didn't or couldn't commit. Other alternative phone OSes have largely failed, and the failure of Windows Phone / Windows 10 Mobile and Firefox OS spells the end of the resistance.
On the other hand, I don't anticipate any resistance to Google switching Chromebooks to use Fuchsia. Google has much tighter control of Chromebooks. The high-end ChromeOS devices can already run Android and Linux applications, giving them the same capabilities that Fuchsia will be touting.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Monday January 28 2019, @02:24AM (1 child)
Do they have systemd?
(Score: 2) by Apparition on Monday January 28 2019, @03:49AM
Fuchsia is intentionally not Linux nor Linux-based, so... no.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 27 2019, @10:54PM (1 child)
So we all have to upgrade our entire mobile infrastructure when Android is discontinued.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 28 2019, @01:18AM
Not if you stuck with OpenBSD
(Score: 3, Funny) by Username on Monday January 28 2019, @12:33AM
So there I was on the front line. In the muk and slime at the bottom of a trench. Sharing what little C libraries I had with my fellow Appleites. Only 50 feet away was the evil oppressive forces of the invading Eurasian Samsungs. When I heard the sound of falling dirt, I glanced down, and there it was. A Samsung Galaxy Note Seven. Lying at my feet. I looked back at my fellows, to see the terror in their eyes. Then it happened. The bright flash of light and the sensation of searing pain in my left leg. And, that is how I got this scar.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 28 2019, @01:14AM (5 children)
Thus is safe for Google.
This is why they did it.
Especially with linixtas doing some lawsuits (GRSec)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 28 2019, @01:34AM (2 children)
Extending the Fickle Finger of Fate to the Open Source schlubs who did the work to establish the brand.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 28 2019, @02:04AM (1 child)
And they did it for free
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 28 2019, @03:41PM
They take their "job" very seeiously.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 28 2019, @02:22PM (1 child)
And they can supposedly revoke license either way.
The bigger issue is that Fuchsia will finally give them a full stack so they can make it proprietary at any time if they so wish, and it keeps their licensors from having to release source code for their kernel or OS modifications even if they are significant.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 28 2019, @05:23PM
exactly. mit/apache is a whore's license.