Google Fuchsia OS – Everything you need to know
Today, I will be discussing with you the future of Operating System – Fuchsia OS. I will be discussing everything, right from the point, it started to the current stage it has reached right now.
The blog will act as a complete guide to Fuchsia OS, and I will keep updating it with all the future updates happening around Fuchsia.
So without further ado, let’s get started.
Why did Google decide to go for Fuchsia OS?
Kernels act as the core of any operating system that provides the primary mechanism around which the complete OS can be built.
A lot of problems posted by Android comes from the fact that it is based on the Linux kernel which was never intended for phones.
Even the Android OS was initially built for digital cameras.
The next biggest downside of Android is fragmentation. Fragmentation is the only reason why a lot of these smartphones don’t perform to the level of their hardware capabilities.
The reason fragmentation exists is because Android is a huge mess.
Android consists of Software + Kernels + Drivers all woven together in a slightly different configuration for each device available in the market.
That’s the reason Google is not able to push updates to every smartphone available in the market as all these three aspects need to be decoupled manually by OEMs like Samsung, Huawei, Lenovo, Motorola, etc.
And these OEMs focus very little on pushing the latest updates as their profits are linked to the hardware sales and how quickly a device becomes obsolete so that you come in the market to purchase a new one.
Google also has very little control over how people are experiencing Android on 95% of smartphones available.
A little introduction to Fuchsia OS
Fuchsia OS came into the limelight back in August 2016. It will be the third operating system offering from Google after Android and Chrome OS.
Fuchsia in no way is a replacement or upgrade to Android and Chrome OS but is instead a standalone offering. Fuchsia is also completely different from Android and Chrome OS as it is not based on Linux.
Fuchsia might be an OS for IoT devices
As everything is skeptical right now, but a Redditor with anonymous identity claimed to talk with one of the Google employees who is working on Fuchsia OS.
According to the Google employee, we might see the first showcase device with Fuchsia OS in late 2019 or early 2020. Google employee also said that Fuchsia is an IoT; first OS means OS for your fridge, RaspberryPi, car, TV, etc.
Cross-device OS
Fuchsia is a cross-device OS which will work seamlessly on any device be either your phone, tablet, desktop, laptop, wearables, and more.
Once you sign in with your Google account, the application will automatically save their place across multiple devices. Google is calling it as Ledger – “A distributed storage system for Fuchsia.”
It means if you were listening to some music on Google Home, and then you move out in your car, the music will resume at the same state it was paused at Google Home.
Deeply integrated Google Assistant
Fuchsia is Assistant-first OS. Everything you are doing on the screen will be visible to Google Assistant.
How is Flutter paving the way for Fuchsia?
Flutter is an open-source, cross-platform mobile app development framework. Flutter is intended to help developers build attractive apps with a native app experience from a single codebase.
Although cross-platform app development is nothing new but emphasizing on speed and developer control is what makes Flutter unique.
Flutter offers unified toolkit and faster development experience by integrating with the development environment of your choice such as Android Studio, Visual Studio Code, Xcode, etc.
Flutter currently supports iOS and Android app development with support for desktop coming in the future.
Flutter differentiates itself from React Native and Xamarin by offering consistency across the platform. It means that a Flutter app developed using Material Design will look exactly similar in both iOS and Android.
Flutter helps in
- Fast development
Flutter has Hot Reload functionalities which brings your app to life in milliseconds. It also helps in building native interfaces with its customizable widgets.
- Expressive and flexible design
With fast deliver features focus on native end-users experiences. Full customization is achieved for its layered architecture which helps in the flexible design and fast rendering.
- Native performance
It’s widgets contain all essential platform differences together with scrolling, navigation, icons, and fonts to provide complete native performance on both iOS and Android.
Flutter architecture
Dart
Flutter is an SDK that works on a programming language called Dart.
Dart is a general-purpose programming language that was developed by Google. It can be used to build web, server, and mobile apps and for IoT devices as well.
Dart is influenced by many different languages. The strongest among these influences would be of Java. A Java programmer can quickly notice similarities between these two languages.
Dart is an object-oriented programming language and supports things like abstraction, encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism.
Dart programs can run in one of these two modes:
Checked modes
In this dynamic type, assertions are enabled. These type assertion can turn on if static types are provided in the code. The checked mode is recommended for development and testing as it helps catch errors in your system when types do not match.
Production modes
It is the default mode of all Dart programs. It provides a faster way to run your application.
Google bets on Flutter
Google is betting big on Flutter, and it is also one of the smart moves by Google to get developers comfortable with Flutter instead of forcing everyone to switch at a later stage.
The other reason behind the big push of Flutter is when you create a new operating system, the biggest problem is the lack of third-party applications.
People will don’t buy a device that lacks useful apps and developers will never focus on devices that aren’t selling. But with the move of Flutter, Google is making sure that there are ready-to-go apps available at the launch of Fuchsia.
Google might be working on a YouTube app for Fuchsia
It is not a surprise that YouTube plays a critical role in Google’s strategy. With offerings of YouTube TV, YouTube Premium, YouTube Music it is evident that Google would love to bring their popular application on the next generation mobile and desktop operating system.
Although there is no official statement about it, for some proposed changes for a Tic-Tac-Toe game being developed for Fuchsia, a Googler Larry Landry posted a link that led to private, in-development “YouTube Player.”
The blog will act as a complete guide to Fuchsia OS, and I will keep updating it with all the future updates happening around Fuchsia.
So without further ado, let’s get started.
Why did Google decide to go for Fuchsia OS?
Kernels act as the core of any operating system that provides the primary mechanism around which the complete OS can be built.
A lot of problems posted by Android comes from the fact that it is based on the Linux kernel which was never intended for phones.
Even the Android OS was initially built for digital cameras.
The next biggest downside of Android is fragmentation. Fragmentation is the only reason why a lot of these smartphones don’t perform to the level of their hardware capabilities.
The reason fragmentation exists is because Android is a huge mess.
Android consists of Software + Kernels + Drivers all woven together in a slightly different configuration for each device available in the market.
That’s the reason Google is not able to push updates to every smartphone available in the market as all these three aspects need to be decoupled manually by OEMs like Samsung, Huawei, Lenovo, Motorola, etc.
And these OEMs focus very little on pushing the latest updates as their profits are linked to the hardware sales and how quickly a device becomes obsolete so that you come in the market to purchase a new one.
Google also has very little control over how people are experiencing Android on 95% of smartphones available.
A little introduction to Fuchsia OS
Fuchsia OS came into the limelight back in August 2016. It will be the third operating system offering from Google after Android and Chrome OS.
Fuchsia in no way is a replacement or upgrade to Android and Chrome OS but is instead a standalone offering. Fuchsia is also completely different from Android and Chrome OS as it is not based on Linux.
Fuchsia might be an OS for IoT devices
As everything is skeptical right now, but a Redditor with anonymous identity claimed to talk with one of the Google employees who is working on Fuchsia OS.
According to the Google employee, we might see the first showcase device with Fuchsia OS in late 2019 or early 2020. Google employee also said that Fuchsia is an IoT; first OS means OS for your fridge, RaspberryPi, car, TV, etc.
Cross-device OS
Fuchsia is a cross-device OS which will work seamlessly on any device be either your phone, tablet, desktop, laptop, wearables, and more.
Once you sign in with your Google account, the application will automatically save their place across multiple devices. Google is calling it as Ledger – “A distributed storage system for Fuchsia.”
It means if you were listening to some music on Google Home, and then you move out in your car, the music will resume at the same state it was paused at Google Home.
Deeply integrated Google Assistant
Fuchsia is Assistant-first OS. Everything you are doing on the screen will be visible to Google Assistant.
How is Flutter paving the way for Fuchsia?
Flutter is an open-source, cross-platform mobile app development framework. Flutter is intended to help developers build attractive apps with a native app experience from a single codebase.
Although cross-platform app development is nothing new but emphasizing on speed and developer control is what makes Flutter unique.
Flutter offers unified toolkit and faster development experience by integrating with the development environment of your choice such as Android Studio, Visual Studio Code, Xcode, etc.
Flutter currently supports iOS and Android app development with support for desktop coming in the future.
Flutter differentiates itself from React Native and Xamarin by offering consistency across the platform. It means that a Flutter app developed using Material Design will look exactly similar in both iOS and Android.
Flutter helps in
- Fast development
Flutter has Hot Reload functionalities which brings your app to life in milliseconds. It also helps in building native interfaces with its customizable widgets.
- Expressive and flexible design
With fast deliver features focus on native end-users experiences. Full customization is achieved for its layered architecture which helps in the flexible design and fast rendering.
- Native performance
It’s widgets contain all essential platform differences together with scrolling, navigation, icons, and fonts to provide complete native performance on both iOS and Android.
Flutter architecture
Dart
Flutter is an SDK that works on a programming language called Dart.
Dart is a general-purpose programming language that was developed by Google. It can be used to build web, server, and mobile apps and for IoT devices as well.
Dart is influenced by many different languages. The strongest among these influences would be of Java. A Java programmer can quickly notice similarities between these two languages.
Dart is an object-oriented programming language and supports things like abstraction, encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism.
Dart programs can run in one of these two modes:
Checked modes
In this dynamic type, assertions are enabled. These type assertion can turn on if static types are provided in the code. The checked mode is recommended for development and testing as it helps catch errors in your system when types do not match.
Production modes
It is the default mode of all Dart programs. It provides a faster way to run your application.
Google bets on Flutter
Google is betting big on Flutter, and it is also one of the smart moves by Google to get developers comfortable with Flutter instead of forcing everyone to switch at a later stage.
The other reason behind the big push of Flutter is when you create a new operating system, the biggest problem is the lack of third-party applications.
People will don’t buy a device that lacks useful apps and developers will never focus on devices that aren’t selling. But with the move of Flutter, Google is making sure that there are ready-to-go apps available at the launch of Fuchsia.
Google might be working on a YouTube app for Fuchsia
It is not a surprise that YouTube plays a critical role in Google’s strategy. With offerings of YouTube TV, YouTube Premium, YouTube Music it is evident that Google would love to bring their popular application on the next generation mobile and desktop operating system.
Although there is no official statement about it, for some proposed changes for a Tic-Tac-Toe game being developed for Fuchsia, a Googler Larry Landry posted a link that led to private, in-development “YouTube Player.”
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