Google has begun the rollout of a silent upgrade to its new Fuchsia operating system on first-gen Nest Hub devices (known as the Google Home Hub release). This implies that the secretive project will be broadly used by consumers after years of opaque development.
The OS, which is not based on Linux unlike Android, and uses a microkernel called Zircon, was previously made available to some devices enrolled in preview program back in May.
It has been confirmed by Google to 9to5Google that a new firmware update for non-preview Nest Hub devices includes the Fuchsia upgrade, implying that all first-gen devices should be running on Fuschia already or very soon. A check on the one on desk now, a Google form that explains it all, turns out it’s on Fuchsia right now.
The Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded platform is poised to retain its lead in the Big Five companies in the American information technology industryas it attempts to make the experience as close to identical as possible, hence, the fear of the unknown based on the entirely new operating system should not suffice. The pokey performance on the first-gen Nest Hub itself appears to be very similar, for better or worse. Checking the “About device” section of the settings menu is the only way to know you have Fuchsia, and even then the OS isn’t mentioned by name.
What is the implication? What can be deduced?
Although the preview program has served its purpose and function, resolving an earlier issue where a specific color blindness settings was wrongly enabled by default for some users, the ability to switch the underlying operating system on a real-world device without hassles can be termed as a very impressive and gargantuan feat.
It is worthy to note that the first known Fuchsia deployment 5 years ago may not send shivers as it should, with the associated possibilities imagined form the project coming to the fore, however it is very commendable that Google managed to seamlessly replace a very vital software of a known product in a amanner that a lot of users did not notice or catch the clue.
It would be recalled that in 2019, software engineer and business executive and one of the founding members of the Android team at Google, Hiroshi Lockheimer had rated Fuchsia as more of a candidate for IoT devices, instead of the much-touted replacement for Android and/or Chrome OS.
“In the world of IoT, there are increasing Tnumbers of devices that require operating systems and new runtimes and so on. I think there’s a lot of room for multiple operating systems with different strengths and specializations. Fuchsia is one of those things and so, stay tuned”, Lockheimer said.
Ayoola Faseyi, an Abuja based Journalist with interest in Technology and Politics. He is a versatile writer with articles in many renowned News Journals. He is the Co-Founder of media brand, The Vent Republic.
