Google is opening the door to greater collaboration with the open source community on its latest operating system (OS) endeavorer, Fuchsia.
Google has been working on Fuchsia since at least 2016, when its existence was first publicly known. Much of Fuchsia’s development has been shrouded in mystery, and Google has been light on details. It appears to primarily be aimed at phone and tablets, although Google has hinted that it could be used on a wider array of devices.
The obvious point of reference is Android, with many believing Fuchsia represents a possible Android replacement. One big difference is the kernel, or core, of the OS. While Android is based on a Linux kernel, Fuchsia has a completely new kernel called Zircon. This may be in an effort to address the shortcomings Android has experienced.
For those interested in seeing what Fuchsia looks like, Ars Technica built a copy of the project and posted a gallery of screenshots.
In the meantime, however, Google is making it easier for the open source community to contribute to the project.
Starting today, we are expanding Fuchsia’s open source model to make it easier for the public to engage with the project. We have created new public mailing lists for project discussions, added a governance model to clarify how strategic decisions are made, and opened up the issue tracker for public contributors to see what’s being worked on. As an open source effort, we welcome high-quality, well-tested contributions from all. There is now a process to become a member to submit patches, or a committer with full write access.
In addition, we are also publishing a technical roadmap for Fuchsia to provide better insights for project direction and priorities. Some of the highlights of the roadmap are working on a driver framework for updating the kernel independently of the drivers, improving file systems for performance, and expanding the input pipeline for accessibility.
The fact that Google is opening the door to more collaboration may indicate an acceleration of this plans. It will be interesting to see where Fuchsia goes, and what devices Google uses it on.
Image Credit: Ars Technica