Up until recently, we knew very little about Google's Fuchsia OS. First appearing on GitHub back in 2016 with no official announcement, theories quickly sprang up about what it could be. Some touted it as a replacement for Android, others as a replacement for Chrome OS. The reality was that no one knew exactly what it was. Reading the code hinted at an OS that was intended to be run on multiple platforms, and indeed, senior vice president of Android and Chrome Hiroshi Lockheimer confirmed that this was the case at Google I/O 2019.

In an interview with The Verge, Lockheimer said that while the OS was purely experimental, it was about "pushing the state of the art in terms of operating systems." While it was relieving to finally see Google comment on the project in an official capacity, Lockheimer's interview didn't really reveal an awful lot. Now, however, a little more information has trickled through.

A new site has sprung up, fuchsia.dev, which appears to be where we'll be getting our Fuchsia news for the foreseeable future. Very barebones, the site contains little more than what was previously available on the Fuchsia GitHub page. The landing page touts the site as "Documentation for developing for the open source operating system."

Fuchsia Dev Landing Page

Google's choice of wording is interesting. Citing Fuchsia as the open source operating system implies that it may replace Android and Chrome OS sometime in the future, though perhaps I'm reading between the lines a bit too much. The "Source Documentation" page contains the documentation previously seen on GitHub, but with some added features.

Fuchsia Dev Documentation Page

Previously, we were confined to running Fuchsia on Android Studio Emulator by using a select few builds, and even then the OS lacked any major functionality. Now, Google is providing official instructions for building and running Fuchsia. Furthermore, there's even a bug report feature included on the site.

At the time of writing, only select hardware is officially supported by Fuchsia. The Acer Switch Alpha 12, select generations of the Intel NUC, and, of course, the Google Pixelbook. While Fuchsia is still somewhat inaccessible and nuanced, this site being set up may indicate that Google is starting to place more emphasis on Fuchsia.


Source: Fuchsia.dev | Via: Android Police