Edited by: Jina Aryaan
In the never ending battle of operating systems (OSs), and with technology changing significantly from year to year, tech giants like Google and Apple are doing what they can to stay relevant in their field. New gadgets like smartwatches and powerful laptops are great, but everyone these days knows that, when we’re buying new tech for ourselves, we often put serious consideration on brands, their OSs, and their corresponding user interfaces. The differences between Google and Apple products are clear to anyone, and there are certainly benefits and drawbacks to either’s products, but what happens when one company decides to create a new OS from a complete tabula rasa? Let’s talk about Google Fuchsia.
Before we get into the thick of the Fuchsia conversation, let’s cover some computer and programming basics first. What makes operating systems work are things called kernels. A kernel’s the first program loaded when starting an OS, and it handles everything from software input/output to and from the CPU, to hardware connections like the keyboard and speakers. Antonio Villas-Boas of Business Insider explains the concept of kernels and OS perfectly in his article on Google Fuchsia, “A kernel is like an empty house (Linux) that the tenant (Google) can furnish to work, look, and feel the way it wants. By building a kernel, Google has more control over what its OS can do.”. In sum, a kernel is the program that controls other programs, and mediates access to system resources like the CPU and memory, while the OS manages everything else, like text editors and browsers.
Different operating systems vary in how they call commands. The ones we’ll be talking about in this article are called monolithic kernels and microkernels. Monolithic kernels have one kernel load and execute the different parts of the operating system, while microkernels break down the processes so that each kernel has its own distinctive process, using communication between kernels to execute specific commands. While tasks happen faster on a monolithic kernel, since there’s only one kernel responsible for system calls, microkernels are more secure and modifiable, as new services/kernels can be added to the system, and damage to one kernel does not mean damage to the entire system.
Fuchsia (pronounced few-shah) is an operating system currently being developed by Google’s Travis Gieselbrecht, Brian Swetland, and Petr Hosek, and was first discovered as a mysterious code post in 2016 on GitHub, a popular site used to host open-source software projects. While there has been no official announcement from Google’s end, those inspecting the code have theorized that it will be able to run on universal devices, including “dash infotainment systems for cars, to embedded devices like traffic lights and digital watches, all the way up to smartphones, tablets and PCs”.
On the technical side, Google Fuchsia differs from Android and Chrome in that it is based on a new micro kernel Magenta, derived from Little Kernel, whereas previously, Google’s OSs were built on Linux, a monolithic kernel. Little Kernel is small, hence the name, and has limited functionality beyond what’s needed for embedded systems. Magenta builds on top of Little Kernel, and forms an OS designed for systems with more memory, ranging from smartphones to laptops.
So what will Fuchsia look like to its users? Fuchsia’s May 2017 update included a user interface, and many have speculated that Google’s intentions with the operating system were to completely replace Android with Fuchsia, and may be considered a “redo” of it. There are several examples of what the new OS would look like on a smartphone posted on Ars Technica and Youtube, and it’s certainly different from what we’ve seen from the Android OS we know. One of the biggest differences so far is the lack of a home screen with app icons; apps take up rectangular sections of the screen, vertically oriented so the user swipes up and down to navigate through the interface and apps, the “story mode”. Instead of taking up the entire screen, opened apps “hover” above the default screen. There are also minor changes found in the quick settings and the positioning of the time and battery indicators.
While Fuchsia is still in its early stages, and much of the information around it remains speculation, this project could potentially be a game changer for Google. Its different internal structure from Google’s previous OS, developers’ claims of it as a “redo android”, and the fact that it targets a variety of tech, could mean Google getting a leg up on its biggest competitor, Apple. “In theory, that would make Fuchsia a direct alternative to Google’s Andoird and Chrome OS” says well-known tech writer Jared Newman in his Fast Company article. Even though the OS has yet to have an official launch, I can already hear Google’s engineers saying: “Your turn, Apple.”
The code and other information about it, can be found here.