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Google's Fuchsia OS On the Pixelbook (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 9to5Google: Our early look at Fuchsia OS last May provided a glimpse into a number of new interface paradigms. Several months later, we now have an updated hands-on with Google's future operating system that can span various form factors. This look at the in-development OS eight months later comes courtesy of Ars Technica who managed to get Fuchsia installed on the Pixelbook. The Made by Google Chromebook is only the third officially supported "target device" for Fuchsia development. As our last dive into the non-Linux kernel OS was through an Android APK, we did not encounter a lockscreen. The Ars hands-on shows a basic one that displays the time at center and Fuchsia logo in the top-left corner to switch between phone and desktop/tablet mode, while a FAB (of sorts) in the opposite corner lets users bring up WiFi controls, Login, and Guest.
Only Guest is fully functioning at this stage -- at least for non-Google employees. Once in this mode, we encounter an interface similar to the one we spotted last year. The big difference is how Google has filled in demo information and tweaked some elements. On phones and tablets, Fuchsia essentially has three zones. Recent apps are above, at center are controls, and below is a mixture of the Google Feed and Search. The controls swap out the always-displayed profile icon for a Fuchsia button. Tapping still surfaces Quick Settings which actually reflect current device battery levels and IP address. Impressively, Ars found a working web browser that can actually surf the internet. Google.com is the default homepage, with users able to visit other sites through that search bar. Other examples of applications, which are just static images, include a (non-working) phone dialer, video player, and Google Docs. The Google Calendar is notable for having subtle differences to any known version, including the tablet or web app.
Only Guest is fully functioning at this stage -- at least for non-Google employees. Once in this mode, we encounter an interface similar to the one we spotted last year. The big difference is how Google has filled in demo information and tweaked some elements. On phones and tablets, Fuchsia essentially has three zones. Recent apps are above, at center are controls, and below is a mixture of the Google Feed and Search. The controls swap out the always-displayed profile icon for a Fuchsia button. Tapping still surfaces Quick Settings which actually reflect current device battery levels and IP address. Impressively, Ars found a working web browser that can actually surf the internet. Google.com is the default homepage, with users able to visit other sites through that search bar. Other examples of applications, which are just static images, include a (non-working) phone dialer, video player, and Google Docs. The Google Calendar is notable for having subtle differences to any known version, including the tablet or web app.
The fact that Linux is the underlying OS to Android has brought a couple of things:
1. An End to the hardware Nightmares of Linux. Linux generally is not at the mercy of Windows Drivers. Linux Drivers for Android Devices has translated well to Linux Drivers on x86 for Desktop Linux.
2. Root on our devices. Our Devices are our devices. I don't care how much I paid for the Device. If I was sold a device retail and paid for it in full, its mine. I don't care if they were sold on Amazon. We all should be entitled to have root, and unlocked bootloaders on our devices we pay for. The manufacturer can void the warranty, but thats all. So what happens when root isn't a thing because of FushciaOS?
3. I have enough trouble with the LineageOS Team and "unsupported devices running unofficial builds. I really hate LineageOS's behavior twoards GSM Phones, and MediaTek Devices. It makes me furious.
With Google's rich history of axing even popular projects, I fail to see how Fuchsia will get a long life. The story is always the same: A bunch of engineers get together on an exciting project. They make some progress, get their promotions, maybe even launch a half-finished product. Now comes the hard work of finishing it, but most difficult of all is to make some kind of revenue stream from it. That's where the higher VCs and senior VC come in and start cutting. Chopping projects like that might even earn somebody further promotions in "clear leadership". Rinse and repeat on a two or three year cycle.
My bet is that Fuchsia is forgotten by the end of the 2019.
The problem to solve is why vendors, including Google's own Nexus devices, can't manage to keep hardware support going past about 2.5 years. We're supposed to dump our devices in a landfill every 2 years because they are saddled with unresolved security flaws?
The problem is that companies make money immediately when they sell a device.
Not over the lifetime of a device.
They have strong incentive to put immediately a new device out-of-the-door (sometime even not perfectly finished, with still bugs needing fixing), but not much incentive to write updates 2 years down the line (a that moment, writing an update won't translate in immediate money input, diverts ressources from getting the next money making device out, and might even create a competitor for the new device as the old one remains too much useful).
This is a bit alleviated if the company has a tighly concentrated line of device where work for updating one translate into "free" updates for another.
Apple, by having a small set of relatively similar devices is one such example.
A company such as Jolla making a OS like Sailfish is mostly dealing with user space software suite, and beside a few problems with kernels locked to whatever version the hardware manufacturer supports, can actual transfer their update efforts to the whole range too (Jolla1 smartphone is still benefiting of the updates effort and runs the same version of OS as the latest Sailfish X running on Sony Xperia X devices).
The hope of Google, by making their own OS and by making it micro kernel, is that most of the hardware-manufacturer dependant shit will be locked inside a few daemons with precisely set APIs and Google should be able to to replace all the other daemons as needed (file systems, etc.).
As opposed to linux, which is in a constant flux of evolving, and on purpose only exposes an external API to the userland, but might break its own internal interfaces. (So it's hard to port a 4.4 kernel on a piece of hardware whose manufacturer only provided a 3.2 kernel and drivers set).
Of course, if hardware manufacturer took example of the desktop/laptop world, specially with AMD and Intel, and had opensource drivers stack maintained in the upstream vanilla kernel, things would be much more easy...
My expectation regarding Fuschia are actually rather low.
There is a ginormous invested know-how in Linux in the embed world (which itself leverage the even more giant community around Linux). It would be hard to convince all the hardware manufacturer to switch to another completely different kernel and way to develop drivers. It's a very steep uphill battle.
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