Google’s not-so-secret new OS — Tech Specs

Google’s not-so-secret new OS — Tech Specs: "I decided to dig through open source to examine the state of Google’s upcoming Andromeda OS. For anyone unfamiliar, Andromeda seems to be the replacement for both Android and Chrome OS (cue endless debates over the semantics of that, and what it all entails). Fuchsia is the actual name of the operating system, while Magenta is the name of the kernel, or more correctly, the microkernel. Many of the architectural design decisions appear to have unsurprisingly been focused on creating a highly scalable platform.

It goes without saying that Google isn’t trying to hide Fuchsia. People have clearly discovered that Google is replacing Android’s Linux kernel. Still, I thought it would be interesting for people to get a better sense of what the OS actually is. This article is only intended to be an overview of the basics, as far as I can comment reasonably competently. (I certainly never took an operating systems class!)"

"Proof"

Since writing my last piece, some Googlers reached out and said my assessment was largely right. The Andromeda part specifically was fairly inaccurate though, so I will try to rectify that.

Based on this code, it looks like Andromeda might be tied to free-form window mode for laptops and possibly tablets. Thus, as I wrote in my initial article, Andromeda + Fuchsia might launch initially only as a laptop platform. I think the app “chrome” will probably look like Android (because they will be Android or Flutter apps), but with floating windows and elements of or even an overall UI similar to Chrome OS. Supported inputs would be mouse or trackpad and keyboard, and possibly touch. Not wildly different from Chrome OS today, in other words. This may also explain the “Chrome OS will merge into Android” claim originally made by the Wall Street Journal. The underlying OS will still be Fuchsia, though.

Instead, I think for all Fuchsia devices, the Android API and runtime will continue to function as before, except now the underlying OS will be Fuchsia, and the kernel will be Magenta, not Linux. And then there would also be Mojo, Flutter, etc. at least starting on Andromeda devices. It’s hard to imagine pushing both the Mojo and Android APIs forever though, and Android will likely eventually (in several years) have to fade away.

Back to the more important point: yes, Fuchsia will be Google’s new OS underpinning all its consumer devices eventually. I think both a “Pixel 3” laptop (or whatever this hypothetical product would be called) and the Pixel 2 smartphone will probably run on Fuchsia, but I make zero promises as to anything shipping at any particular point in time, because I have no idea. Still, that is my suspicion based on public commits.

And again, if Google doesn’t break compatibility with the Linux user space, yes, it really can swap out the Android kernel (Linux) for Magenta/Fuchsia, and leave the Android API in its place. Standards like POSIX do exist, after all. Here is some code pointing to exactly that.

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