Beyond Android: Our first look at Google Fuchsia

Today we're having our first look at the project code-named Google Fuchsia – a mobile OS that departs from Android and Chrome. While Google's Chrome OS and Android OS were both based on Linux, Fuchsia is not. Fuchsia OS is based on Google's own "Magenta" microkernel, not to be confused with the Google AI music project of the same name. Fuchsia is all about speed, performance, and beauty.

As mentioned by Ars Technica, Fuchsia works with Google's Flutter SDK. Developers can find the Flutter SDK online right now, downloadable and usable right out the box. Flutter is not to be confused with another Google-owned group, also by the same name. Flutter's claim to fame is the ability to develop for Android and iOS at the same time.

ABOVE: The logo for Fuchsia on the left, above a couple of screens from the current build of the OS via Github. On the left is the first very rough version of the logo for Armadillo. I'm guessing this is just a placeholder, but if it isn't, I applaud them for their courage.

Included with Flutter is Dart, used here to do the building of both iOS and Android apps at the same time. Also included is Escher, a graphics renderer which uses the latest Vulkan SDK. As explained by Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, Vulkan "provides a much faster connection between computing and graphics [than OpenGL used in the past], bringing technology that was originally developed for high-end game consoles like PlayStation and Xbox to your smartphone."

Just as Android runs one of several different kinds of deserts for its operating system generation, Fuchsia seems to be beginning with animals. Their first System UI name is Armadillo. To get a very basic idea of what Google is doing here, have a peek at this brief UI preview.

The above video comes from developer Kyle Bradshaw of HotFixIt. This same link includes a guide on how to build one's own copy of Armadillo straight from the public Git. Development of this OS is open to the public – everyone can see what's going down as it happens.

See the timeline below for the first couple of major events that've happened in the history of Google's next OS. Development is well underway, and the team members on the development side of the equation are in place and working furiously toward a first release. Stick with SlashGear and we'll keep you up to speed.