Google's Fuchsia OS is now open to public contributions, gets a "roadmap"

We were first made aware of Fuchsia OS, an open-source operating system developed by Google, in 2016. At the time, nobody clearly knew what was the goal of the project, although some speculated it could be a Linux replacement.

We first wrote about it in 2018, as Fuchsia OS added support for several Amlogic processors hinting that it may be used in TV boxes and media streamers. Google also launched a developer website in 2019 to provide more information and resources to people outside the company interested in trying it out.

But while the OS development was always made in the open with the source code publicly available, Google did not accept contributions from the community so far. This has now changed, as the company just announced the expansion of Fuchsia’s open-source model to make it easier for the developer community to contribute to the project.

Specifically, Google has set up public mailing lists, added a governance model, as well as opened up the issue tracker to the public, and now accepts patchsets committed from the developers’ community at large. To become a member capable of summiting patchsets, you’ll need to agree to sign a Contributor License Agreement and accept the code of conduct of the project. People who submitted more than 10 patches can also apply to become a committer with full write access. Details are explained here.

Google has also announced a “roadmap” for Fuchsia OS. I put the term between quotes because I’d expect a roadmap to include dates, but the said roadmap is more like a to-do list that covers changes planned for the Fuchsia Interface Definition Language (FIDL), migration to fuchsia.io2 libraries and Components v2, and various other changes.

The company also explains Fuchsia is not quite ready for prime time and describes it as “a long-term project to create a general-purpose, open-source operating system” that “is not ready for general product development or as a development target”. Fuchsia OS can be tested either in QEMU emulator or various supported x64 or Arm targets.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.