Google is working on new “Fuchsia” operating system, which is not just an upgrade to Android or Chrome OS
Google is reportedly working on a new unified operating system that will work across computers, mobile phones, tablets, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. For quite some time now, it has been rumoured before that Google would merge it’s Chrome OS and Android platforms. However, this new OS is not just an upgrade to Chrome OS or Android, but is instead a whole new system that isn’t derived from the Linux kernel.
Codenamed as Fuchsia OS, this new OS is powered by Magenta, which is designed to work across a wide range of devices from small “embedded devices” all the way up to desktops and laptops. Google hasn’t formally announced this new OS while the Git repository cites it as “Pink + Purple == Fuchsia (a new Operating System).”
Google is using Dart as the programming code for the OS, and Flutter for the user interface. The OS will support 32-bit and 64-bit ARM CPUs, and also 64-bit PCs. According to an Android Police report, Google hopes to replace Android and Chrome OS with Fuchsia. But the caveat remains this might just be one of Google’s many secretive projects that never actually make it to consumers.
Google’s Travis Geiselbrech, who worked on NewOS, BeOS, Danger, Palm’s webOS and iOS, and Brian Swetland, who also worked on BeOS and Android, are involved in this project, according to Hacker News.
“LK is a kernel designed for small systems typically used in embedded applications.” reads the repository. “On the other hand, Magenta targets modern phones and modern personal computers with fast processors, non-trivial amounts of RAM with arbitrary peripherals doing open-ended computation.”
According to Geiselbrecht, we should also see Fuchsia running on a Raspberry Pi 3 in the near future.
Well, it will be interesting to see what Fuschia is all about once Google discloses more details and also see if rumours about Fuchsia turn out to be true.
For now, Google is expected to release the latest version of its Android OS, v7.0, dubbed Nougat next month. The Developer Preview 5 of Nougat with final APIs were rolled out by the company in July, giving a near-final look of the OS.
