Google announced some time back that it was working on its own operating system, starting from scratch, to be called Fuchsia. This OS was tipped to be the next big thing from the company and, after a long period of wait, it is now running on proper Google hardware, specifically, the first-gen Nest Hub.
As per 9To5 Google, the tech giant has announced that, as of Tuesday, an update is being rolled out to owners of the first-gen Nest Hub, released back in 2018. This update will not change or limit any functionalities of the Nest Hub, but, it will make use of Fuchsia OS instead of the Linux-based Cast OS that was previously in use.
The company mentions that a regular user using a Nest Hub should feel that the OS is almost identical, as the company has seen to it that Google's smart display experience is built with Flutter, designed to bring apps to multiple platforms, with one of them being Fuchsia.
What Do We Know About Fuchsia OS
Fuchsia OS was first started in 2016, with the intention of being an experimental UI that, someday in the future would be capable of running Google's devices, ranging from the likes of the smart home devices and Chromebooks. Since its inception, the OS has progressed and, it has finally reached the point for a stable release.
For those of you wondering, the update for the Nest Hub is expected to roll out over the next couple of months, with the rollout commencing first for users that are part of the Preview Program, followed by a broader release. Nest Hub owners are not expected to know that the change has taken place since the overall use case should be identical, as mentioned earlier.
Today's release is also Google's biggest step forward when it comes to Fuchsia becoming an operating system that can be used by the average jack. Google has stated that by testing its real devices running on this OS in the wild, it can provide its own, non-Linux operating system that can be used for smart home devices.
In a statement to the press, Hiroshi Lockheimer, Google SVP of Photos, Chrome/OS, Play and Android stated that it is not just phones and PCs, in the world of IoT, there is an increasing number of devices that need operating systems and new runtimes. Google believes that there is a lot of room for multiple OS options with different strengths, with Fuchsia being one of them.
