Despite the fact that Google has two popular operating systems - Android and Chrome OS, it took over the development of the third - Fuchsia OS. For the first time it became known about it four years ago: then it was reported that the operating system is based on the Zircon microkernel.
It was also reported that the OS is small, but designed for a wide range of platforms, including mobile devices, IoT and industrial systems. There is no practical implementation yet, but Google opened its OS to third-party developers. The company now not only allows you to view the code, but also gives you the opportunity to put something of your own in it. Any developer can connect to the team, read the documentation , view the bug tracker, subscribe to mailing lists, etc.
This is really a great opportunity to participate, but there is only one problem: it is still unknown why this operating system is being developed. Some guesses, since Google itself has not yet advertised the goals of this OS. The only thing that the corporation disclosed is that the project is long-term, and the operating system is general-purpose and will be distributed according to the Open Source model.
The corporation has made the Fuchsia OS roadmap available to everyone, so that any user can better understand the status of the project.
Perhaps Google is planning to become a completely independent company since Fuchsia is not based on the Linux kernel. This means that the company can do anything with its own operating system. So, Google will be able to adapt Fuchsia for certain devices, whatever they are, 100%.
As for the development process, yes, anyone can join. But the code will be wholly and entirely owned by the company, making its license similar to BSD. Therefore, Fuchsia is 100% Google's initiative and no one else, although the project is now open to the world.
It may well be that some of the developers will be able to understand why the company is developing the OS by digging into the code. Now it is planned to be made available for devices such as the Acer Switch Alpha 12, Intel® NUC and Google Pixelbook.
By the way, we wrote earlier that there is another development option for Fuchsia - this is the dahliaOS project. It is written based on the Dart language and is distributed under the Apache 2.0 license. The developers are preparing two versions of the OS - for systems with UEFI (158 MB) and virtual machines or outdated systems.
As for the second option, it is being prepared based on the Zircon microkernel, which was discussed above, and the Fuchsia OS. These builds are already available for platforms such as the Raspberry Pi 4, msm8917 and a handful of other devices.
At the same time, the developers plan to use their own custom Pangolin shell, which is written in the Dart language using the Flutter framework. This skin already supports a tiled layout mode. This shell is based on parts of the Capybara project and in-house developments, including a windowing system written from scratch. All this can already be tested, however, so far in the form of a web version, which is compatible only with Chrome.
