Google’s not-so-secret new OS • Hacker News Board

Re: Google’s not-so-secret new OS

#11

Post by wmccullough » Wed, Feb 15, 2017, 4:29 AM UTC

pier25 wrote: post #9

We definitely need a universal OS for all our devices and I really believe Google is in a great position to get us there. It would really surprise me if Apple got there first. Tim lacks vision and will keep on milking iOS even if the iPad Pro is a failure as a laptop replacement. Windows is still king in the desktop space, at least as far a user base goes, but it's terrible on tablets and phones. MS has all the tech…

Terrible on tablets and phone? Phones I can agree with but the surface line is getting to be really solid. I've been an iPad guy for years and my next tablet will be a surface.

Re: Google’s not-so-secret new OS

#12

Post by resoluteteeth » Wed, Feb 15, 2017, 4:30 AM UTC

Is this an actual plan of Google as a company, or is this some sort of Microsoft-style war between divisions where the Chrome team has just decided on its own that the future is based on Chrome and Dart?

Also, considering the way that the ARC runtime for Chromebooks was a failure and had to be replaced by a system that apparently essentially runs Android in a container, will it really be possible for a completely different OS to provide reasonable backward compatibility?

Re: Google’s not-so-secret new OS

#13

Post by stephentmcm » Wed, Feb 15, 2017, 4:32 AM UTC

wmccullough wrote: post #11

pier25 wrote: post #9

We definitely need a universal OS for all our devices and I really believe Google is in a great position to get us there. It would really surprise me if Apple got there first. Tim lacks vision and will keep on milking iOS even if the iPad Pro is a failure as a laptop replacement. Windows is still king in the desktop space, at least as far a user base goes, but it's terrible on tablets and phones. MS has all the tech…

Terrible on tablets and phone? Phones I can agree with but the surface line is getting to be really solid. I've been an iPad guy for years and my next tablet will be a surface.

A surface isn't a tablet, it's a laptop with a touch screen. I've tried them and they are really nice as laptop but they fallback to a finger hostile UI way to often to be called tablets.

Re: Google’s not-so-secret new OS

#14

Post by parenthephobia » Wed, Feb 15, 2017, 4:34 AM UTC

brianon99 wrote: post #2

Google is just afraid of GPL I think.

Handset vendors and, especially, mobile network providers, would rather ship their handsets with proprietary unmodifiable software that they can cram with antifeatures that will be that much harder to detect or remove.

Having said that, the reports I've seen contain scant actual evidence that Google actually plan for Andromeda to replace Android, or even that Andromeda is at all important to Google. I take these reports with a mountain of salt. I remember that the "Pixel 3" was definitely just about to be announced back in late 2016, and was definitely going to be running Andromeda OS.

Re: Google’s not-so-secret new OS

#15

Post by thewhitetulip » Wed, Feb 15, 2017, 4:35 AM UTC

pier25 wrote: post #9

We definitely need a universal OS for all our devices and I really believe Google is in a great position to get us there. It would really surprise me if Apple got there first. Tim lacks vision and will keep on milking iOS even if the iPad Pro is a failure as a laptop replacement. Windows is still king in the desktop space, at least as far a user base goes, but it's terrible on tablets and phones. MS has all the tech…

Yes, we do. I want my phone and my laptop to be in total sync, I want to be able to write code on my mobile which I can just continue on my laptop without any hindrance, currently I have a mac and an android phone, I do have Go and Python installed on my mobile, but it isn't that great to code on my mobile, I have to host the repo on an internal version of gogs to get the code synced up and I still have to manually push the code around.

All hail Universal OS!!

Re: Google’s not-so-secret new OS

#16

Post by azatris » Wed, Feb 15, 2017, 4:35 AM UTC

pier25 wrote: post #9

We definitely need a universal OS for all our devices and I really believe Google is in a great position to get us there. It would really surprise me if Apple got there first. Tim lacks vision and will keep on milking iOS even if the iPad Pro is a failure as a laptop replacement. Windows is still king in the desktop space, at least as far a user base goes, but it's terrible on tablets and phones. MS has all the tech…

> We definitely need a universal OS for all our devices

Wait, do we? Why?

Re: Google’s not-so-secret new OS

#17

Post by macintux » Wed, Feb 15, 2017, 4:35 AM UTC

pier25 wrote: post #9

We definitely need a universal OS for all our devices and I really believe Google is in a great position to get us there. It would really surprise me if Apple got there first. Tim lacks vision and will keep on milking iOS even if the iPad Pro is a failure as a laptop replacement. Windows is still king in the desktop space, at least as far a user base goes, but it's terrible on tablets and phones. MS has all the tech…

You may "definitely need" a universal OS but I'm far from convinced I do.

I don't buy that a finger and a mouse/trackpad pointer are equivalent input devices. One obscures the display and is imprecise. The other, well, isn't.

I'm fine with a different server OS than desktop. I see no compelling reason why I need a single OS for all of my personal devices.

Re: Google’s not-so-secret new OS

#18

Post by pavanky » Wed, Feb 15, 2017, 4:36 AM UTC

resoluteteeth wrote: post #12

Is this an actual plan of Google as a company, or is this some sort of Microsoft-style war between divisions where the Chrome team has just decided on its own that the future is based on Chrome and Dart? Also, considering the way that the ARC runtime for Chromebooks was a failure and had to be replaced by a system that apparently essentially runs Android in a container, will it really be possible for a completely dif…

The blog talked about many different things. Not all of them may be related to each other. It is pure speculation from the author.

Re: Google’s not-so-secret new OS

#19

Post by vlunkr » Wed, Feb 15, 2017, 4:37 AM UTC

pier25 wrote: post #9

We definitely need a universal OS for all our devices and I really believe Google is in a great position to get us there. It would really surprise me if Apple got there first. Tim lacks vision and will keep on milking iOS even if the iPad Pro is a failure as a laptop replacement. Windows is still king in the desktop space, at least as far a user base goes, but it's terrible on tablets and phones. MS has all the tech…

Does Tim lack vision, or does he just not share your vision? You might think we "need" this but not everyone agrees. Combining Chrome OS and Android is uninteresting to me, since I wouldn't be able to develop on it or really do any of the things I use a computer for. Unless they plan to really build on it and attempt to compete with more mature desktop operating systems.

Re: Google’s not-so-secret new OS

#20

Post by nitemice » Wed, Feb 15, 2017, 4:37 AM UTC

pier25 wrote: post #9

We definitely need a universal OS for all our devices and I really believe Google is in a great position to get us there. It would really surprise me if Apple got there first. Tim lacks vision and will keep on milking iOS even if the iPad Pro is a failure as a laptop replacement. Windows is still king in the desktop space, at least as far a user base goes, but it's terrible on tablets and phones. MS has all the tech…

As much as I'd like to see it, I don't think Windows will ever quite get there. Not, at least, in any recognisable form. They value backwards-compatibility way to much (which is to be commended in some ways, but won't save them here). While they seem to have everything lined up to be able to turn it into something, developers seem too reluctant to get on-board too.

Apple will have to go through all of the growing pains Microsoft has already weathered, so they're miles off, but maybe they can do it faster because they don't care as much about what people think of them, and are willing to do whatever they think is right (if it is or not is to be seen).

Google is well placed because, while they have a bunch of platforms, the only one in the desktop space is basically dead, and really didn't ever have too much investment in it, so not too many feel put out if they get rid of it. But that not even the case, because they're able to engineer everything so that it stays relevant.