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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: 5, Insightful) by edIII on Wednesday May 10 2017, @07:59PM
Yeah, but I trust Linus about two hundred fucking trillion gajillion squintillion times more than those two fuckers at Google/Alphabet/Whatever.... who used to be in the NSA.
The bigger question is will Google solve the issues, not just introduce a new player in the market? What about that modular project they had where we could have complete control over the phone hardware, upgrades, etc.? Will this play nice with that project?
I welcome another OS, but only if it is really and truly fully open. Meaning no binaries and no blobs. Peer review turned out to be a fucking delusion too, so how are we going to trust that process? How can we trust it when this is brand new and peer review of code has not happened yet?
Google cannot be trusted, since you will never be the primary customer. The primary customer is the one paying for access to all the sheep running the hardware and software. You might as well be depositing your eyeballs into a drop box as those two fuckers personal property.
I guess in the end the real question is do you want to trust an advertiser that bases their revenue off the invasion and monetization of your privacy to build you the operating system in which you will need to base all of your trust in? Smartphones have started taking over the go to device for financial transactions so trust will be a very big thing with such devices going forward, if not critical right now.
This is about exciting and ground breaking as Trump introducing new health care. I'm just jumping up and down filled with hope and freedom....
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.