It seems right now like Google’s Android operating system and Apple’s iOS platform will be the world’s most popular mobile operating systems forever. After all, every mobile OS that came before them, and everything else that has come along since these two platforms took off, has been crushed. Of course, those of us who have been around long enough remember that at one point in time, Nokia’s Symbian platform seemed like it would reign supreme forever. Platforms like Symbian, Windows Mobile, and BlackBerry OS used to dominate the global market, and now they don’t even exist anymore.
There’s no telling how long iOS and Android will be the only two mobile platforms that matter. There’s also no telling what might replace them. But Google is already planning for the future, and it’s in the process of developing a mysterious new operating system that may someday render Android obsolete.
Precious little is known about Google’s Fuchsia OS for the time being. The platform is basically hiding in plain sight. It’s an open source platform that’s being developed right out in the open, and we’ve even seen it demonstrated on video a few times. But Google has been almost completely silent about its new experimental operating system, refusing to reveal what its intentions are with Fuchsia.
As far as what we know at this point, there isn’t much to go on. We know that Fuchsia isn’t built on Linux kernel like Android and Chrome OS. Instead, it uses Google’s own Zircon kernel. What’s more, Fuchsia uses a new in-house programming language. Long story short, Fuchsia is all Google from top to bottom, despite being open source.
Beyond that, we know that Fuchsia won’t be confined solely to mobile devices. In fact, there’s already a developer build that can be installed on the Google Pixelbook. That said, it’s a very early experimental build that isn’t anywhere close to being feature complete. For that reason, no one who actually wants to use his or her Pixelbook for anything worthwhile is willing to bother with it. Luckily, you don’t need to mess with your Pixelbook anymore in order to play with Fuchsia. In fact, you don’t even need a Pixelbook. As noted on Reddit, there’s now a website that lets you play with Fuchsia on any computer or phone.
Click this link to check it out. On a computer, there’s almost no usable functionality, and all you can do is click around a bit. On an Android phone, you’ll have a bit more luck. In fact, you’ll even see your phone’s actual remaining charge and network status. After you’ve tapped “Guest” to fire up Fuchsia, you can tap and scroll around all you want, though there isn’t much to see. The round icon at the center of the screen opens up the settings, but we’ll let you explore the res on your own.
