Google launches its third major operating system, Fuchsia

Why Everybody’s Talking About Google Fuchsia OS

Way back in 2016, the tech rumour mill began spinning with news that Google was working on a brand new OS for mobile and smart devices. ‘Google Fuchsia’ remained a mystery for nearly five years, with no clear answer on what the project was, or how it would impact existing Google products. Now we know it is real.

Not only that, it’s already quietly rolling out on legacy Google Nest devices and has been confirmed by Google.

“You don’t ship a new operating system every day, but today is that day,” Google Fuchsia’s technical lead, Petr Hosek, said on Twitter.

What is Google Fuchsia?

Fuchsia is designed to replace the existing Linux-based ‘Cast OS’ and open up new possibilities for Google devices.

So far, there’s no visual difference between the two operating systems, but there is some core differences behind-the-scenes.

The most notable one is that Fuchsia isn’t a Linux-based operating system at all. Instead, it’s based on a brand new Google-developed program (typically referred to as a ‘kernel’) called Zircon. This means it’s basically a whole new system from the code level up.

For now, its rollout is fairly limited, but it could become essential to the Google infrastructure in future.

Google Fuchsia OS Will Support Android Apps

According to 9to5Google, Fuchsia was initially more of an experimental project, with developers focusing on creating newer and better ways to integrate apps into the OS. Rather than focusing on individual apps, the Fuchsia team was reportedly working on ‘stories’ that enabled users to get tasks done in a more ‘holistic’ manner.

This direction reportedly shifted multiple times during development, and we don’t know much about what it entailed — but the prospect of a new operating system is enticing.

Fuchsia developers are currently working on native support for Linux and Android apps, so the real capabilities of the OS are still yet to be realised. Given developers were only given access to Fuchsia tools in December 2020, it’s likely the eventual native app rollout for the device will be slow.

For now, Fuchsia will only be coming to first-generation Nest Hub smart devices that were released in 2018. This is so Google can test the operating system’s existing capacity and ensure a smooth transition in future.

From there, it’s likely the system will come to the rest of Google’s smart device line-up, and potentially even its Chromebook range. If you currently own 2018 Nest Hub, it’s worth checking if there’s an update waiting in the wings — you might be one of the first people able to test the new operating system.

Outside of app compatibility, it won’t bring massive changes for consumers just yet, but it’s clear Google has big plans for the OS. As work on native apps continues, we may soon see the fruits of this five-year-long labour.

The Google Nest Hub is the world’s first commercial Fuchsia device.

Google is officially rolling out a new operating system, called Fuchsia, to consumers. The release is a bit hard to believe at this point, but Google confirmed the news to 9to5Google, and several members of the Fuchsia team have confirmed it on Twitter. The official launch date was apparently yesterday. Fuchsia is certainly getting a quiet, anti-climactic release, as it’s only being made available to one device, the Google Home Hub, aka the first-generation Nest Hub. There are no expected changes to the UI or functionality of the Home Hub, but Fuchsia is out there. Apparently, Google simply wants to prove out the OS in a consumer environment.

Fuchsia’s one launch device was originally called the Google Home Hub and is a 7-inch smart display that responds to Google Assistant commands. It came out in 2018. The device was renamed the “Nest Hub” in 2019, and it’s only this first-generation device, not the second-generation Nest Hub or Nest Hub Max, that is getting Fuchsia. The Home Hub’s OS has always been an odd duck. When the device was released, Google was pitching a smart display hardware ecosystem to partners based on Android Things, a now-defunct Internet-of-things/kiosk OS. Instead of following the recommendations it gave to hardware partners, Google loaded the Home Hub with its in-house Google Cast Platform instead — and then undercut all its partners on price.

Fuchsia has long been a secretive project. We first saw the OS as a pre-alpha smartphone UI that was ported to Android in 2017. In 2018, we got the OS running natively on a Pixelbook. After that, the Fuchsia team stopped doing its work in the open and stripped all UI work out of the public repository.

There’s no blog post or any fanfare at all to mark Fuchsia’s launch. Google’s I/O conference happened last week, and the company didn’t make a peep about Fuchsia there, either. Really, this ultra-quiet, invisible release is the most “Fuchsia” launch possible.

Fuchsia is something very rare in the world of tech: it’s a built-from-scratch operating system that isn’t based on Linux. Fuchsia uses a microkernel called “Zircon” that Google developed in house. Creating an operating system entirely from scratch and bringing it all the way to production sounds like a difficult task, but Google managed to do exactly that over the past six years. Fuchsia’s primary app-development language is Flutter, a cross-platform UI toolkit from Google. Flutter runs on Android, iOS, and the web, so writing Flutter apps today for existing platforms means you’re also writing Fuchsia apps for tomorrow.

The Nest Hub’s switch to Fuchsia is kind of interesting because of how invisible it should be. It will be the first test of this Fuchsia’s future-facing Flutter app support — the Google smart display interface is written in Flutter, so Google can take the existing interface, rip out all the Google Cast guts underneath, and plop the exact same interface code down on top of Fuchsia. Google watchers have long speculated that this was the plan all along. Rather than having a disruptive OS switch, Google could just get coders to write in Flutter and then it could seamlessly swap out the operating system.

So, unless we get lucky, don’t expect a dramatic hands-on post of Fuchsia running on the Nest Hub. It’s likely that there isn’t currently much to see or do with the new operating system, and that’s exactly how Google wants it. Fuchsia is more than just a smart-display operating system, though. An old Bloomberg report from 2018 has absolutely nailed the timing of Fuchsia so far, saying that Google wanted to first ship the OS on connected home devices “within three years” — the report turns three years old in July. The report also laid out the next steps for Fuchsia, including an ambitious expansion to smartphones and laptops by 2023.

Taking over the Nest Hub is one thing — no other team at Google really has a vested interest in the Google Cast OS (you could actually argue that the Cast OS is on the way out, as the latest Chromecast is switching to Android). Moving the OS onto smartphones and laptops is an entirely different thing, though, since the Fuchsia team would crash into the Android and Chrome OS divisions. Now you’re getting into politics.

Google Fuchsia OS finally rolls out

Google’s mystery operating system, Fuchsia OS, is finally here and being used in the first-generation Nest Hub.

Since 2016, one of the biggest mysteries in tech circles was “What the heck was Google Fuchsia operating system?” A Linux replacement? A Google-specific Linux distribution? The end of Android? We eventually learned Fuchsia wasn’t Linux, but it might be a Linux replacement in some situations. At long last, we finally know. It’s, at least in its first version, an Internet of Things (IoT) operating system.

According to 9to5Google, “Fuchsia, is now running on real Made by Google devices, namely, the first-generation Nest Hub.” The Nest Hub is a combination smart display and a voice-controlled smart speaker. The version getting the operating system update, however, is the 2018 model. The newer 2021 Nest Hub went on the market in April 2021. First-generation Google Nest Hubs are still available.

We know this story is accurate because Petr Hosek, technical lead of the Google Fuchsia OS toolchain team, announced on Twitter that, “You don’t ship a new operating system every day, but today is that day.” Hosek followed up by pointing to the 9to5Google story.

Google Nest owners may not notice a whit of difference. While Google has started updating the first-generation Nest Hub, the update won’t change any of its functionality. If all works well, ordinary users will never notice that it’s running Fuchsia OS instead of its original Linux-based operating system. Google can do this because its smart display experience is built with Flutter, its universal framework for building user interfaces.

For developers, Google opened the doors to third-party Fuchsia OS developers in December 2020. The Fuchsia OS code itself is open-source under the Apache 2 license. You can develop and work on the operating system in Linux. Fuschsia OS is written in C++, Rust, and Dart with some older code written in C.

Underneath it all is the Zircon operating system kernel. It’s written primarily in C++. This microkernel also includes a small set of userspace services, drivers, and libraries. These are used to boot the system, talk to hardware, load userspace processes and run them, and not much more. The kernel manages several different Object types. Those that are directly accessible via system calls are C++ classes.

Fuchsia is a modular, object-based operating system. This implies you’ll be able to use it on both low-powered, minimal-resource devices all the way to PCs. You’ll simply add the object modules you’ll need for each device.

So, where does Fuchsia OS go from here? We still don’t know. But, at the very least, we know it’s going to play a major role in Google’s IoT plans.

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