Want to experience Google's latest Fuchsia OS on your computer? Try FImage

Earlier this week, Google released Fuchsia OS, but it was initially only available to some first-generation Nest Hub users. Now, a group of independent developers have created an easier way to try Fuchsia OS on your computer.

First of all, Fuchsia OS is developed in an open source state, which means that developers can download the source code, compile and modify it on their computers, and the system can run on compatible devices such as Google Pixelbook or emulators. Although it is feasible, the threshold for ordinary users is still very high.

To help solve this problem, the developers of Dahlia OS (an independent developer team dedicated to integrating the advantages of Fuchsia and Linux into the desktop experience) have carefully designed a new project, Portable Fuchsia Emulator (FImage for short), which greatly reduces the experience threshold. The project packages everything needed for Fuchsia OS to run in the emulator, including a pre-built version of Fuchsia.

However, the FImage project still has a certain threshold. The biggest problem is that you need to use a Linux distribution (preferably Ubuntu) on your computer to simulate this emulator. In addition, in order to get good performance in the emulated version of Fuchsia, you need to use a computer with sufficient performance - more than 8GB of memory, Intel Core processor, independent graphics card, etc.

If your computer meets the specifications, it's basically just a matter of downloading the latest FImage version, unzipping it, and running a few terminal commands. With these, you can be up and running Fuchsia in a few minutes, instead of the hours it would normally take to download and build Fuchsia from source.

Keep in mind that all you have is what's publicly available in the open source code for the Fuchsia operating system. Just as the Android Open Source Project doesn't include many of the enhancements seen on Google's Pixel phones, this Fuchsia experience is clearly more basic and intended more for Google employees to test apps than for anyone to use in a real way.