Google's Upcoming 'Fuchsia' Smartphone OS Dumps Linux, Has a Wild New UI (arstechnica.com)

More details have emerged about Fuchsia, the new mobile OS Google has been working on. ArsTechnica reports that Fuchsia is not based on Linux (unlike Android and Chrome OS). Instead, the OS uses a new, Google-developed microkernel called "Magenta." From the article: 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. [...] The interface and apps are written using Google's Flutter SDK, a project that actually produces cross-platform code that runs on Android and iOS. Flutter apps are written in Dart, Google's reboot of JavaScript which, on mobile, has a focus on high-performance, 120fps apps. It also has a Vulkan-based graphics renderer called "Escher" that lists "Volumetric soft shadows" as one of its features, which seems custom-built to run Google's shadow-heavy "Material Design" interface guidelines. The publication put the Flutter SDK to test on an Android device to get a sneak peek into the user interface of Fuchsia. "The home screen is a giant vertically scrolling list. In the center you'll see a (placeholder) profile picture, the date, a city name, and a battery icon," the author wrote. "Above the are 'Story' cards -- basically Recent Apps -- and below it is a scrolling list of suggestions, sort of like a Google Now placeholder. Leave the main screen and you'll see a Fuchsia 'home' button pop up on the bottom of the screen, which is just a single white circle."

Comments

Not invented here... once again. Sigh.

[exabrial]

Not invented here... once again. Sigh. I hope it dies

What Google needs to do is upgrade Android to use cgroups for app isolation, and switch to using JVM bytecodes so they can recycle the vast amount of work in the OpenJDK project.

Re:Not invented here... once again. Sigh.

[Parker Lewis]

Let me see. Aside Search and Gmail, which Google in-house product works like a charm after those 2? Hangouts? Google+? Analytics? (I really hate how Analytics lost a lot of functionality over the years until get several better alternatives today...). Google Apps for Business is getting worst and worst every time the UI team has a dream. Not to mention that Google Talk worked fine when it was based on open standards before get replaced by Hangouts. In the other side, check some of the products they acquired: Youtube, Android.

This is GOOD

[Anonymous Coward]

no more dumbass unpatachable manufacturer OS builds and no open source security hole riddled dumpster fires. Don't you remember the story from a few days ago that there's a new android exploit discovered like every 5 minutes?

Backup Plan for Oracle v. Google

[santiago]

I assume the ultimate motivation for this project was as a backup plan in case of a disastrously adverse ruling in Oracle v. Google that would have led to Google deciding to excise any connection between Android and Java. It's probably since taken on a life of its own, as these things tend to do. (Also, I wonder if the names Fuchsia & Magenta are references to the ill-fated Pink OS that started life as a ground-up Mac OS rewrite at Apple and morphed into the Taligent corporation?)

Re:Sailfish

[Stormwatch]

Too bad Jolla doesn't have the financial power to make it really take off.

What's the init system? Not systemd?

[Ungrounded Lightning]

I'm curious what it's using for an init system.

Perhaps this is partly in reaction to the migration of the major Linux distributions to systemd.

Who's fault is kernel 3.18?

[viperidaenz]

Qualcomm, they don't provide Linux drivers for later kernels.

How are they going to fix this problem by switching to yet another OS?