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Google's Fuchsia System UI can now be previewed. The operating system could potentially replace Android and even ChromeOS:
Google, never one to compete in a market with a single product, is apparently hard at work on a third operating system after Android and Chrome OS. This one is an open source, real-time OS called "Fuchsia." The OS first popped up in August last year, but back then it was just a command line. Now the mysterious project has a crazy new UI we can look at, so let's dive in.
Unlike Android and Chrome OS, Fuchsia is not based on Linux—it uses a new, Google-developed microkernel called "Magenta." With Fuchsia, Google would not only be dumping the Linux kernel, but also the GPL: the OS is licensed under a mix of BSD 3 clause, MIT, and Apache 2.0. Dumping Linux might come as a bit of a shock, but the Android ecosystem seems to have no desire to keep up with upstream Linux releases. Even the Google Pixel is still stuck on Linux Kernel 3.18, which was first released at the end of 2014.
[...] This all leads us to an interesting point right now: the Fuchsia interface is written with the Flutter SDK, which is cross-platform. This means that, right now, you can grab chunks of Fuchsia and run it on an Android device. Fuchsia first went public in August 2016, and but back then compiling it would get you nothing more than a command line. Thanks to Hotfixit.net for pointing out that the Fuchsia System UI, called "Armadillo" is actually pretty interesting now.
It's possible to download the source and compile Fuchsia's System UI into an Android APK and install it on an Android device. It consists of a wild reimagining of a home screen along with a keyboard, a home button, and (kind of) a window manager. Nothing really "works"—it's all a bunch of placeholder interfaces that don't do anything. There's also a great readme in the Fuchsia source that describes what the heck is going on.
It's about time for Linux Torvalds' domination of the smartphone industry to end.
Also at BGR, ZDNet, ComputerWorld, and The Register. Preview video.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 10 2017, @07:56PM (5 children)
N/T
(Score: 3, Funny) by turgid on Wednesday May 10 2017, @07:58PM
As long as Pat still churns out Slackware, the world will not end.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 4, Insightful) by edIII on Wednesday May 10 2017, @08:08PM (3 children)
That translates into R.I.P Android and SystemD to me.
Linux already jumped the shark with SystemD and its too damn difficult to find anything in Linux worth a damn anymore that isn't also infected with SystemD. If you don't choose a mainstream distro, the chances of your platform working at all without a lot of work are next to nil. Everybody is coding to support SystemD infected distros.
In other words, the BSD world hardly gives two shits that the Linux world is disappearing (IMO). Good riddance is about how I feel right now with most of the bullshit going in Linux development (Code of Conduct is more important than writing and peer reviewing code). It seems to me that the interesting projects attempting to build "Freedom boxes" starting with free hardware are choosing BSD for the embedded OS.
Personally, Linux and Microsoft both dying in a suicide pact is just fine with me. I've had it with the SystemD bullshit and it trying to take over *everything*. BSD seems to be a saner pool of developers at the moment.
Google? They are only interested in siphoning off information from you to sell to their customers. Choose a Google OS, and you're just fucking asking for it.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 10 2017, @08:19PM (2 children)
There is theoretically one way around Google spying on you, and that is using G Suite for Work. $5 - $10 per month supposedly excludes you from Google's peeping eyes.
Also, as both the summary and article mention, Fuchsia is open source. So, again theoretically, the code is there to examine and compile.
(Score: 2) by art guerrilla on Wednesday May 10 2017, @08:29PM
" $5 - $10 per month supposedly excludes you from Google's peeping eyes."
.
...and you would believe ANY fictitious legal entity with super-person powers exactly WHY ? ? ?
.
besides the idea that, well, sure, *GOOGLE* doesn't slurp your shit, but, well, they have an agreement with X to do that...
i am certain it is all legally covered and all...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by edIII on Wednesday May 10 2017, @08:54PM
Interesting.... so do you think one day I could pay the government $20/month so they would stop spying on me too? Of course, they still collect and possess all of the data. All of their employees still have access to it, or at least to what is at their level, and the board members and shareholders of course are really deciding what happens with my personal and/or business data.
Yeah, sure. That token monthly payment makes me completely believe that Google will respect my privacy and NOT monetize that data at all.
You might as well believe in Santa Claus. Except, that in this context Santa also makes his living primarily by stealing a kid and giving them to the Thuggees trying to find the last stone in some mine in India.
If Google had NOTHING to do with advertisers, I might feel a little bit better about handing them business data, but that is not the world we live in. Google cannot be serving both the interests of Big Advertising, and the interests of a regular person or small company at the same time. Especially when they admit to the SEC just how much more revenue they receive from the former.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.