The next Big Thing is quietly being assembled by Google...

[loop101]

IMHO:

In 2-3 years, Google will release a new OS that will unify the Chrome OS and Android systems, remove Linux as a dependency, remove Java as a dependency, be free and open-source, and be unencumbered by patents. The OS is called Fuschia, and all Fuschia apps will be written in Dart using the Flutter framework. Google will essentially control the OS, framework, and language.

Removing Java is a big deal, like iOS disallowing Flash. Google will finally be able to tell Oracle to go F themselves.

The opportunity should be like when the iPhone was first released, because all the apps are going to have to be written from scratch in Dart/Flutter.

Dart/Flutter can now make native iOS and Android apps. These apps are also going to run on Fuschia. Google is going to quietly assemble a mass of apps written in Flutter. They cannot release Fuschia until they have enough apps written in Flutter. Expect Google to start pushing this hard.

Freelancers are already getting excited by Flutter because they can target both iOS and Android environments with native apps.

Google Fuchsia - Wikipedia

While no official announcement was made, inspection of the code suggested its capability to run on universal devices, including "dash infotainment systems for cars, to embedded devices like traffic lights and digital watches, all the way up to smartphones, tablets and PCs"

Fuchsia's user interface and apps are written with "Flutter", a software development kit allowing cross-platform development abilities for Fuchsia, Android and iOS. Flutter produces apps based on Dart, offering apps with high performance that run at 120 frames per second.

Fuchsia Friday: How Flutter is paving the way for Fuchsia (and our first Fuchsia app!)

Get developers comfortable with Flutter years before forcing everyone to switch.

There’s another level to this plan, though. As some have noted, one of the hardest things about creating a new operating system is the potential lack of third-party apps. Most people won’t buy a device that doesn’t have good apps, and developers won’t make apps for a device that isn’t selling. What they might not realize, however, is that by making Android & iOS apps with Flutter, they are making ready-to-go Fuchsia apps!

 

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[baemes]

so how can we get started?

 

[amp0193]

Thanks @loop101. I haven't heard of any of this before, and it sounds big!

so how can we get started?

Code an app in Flutter.

 

[loop101]

so how can we get started?

Right at this moment, I would watch some of the Dart/Flutter videos that have been released in the last month. Recently Dart2 was released, and Flutter went from Alpha to Beta. Dart was considered a dead language a just few months ago.

Since Flutter just went in to Beta, it is not a good idea to start using it for production quality apps, but you can certainly start playing around with it. Having said that, the "Hamilton" app was written in Flutter.

Two recent videos:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq4N0hgOWzU

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7TXamVRSbY


Hamilton App:
Google Developers Blog: Hamilton App Takes the Stage


An example of people thinking Dart was dead, Codementor picked Dart as the #1 worst computer language to learn in 2018:

Worst Programming Languages to Learn in 2018 | Codementor Blog

#1 Dart
<...>
Note: When this post was written and published, Google Flutter beta had not yet been announced. What effect Flutter will have on the job market, community engagement, and Dart's trajectory is yet to be determined. Stay tuned to see how this will change the list in 2019.

 

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[BSK]

This sounds huge. Thanks for the tip

IMHO:

In 2-3 years, Google will release a new OS that will unify the Chrome OS and Android systems, remove Linux as a dependency, remove Java as a dependency, be free and open-source, and be unencumbered by patents. The OS is called Fuschia, and all Fuschia apps will be written in Dart using the Flutter framework. Google will essentially control the OS, framework, and language.

Removing Java is a big deal, like iOS disallowing Flash. Google will finally be able to tell Oracle to go F themselves.

The opportunity should be like when the iPhone was first released, because all the apps are going to have to be written from scratch in Dart/Flutter.

Dart/Flutter can now make native iOS and Android apps. These apps are also going to run on Fuschia. Google is going to quietly assemble a mass of apps written in Flutter. They cannot release Fuschia until they have enough apps written Flutter. Expect Google to start pushing this hard.

Freelancers are already getting excited by Flutter because they can target both iOS and Android environments with native apps.

Google Fuchsia - Wikipedia

While no official announcement was made, inspection of the code suggested its capability to run on universal devices, including "dash infotainment systems for cars, to embedded devices like traffic lights and digital watches, all the way up to smartphones, tablets and PCs"

Fuchsia's user interface and apps are written with "Flutter", a software development kit allowing cross-platform development abilities for Fuchsia, Android and iOS. Flutter produces apps based on Dart, offering apps with high performance that run at 120 frames per second.

Fuchsia Friday: How Flutter is paving the way for Fuchsia (and our first Fuchsia app!)

Get developers comfortable with Flutter years before forcing everyone to switch.

There’s another level to this plan, though. As some have noted, one of the hardest things about creating a new operating system is the potential lack of third-party apps. Most people won’t buy a device that doesn’t have good apps, and developers won’t make apps for a device that isn’t selling. What they might not realize, however, is that by making Android & iOS apps with Flutter, they are making ready-to-go Fuchsia apps!

 

[loop101]

My feeling about Dart is that Google got really "lucky". I use quotes because Google had been working hard on it, even though the potential "killer app" may not have been predicted by them. The "killer app" (IMHO) is native iOS/Android app development.

Dart started off as a competitor to Javascript. Then it evolved in to some weird ActiveX-like technology that required a VM. Then they built the VM in to Chrome and created a bastard "Dartium" browser. Next they tried using Dart to just generate JavaScript. They were all over the place with Dart. People soon considered it a "dead" language. Then Flutter appeared, and now it is coming back. In Google trends you can seen a big spike for "flutter" on Feb 28, Flutter entered Beta on Feb 27.

An interesting feature of Dart/Flutter is, they have both AOT and JIT compilers. The JIT (Just-In-Time) compiler is used during the development, and can update a running iOS native app in .5 seconds. The AOT (Ahead-Of-Time) compiler is used to build the final application, so it is super-optimized before you ship it.

I am guessing that the next shoe to drop, will be Dart/Flutter being used to make desktop apps. Google said they had "no plans" to make desktop Win/Mac/Linux apps with Flutter, but a lot of people think that will change as they realize how popular it is likely to be. I think they really were just thinking about Fuschia, and how to get apps for Fuschia, and underestimated the demand for something to replace PhoneGap/Cordova/Xamarin/etc. People want to use it RIGHT NOW, and aren't even thinking about Fuscia.

Yet Fuschia is a giant opportunity, too. Not often you can restart all the mobile apps at zero, and give everyone a fresh start.

 

[ApparentHorizon]

Right at this moment, I would watch some of the Dart/Flutter videos that have been released in the last month. Recently Dart2 was released, and Flutter went from Alpha to Beta. Dart was considered a dead language a just few months ago.

Since Flutter just went in to Beta, it is not a good idea to start using it for production quality apps, but you can certainly start playing around with it. Having said that, the "Hamilton" app was written in Flutter.

Two recent videos:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq4N0hgOWzU

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7TXamVRSbY


Hamilton App:
Google Developers Blog: Hamilton App Takes the Stage


An example of people thinking Dart was dead, Codementor picked Dart as the #1 worst computer language to learn in 2018:

Worst Programming Languages to Learn in 2018 | Codementor Blog

#1 Dart
<...>
Note: When this post was written and published, Google Flutter beta had not yet been announced. What effect Flutter will have on the job market, community engagement, and Dart's trajectory is yet to be determined. Stay tuned to see how this will change the list in 2019.

Dart is Java's bastard child. If they'd changed to something Python based, maybe people would get excited about developing for a new OS.

Remember kids, Google/Alphabet will just drop a project that doesn't take off and run to the next shiny thing.

 

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[loop101]

Wenderlich posted a tutorial yesterday:

Getting Started with Flutter

Since the time that the iOS and Android platforms exploded onto the scene a decade ago, cross-platform development has been a goal across the mobile development world. The ability to write one app for both iOS and Android can save significant time and effort for your company and team.

There have been various tools released for cross-platform development over the years, including web-based tools such as PhoneGap from Adobe, powerful frameworks such as Xamarin from Microsoft, and newer tools such as React Native from Facebook. Each toolset has pros and cons and they have met with varying degrees of success in the mobile industry.

A more recent framework to enter the cross-platform arena is Flutter from Google, which was announced in February at Mobile World Congress 2018 to be entering a beta phase. Flutter features fast development cycles, fast UI rendering and unique UI design, and native app performance on both platforms.

 

[loop101]

A bunch of Flutter links

Solido/awesome-flutter

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Remember kids, Google/Alphabet will just drop a project that doesn't take off and run to the next shiny thing.

Yup. I thought Google was immune to failure but Google Plus proved otherwise, even after they continue shoving it down our throats. Dart as a base sounds like using improperly mixed cement for your home's foundation.

 

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[masaldana2]

meh, its just hype of yet another cross platform framework .
1: instill fear. one programming language to rule them all
2: sell solution( ebook)
3: profit

heard the same story with progressive web apps, react native, xamarin, web 3.0 etherum, etc...

 

[scottyg packfan]

Since Flutter just went in to Beta

I wouldn't worry about the Beta tag too much with Google. There was a time when everything they had was Beta but we still used it.

I'd say just learn what you can find. I'll be adding it to my currently long list of languages to learn but will probably push it near the top after some research.

As for apps, I'm sure every major app developer has already started so while it might be possible to break into an oversaturated area (I'm looking at you ToDo apps), it will still probably be difficult. I wouldn't count on something like that as your way to make it big.

Just my $0.02

 

[Owner2Millions]

Lol.....from a engineering prospective Google as a company is smart, fun and loves to experiment and that’s great. But from a business prospective they still make a LARGE chunk of their profit from marketing(ads) and as a business they kind of suck due to them trying to get into every industry. they give a lot of things away for free and they push out a lot experimental shit to see if it sticks to the wall. Google glass should have been huge back in 2012 right?

They talk about so many things they want to work on and not many of them are release to the public. Idk how I feel about this since they have a track record of hyping things up and then when there is lackluster sales or response to it they axe it. Now if Apple said this I think it would have a taken more seriously. But they also have products that don’t do as well as expected such as the Apple Watch(fugly device) but they don’t give up so easily and keep trying to improve it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

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[BreakAlive]

Flutter is nice because businesses can save a lot of money duplicating the exact functionality across both Android and iOS. Most apps are just consuming some API data and rending it on screen... nothing fancy. It's incredibly expensive and wasteful maintaining 2 code bases just to do the same thing.

But, there's still one huge puzzle piece missing.. the web.

This is why Progress Web Apps (PWAs) is going to be huge. PWA is ONE code base for web, Android and iOS.

Check out these PWA examples.
Progressive Web App Room - The best examples of pwa

If you look at them on your phone you should be able to add these apps onto your mobile home screen. You essentially can't tell that it's not an native app and it works across all 3 different platforms.

I'll quote a mobile tech lead at Google:

But will [Flutter] replace native development?
Not likely. I think a bigger revolution is needed.

Once devices get fast enough that you can build material design interactions on a mobile website, Flutter (or any native app) doesn’t stand a chance against progressive webapps.

Here's a site that shows what PWA can't currently do that native can - What Web Can Do Today

My next business/app will be written as a PWA for sure.

 

[loop101]

I expect this will speed up Google's development of Flutter, and cause a noticeable decline in Java's popularity. I predict a "Java-tax".

Google Could Owe Oracle $8.8 Billion in Android Fight

"Google could owe Oracle Corp. billions of dollars for using Oracle-owned Java programming code in its Android operating system on mobile devices, an appeals court said, as the years-long feud between the two software giants draws near a close."

 

[loop101]

It would be really ironic if Google did something really freaky ... and adopted Swift. 99% of mobile development would then be done in 1 language. Swift is open-source, so there is nothing stopping them.

 

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[MAB1138]

Swift is open-source, so there is nothing stopping them.

Maybe that would stop them. Google owns (i.e.: can control) Flutter...

 

[Late Bloomer]

Remember kids, Google/Alphabet will just drop a project that doesn't take off and run to the next shiny thing.

Yes. At a previous corporate job, I was involved with the wonderful new thing from Google that would let us integrate with their hot new service, in an industry that desperately needed some adult supervision about online access. Google lost interest and shut down the whole thing. They've done this before. Some people succeed by finding the right time to try to put a saddle on the dragon, some people get thrown off or burned.

Google is strong in programming languages, virtual machines, and compatibility layers. I expect that the current toolset will work for a while on Fuschia. Even if all new code for Fuschia MUST use only Dart after some cutoff a few years away, there will be code monkeys for hire who can implement something in Dart. The question then, just as the question for Android and iOS apps now, is: What's the business value of implementing that something? Who will want to run the app and how does that make a profit for someone? This is the more valuable thing to figure out.

 

[ApparentHorizon]

Yes. At a previous corporate job, I was involved with the wonderful new thing from Google that would let us integrate with their hot new service, in an industry that desperately needed some adult supervision about online access. Google lost interest and shut down the whole thing. They've done this before. Some people succeed by finding the right time to try to put a saddle on the dragon, some people get thrown off or burned.

Google is strong in programming languages, virtual machines, and compatibility layers. I expect that the current toolset will work for a while on Fuschia. Even if all new code for Fuschia MUST use only Dart after some cutoff a few years away, there will be code monkeys for hire who can implement something in Dart. The question then, just as the question for Android and iOS apps now, is: What's the business value of implementing that something? Who will want to run the app and how does that make a profit for someone? This is the more valuable thing to figure out.

Rumors are it's an Android replacement, commanding a whopping 80%+ market share. Android apps will be backwards compatible, but they won't have access to the same functionality as what Flutter offers. So it will be a quasi new platform, where first movers advantage matters.

They're changing their strategy, however. Instead of putting out a product that people have to adopt, they're supplanting existing tech.

AMP wasn't taking off, so they've partnered with WordPress to integrate it. I imagine somewhere in the Gutenberg release we'll see some news.

Allo, their messaging app, became one of those "abandoned projects" just last week. Now they're talking with carriers to turn your standard SMS into some other crazy concoction.

 

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[masterneme]

I had high hopes with this because it could mean an increase in ARM based desktop computers, which means Microsoft Windows and Intel would have competitors and users would enjoy more options.

But I'm going to remain cautious because I don't fully like the idea of deprecating Linux and, as others noted, Google could kill the project any time and f**k us all... again.

As long as the Play Store and its access is controlled by Google, they'll own the entire ecosystem.

Edit:

Dart is Java's bastard child. If they'd changed to something Python based, maybe people would get excited about developing for a new OS.

Yes please give me Python!

 

[Late Bloomer]

Allo, their messaging app, became one of those "abandoned projects" just last week. Now they're talking with carriers to turn your standard SMS into some other crazy concoction.

By now we were supposed to all be using Google Wave instead of email, instant messaging, forums, Slack, wikis etc. It would be hard to push a technology platform harder than Google pushed Wave... and hard to find one buried deeper at the bottom of the ocean, than Wave is now.

 

[ApparentHorizon]

2018 IO Event starts today. Looks like Android is getting a lot of attention this year:

Google I/O 2018

 

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[loop101]

Flutter 1.0 released, gains the ability the to run on Windows, Mac, Linux, and in a browser. Recap of keynote:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-o4BqJxmJE

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SZZfpkVhwk

 

[loop101]

Mischook (Web Apps) and Wroolie (Mobile Apps) are both interested.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fSwFrDEiz0

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0tj48wXwMA

 

[daivey]

Flutter is nice because businesses can save a lot of money duplicating the exact functionality across both Android and iOS. Most apps are just consuming some API data and rending it on screen... nothing fancy. It's incredibly expensive and wasteful maintaining 2 code bases just to do the same thing.

But, there's still one huge puzzle piece missing.. the web.

This is why Progress Web Apps (PWAs) is going to be huge. PWA is ONE code base for web, Android and iOS.

Check out these PWA examples.
Progressive Web App Room - The best examples of pwa

If you look at them on your phone you should be able to add these apps onto your mobile home screen. You essentially can't tell that it's not an native app and it works across all 3 different platforms.

I'll quote a mobile tech lead at Google:


Here's a site that shows what PWA can't currently do that native can - What Web Can Do Today

My next business/app will be written as a PWA for sure.

yes and to take this a step further:

once data transfer rates become fast enough world wide, there will be no processing power needed from your home/phone/etc.

all you will require is a streaming machine, because all processing will be done server side. you will just a machine fast enough to to transfer data over web/receive data.

 

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[masaldana2]

im going to leave this here and walk away slowly

im a swift dev btw.

 

[Jack Robinson]

The only thing i hope with that is that google wont abuse that to much.But we will have to wait and see.

 

[NuclearPuma]

What problem does this solve?

Write iOS and android apps once instead of twice?

 

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[civilpro]

Odd, a top youtuber coder (Chris Hawkes) put out a video of top 20 languages to learn in 2019 and Dart was ranked #20. Javascript was ranked #1.

I'm also a little confused about this new google OS. Wouldn't that be admitting that chromebooks were a mistake?

 

[loop101]

Odd, a top youtuber coder (Chris Hawkes) put out a video of top 20 languages to learn in 2019 and Dart was ranked #20. Javascript was ranked #1.

I'm also a little confused about this new google OS. Wouldn't that be admitting that chromebooks were a mistake?

I am familiar with Chris Hawkes channel, but do not put much faith in his opinions. IMHO, he is still new to the field, and is too amateurish. I did feel bad for him when his wife left, and took their blue-haired daughter with her.

Fuchsia replacing ChromeOS is no different than Windows replacing DOS, or Windows 10 replacing Windows 8, etc.

One mistake Google *is* admitting is that using an OS (Linux) they don't control was a mistake. Another mistake was using a language (Java) that they don't control. Fuchsia/Dart will correct those mistakes. They will be more like Apple.