SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @01:27AM (7 children)
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
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Fuchsia [wikipedia.org]
Written in: Mixed: C, C++, Dart, Go, LLVM, Python, Rust, Shell, Swift, TypeScript
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @04:46AM (1 child)
And you're typing this on ...?
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @06:19AM
An Amiga 500.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @07:06AM
In modern English it's spelled fuck-s-ya
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Dr Spin on Saturday July 21 2018, @08:31AM (1 child)
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
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
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)
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.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by choose another one on Saturday July 21 2018, @10:01AM
> 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)
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.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday July 21 2018, @02:14AM (5 children)
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.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @02:34AM
Which is exactly what Essential SHOULD have concentrated on.
(Score: 2) by Apparition on Saturday July 21 2018, @02:54AM (1 child)
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
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)
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
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)
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
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)
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: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Saturday July 21 2018, @11:34AM
Maybe, or maybe MS has a new batch of patents ready to weaponize.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Saturday July 21 2018, @08:20AM (3 children)
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)
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
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
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
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.