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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: 4, Interesting) by looorg on Wednesday May 10 2017, @08:18PM (1 child)
It is interesting, after all most normal people love Google. The internet more or less is Google for the average person. They don't look things up on the internet, they look them up on Google. They don't really seem to be able to differentiate between the two, as noted Google pretty much is the internet as far as they are concerned. So if they bring out a new OS that will run on your phone and on your new laptop people will use it. They integrate all their current search and mail functions, the googleofficesuite (or whatever it is called these days) and then start pushing that out onto all devices, for free, they'll be golden (and probably run into the same issues Microsoft did when they wanted to give IE away for free in the beginning).
I personally really like the idea of moving to a microkernel architecture. I do wonders why Google just didn't open up it's wallet and bought something like QNX. It's real-time, microkernal and has been around since like the early '80s. Plus they are already phonesavvy with Blackberry. Why reinvent the wheel. But I guess that is their thing. It's only good if it's Google made or something.
I guess the scarey part is that they are Google. I don't know which Telemetry-master I'm most afraid of, Microsoft or Google.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 10 2017, @10:24PM
Don't worry, you can fear both equally...
But mostly google, you should fear google most.