Google is still developing its mysterious Fuchsia OS

It’s been over four years since we first found out that Google is developing a new operating system called Fuchsia. It’s unique because it’s not based on a Linux kernel; instead, it uses a microkernel called Zircon. It’s also notable because, despite being developed “in the open” on publicly browsable repositories, nobody understands what the OS is for, and Google executives have been remarkably coy about it all.

Today, that mix of trends continues as the company announces that it’s opening up a little more by asking more public contributors outside its organization. Google says it has “created new public mailing lists for project discussions, added a governance model to clarify how strategic decisions are made and opened up the issue tracker for public contributors to see what’s being worked on.”

It’s been a while since we’ve seen a dive into the code and documentation Google has made available, though there are some early UI examples. Google’s post today emphasizes that “Fuchsia is not ready for general product development or as a development target,” but the announcement will likely spur another round of analysis.

We know that Fuchsia isn’t necessarily meant to be a one-for-one replacement for Android or Chrome OS. The most exciting clues to Fuchsia’s practical implementations come from the fact that we know it has been tested on hardware that eventually gets released as Google smart speakers — though when they’re released, they aren’t running Fuchsia. Kyle Bradshaw at 9to5Google has laid out several examples of Fuchsia codenames lining up with “Made by Google” devices.