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Project 'Fuchsia': Google is Quietly Working on a Successor To Android (bloomberg.com)
A day after the European Commission fined Google over Android, more details about Fuchsia, a new operating system the company has been working on for several years has emerged. From the report: 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.
But Pichai and Hiroshi Lockheimer, his deputy who runs Android and Chrome, have yet to sign off on any road map for Fuchsia, these people said. The executives have to move gingerly on any plan to overhaul Android because the software supports dozens of hardware partners, thousands of developers -- and billions of mobile-ad dollars. [...] Still, Fuchsia is more than a basement skunkworks effort. Pichai has voiced his support for the project internally, said people familiar with the effort. Fuchsia now has more than 100 people working on it, including venerated software staff such as Matias Duarte, a design executive who led several pioneering projects at Google and elsewhere. Duarte is only working part-time on the project, said one person familiar with the company.
But Pichai and Hiroshi Lockheimer, his deputy who runs Android and Chrome, have yet to sign off on any road map for Fuchsia, these people said. The executives have to move gingerly on any plan to overhaul Android because the software supports dozens of hardware partners, thousands of developers -- and billions of mobile-ad dollars. [...] Still, Fuchsia is more than a basement skunkworks effort. Pichai has voiced his support for the project internally, said people familiar with the effort. Fuchsia now has more than 100 people working on it, including venerated software staff such as Matias Duarte, a design executive who led several pioneering projects at Google and elsewhere. Duarte is only working part-time on the project, said one person familiar with the company.
It is known that it is not based on Linux. It uses a microkernel called Zircon.
Whether they call it Android / ChromeOS / Fuchsia or how it works generally doesn't matter.
But if their product is the most widely used (they have a monopoly), they can't force and stipulate anti-trust / anti-competent behaviour over OEMs (handset manufacturers) - just like Microsoft used to do.
Namely,
1. if the OEM wants access to app store, they can't force them to also bundle other Google apps exclusively;
2. they shouldn't bribe network operators and OEMs to install Google apps exclusively;
3. if a handset manufacturer wants to ship a custom Android build, Google shouldn't threaten them from denying access to the app store market, or to any other Google apps.
I would have thoughts nerds would be pretty happy about this, as it means more competition and a more open and free market place, such that others have a chance to create competing apps and services.
Fuchsia appears to be under a more permissive license, so it cannot be based on Linux as the GPL wouldn't allow it.
I read the article, and an awful lot of the paragraphs are like "Fuchsia could ..." and "There are some signs ..." etc. I guess it's interesting to know how many people are working on it, that was the main actual "detail" I got from the article, most of the rest was just more speculation.
Oh no... it's the future.
Fuchsia is a replacement for Linux. A different design with a different source code base and a different license.
As both Android and Chrome are only hosted on Linux both could replace Linux with Fuchsia when the later gains sufficient functionality. 3/4 of Android developers would neither notice nor care. Of the remaining 1/4 some percentage is only using Posix and not anything uniquely Linux based, so **if** Fuchsia provides Posix support they will not care are either.
That's what Google wants, but that's also exactly what the EU is fining them for. What the EU wants is Google to be forced to sell devices completely divested from Google's other products. A closed source OS that was forced to use Google services would still violate this, and would probably incur an even larger fine since as things currently stand you're still allowed to find alternatives. Further, it's possible that creating a closed source OS that forced the use of Google's services would bring back the 90's anti-Microsoft lawsuit for bundling (and forcing) use of Internet Explorer.
The best option for Google is making it so Android can use non-Google apps by default, and then making those devices more expensive to purchase. The only way out of this for Google is increasing user choice, not restricting it.
It's 100% Java based. It runs a Java VM, running a Java VM, inside a Java VM, running on a Java VM.
it has 8 layers of indirection, each layer runs inside it's own core, which runs on a cpu optimized for java.
everything is written in java, from the hardware on up.
more indirection == more speed, and more security.
Once the phone boots, it can never be shutdown. When assembly of the phone is complete, the phones are booted, so when they get of the container ship, they have finished booting.
If the battery dies, you get a new phone, which will be pre-activated and pre-booted.
There is no local storage, everything is in the cloud.
There is no root access, everything is in 7 layers of sandboxes.
this will be the golden age of technology.
It is known that it is not based on Linux. It uses a microkernel called Zircon.
The real shame is that they discontinued to project that the Zircon microkernel was being used for, a great roboassistant called Mr. Zirkon.
He had great features like:
* Voice interface
* Internal power source
* 100% homicidal
Frankly, I don't understand why they discontinued the project!
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
There are no practical Linux kernel security concerns that wouldn't also apply to something like Fuchsia. Any complex OS written by a small team will potentially have as many if not more security issues as Linux.
Advantages of the Linux kernel is a lot of eyeballs, mature codebase, reasonably good architectures, very wide hardware support, and known to scale up to very large systems.
Disadvantages of Linux is GPL and dealing with a large community of opinionated people. It can be difficult to get big architectural changes in unless a lot of time is spent convincing the top people on LKML.
Fuchsia is probably a better choice than forking Linux. It's smaller and does less so it will be easier to manage by a small team.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Google used to be a company that embrassed free software. As employees have leaked they are now more obsessed than ever about competitors not just developing interesting things and then see if they sell. Maybe this was inevitable.
Android is already not free just releases tossed over the wall from Google. There is no way I can be part of Android development. Fuchsia just allows total lock down of the last open piece the kernel. Therefore better control. Some even say it will only allow network booting with caching on device, so really locked down.
Most of Android nastiness aren't the kernel's fault, e.g bloat, upgrade issues...
Even with Google's resources they will never have as functional a kernel as Linux. The Linux kernel has things like SELinux, iptables, great filesystem support, device drivers for everything. Great for tinkerers, not so useful to Google (they will only implement the few bits they really need). There is no danger Fuchsia will get all this with basically in house not fully open development.
What makes them shit? The fact that they get regular updates for many years or the fact that Apple doesn't spy on you anything like as much as Google. In any case did you miss this https://www.theverge.com/2018/...
Replacing Android would be silly. This sounds like a well-thought plan to launch a third OS into the market - one that has a better chance against iOS at the high end.
Develop a new OS, shift your devices to it starting with those furthest away from the smartphones, and when the time is right you split Android off, sell that division to a consortium of the Android device makers, and never look back. That time will likely be right before launching a new set of smartphones using whatever they decide to call Fuchsia and doing so without ever offering Fuchsia to any other company. This is why they must leave Android. They must do so to avoid breaking their own rules.
The key will be whether Fuchsia can achieve real world functional positives that can't be matched by iOS without a similar rewrite. It needs to do something like provide for a leap in power efficiency, security, memory efficiency, or AI integration.