Android Removes Much of Fuchsia-Related Code As Starnix Project Progresses (9to5google.com) 10
A big chunk of Fuchsia-related code has been removed from the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) this week, but Google's two operating systems are still set to have an intertwining relationship. In its place, we have a lone "TODO" message, suggesting that Google may be building up something new in its place. The developer responsible for the change primarily works on Fuchsia's "Starnix" project. 9to5Google reports: In its most public form, Google's in-house operating system, Fuchsia, powers two of the company's smart displays, the Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max. But having watched it develop over the last few years, we know that Google has much larger ambitions for the Fuchsia project. Easily the most ambitious of these is a clear intention for some Fuchsia devices to be able to run apps from other operating systems like Android and Linux. This could -- in theory! -- allow a Fuchsia-powered device to seamlessly replace a Chromebook or Android phone, keeping older apps running as normal. [...]
First shared in early 2021 as a proposal, Starnix is designed to make it possible for Fuchsia to "natively" run apps and libraries that were built for Linux or Android. To do this, Starnix would act to translate the low-level kernel instructions from what Linux expects to what Fuchsia's Zircon kernel expects. It's now been over a year since the Starnix proposal was accepted and work began. In that time, the Fuchsia team has made significant progress in making Linux programs capable of running on Fuchsia devices. In fact, a dedicated Starnix shell was briefly available for testing in builds of Fuchsia's "workstation" -- an experience designed to let developers and enthusiasts play with the operating system. Notably, this shell was not simply Linux but actually a "small Android distribution included in the system." More recently, this was replaced with the ability to access Fuchsia and Starnix's Android capabilities through the adb command, just like you would any other Android device. Looking ahead, it seems Fuchsia's Starnix team is focused on steadily making the operating system compatible with Android and its applications. [...]
First shared in early 2021 as a proposal, Starnix is designed to make it possible for Fuchsia to "natively" run apps and libraries that were built for Linux or Android. To do this, Starnix would act to translate the low-level kernel instructions from what Linux expects to what Fuchsia's Zircon kernel expects. It's now been over a year since the Starnix proposal was accepted and work began. In that time, the Fuchsia team has made significant progress in making Linux programs capable of running on Fuchsia devices. In fact, a dedicated Starnix shell was briefly available for testing in builds of Fuchsia's "workstation" -- an experience designed to let developers and enthusiasts play with the operating system. Notably, this shell was not simply Linux but actually a "small Android distribution included in the system." More recently, this was replaced with the ability to access Fuchsia and Starnix's Android capabilities through the adb command, just like you would any other Android device. Looking ahead, it seems Fuchsia's Starnix team is focused on steadily making the operating system compatible with Android and its applications. [...]
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Android has never been focussed on privacy or being a good open source citizen, they do what they are obligated to under the license agreement (and often more when it comes to BSD/MIT-licensed software contributions) if you ever thought they were all about free software then you are a fool.
What they did do is they worked with OEMs to create an entire ecosystem of mobile hardware that supports Linux, it's all the freedom and openness you could ask for as a platform on which to build a free and open mobile op
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> But in the end that just doesn't happen.
I now depend on several Android systems that are forbidden or impossible on iOS.
Lots of people are, especially in privacy and security.
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Someone could conceivably pick up and run with AOSP should Google switch away from the Linux kernel. I don't know that this is the best solution, but it's a potentially viable one. Maybe LineageOS starts doing more development and becomes the official OS for some phones. Not everyone will want to follow Google, only almost everyone. It would be a shame though, because a lot of SoC support for Linux must be due to Android.
I'm glad someone is working on a modern OS (Score:2)
Re:I'm glad someone is working on a modern OS (Score:4, Insightful)
Treating everything as a file and interfacing to everything with a pipe was in fact an advance in computing, which freed Unix from being dependent on APIs that might not be updated for communication between programs. It lets simple shell scripts operate as first class citizens without unnecessary overhead of loading libraries over and over again, with Unix's cheap process creation making them reasonably efficient.
Microsoft is trying to be that everything-is-an-object with PowerShell. Lots of people seem to like it. If you want it, there it is.
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I'd rather have APIs instead of file formats