Google Launches its Third Major Operating System- Google Fuchsia

The world giant Google has officially launched its third major Operating System- Google Fuchsia on May 25.  Unlike Android and Chrome OS, which appear on a variety of computing devices, Fuchsia is only being made available to one device, the Google Home Hub- Nest Hub which was previously running on a Linux-based OS. 

Google has been working on its capability-based OS Fuchsia for at least six years. Furthermore, it is said that Google could expand the Fuchsia footprint to other devices, including smartphones and PCs.

Here’s All You Need To Know About Google Fuchsia

According to Google, the Operating System is written in C, C++, Dart, Go, and Rust, and runs on modern 64-bit Intel ARM processors. Fuchsia OS is suitable for smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers. 

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

The Nest Hub is a smart speaker with a humungous 7-inch display with built-in Google Assistant and Voice Match. Launched in 2018, the Nest Hub operated on Cast OS, which is a Linux-based operating system. But with Fuchsia OS, all user-facing design elements and overall functionality and features of the Nest Hub will remain the same as before, according to 9to5 Google. 

Fuchsia Supports a Variety of Languages & Runtimes

Fuchsia is not tied to a specific language and supports a variety of languages and runtimes, including C++, Web, Rust, Go, Flutter, and Dart. Dart and Flutter enjoy a special status, though, since the Nest Hub display experience was based on them and is being leveraged by the Fuchsia update.

It is 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 mobile 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.

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.

Also Read: Google Launches Flutter 2 with Support for the Web and Desktop Apps

Will Android be Replaced by Fuchsia?

Google says the priorities of this new operating system are “security, updatability, and performance”, at least two of which might be regarded as for Android’s biggest weaknesses. Android devices are 50 times more likely to be infected with malware than Apple’s iOS, Panda

Google has yet to publicly reveal what its long-term plans for the project are, although there is much speculation that Fuchsia is seen as a replacement for both Android and Chrome OS, allowing Google to focus its development effort on one core operating system.