Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google’s not-so-secret new OS

techspecs.blog

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

501–510 of 561 posts

Re: Google’s not-so-secret new OS

#501

Post by iainmerrick »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #436
iainmerrick wrote: post #426

"Fuchsia" and "magenta" are pretty gutsy names to choose, given how similar it sound to Apple's vaporware "Pink" OS from the 90s (AKA Taligent, AKA Copland). Somebody has a sense of humor! It's really hard to tell if this is actually something that will ship, or yet another Google boondoggle to be swiftly discarded (like the first attempt at ChromeOS for tablets). Google under Larry Page built and discarded a lot of…

Sounds like a stretch having to go all the way back to the 90's to get a similar color code name.

It was the first thing those unusual names made me think of. But I'm a long-time Mac developer, so probably pink and purple colors as OS names won't have the same connotations for other people.

Re: Google’s not-so-secret new OS

#502

Post by K0SM0S »

jonathanstrange wrote: post #321
MarkMc wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Write once, mediocre everywhere" was a problem with Sun's implementation, not with the concept of cross platform code. There are tons of webapps which are very successful, despite being written 'once'. In any case, Google doesn't need to be as strict as Sun was. It is free to implement "write 90% of your code once and 10% customised for each platform".

The problem is not technical and never was, it's that Apple and Microsoft would do anything to maintain an 'application barrier' that makes genuine cross-platform coding as hard and inconvenient as possible. It's all about developer lock-in and control over the customer, even more today than it used to be in the 90s.

How would you caracterize Microsoft's open-sourcing of the .NET stack, support to run it on Windows and RHEL (actually support to run RHEL on Azure), VS code universal electron app, the whole Office 365 paradigm, and multiple apps like Remote?

It seems to me that the 'new' Microsoft (since Satya Nadella took leadership) is changing their closed/proprietary stance on many topics. Not everything of course, they still have to sell stuff, but as far as "genuine cross-platform" is concerned, they are certainly giving developers all the tools to both make and target all major operating system.

Re: Google’s not-so-secret new OS

#503

Post by iainmerrick »

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…

I think it's just a speculative effort that probably won't go anywhere.

I googled for "google magenta", and all the top hits are actually about an entirely separate (I assume?) project about AI music: https://magenta.tensorflow.org/welcome-to-magenta. So they didn't think very hard about the name for a start.

I'm also skeptical that a big new effort like this would be done entirely in the open. The Chrome team has something of a history of doing that and then throwing stuff away (e.g. Chromium mods and hardware configuration for a Chrome tablet that never got off the ground).

The Android team, on the other hand, seems to prefer developing stuff in private before open sourcing it. And their stuff seems to have more traction (or maybe we just don't see all the aborted efforts because they're private).

I feel like the Chrome team really believes in open source, and developing in the open, whereas the rest of the company (and especially Android) doesn't care as much and prefers being secretive. But as Sundar Pichai used to run Chrome, maybe he's changing things up a bit?

Re: Google’s not-so-secret new OS

#504

Post by K0SM0S »

taneq wrote: post #184
goldenchrome wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Phones and desktops are completely different form factors with different constraints. Running an Android app on Windows would be a horrible experience.

Now this is a reasonable objection. Small form factor touch screen interfaces just don't work the same way as mouse-based desktop interfaces with acres of space. Trying to use a phone UI on a desktop is heinous (as is pointed out above with Windows 10 as the example.)

I used to regularly remote into a windows box (GUI mode, classic desktop) from my phone. 2560x1440 pixels of 21st century glory. Believe me when I say you do not want to use a desktop UI on a phone either. No, pinch-zooming hasn't proved to be a sustainable workaround.

Re: Google’s not-so-secret new OS

#505

Post by iainmerrick »

pswilson14 wrote: post #500
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 idea of factions in Microsoft fighting for control is interesting to me from a historical perspective - do you have any books or sources I can read to get the full story?

I don't have any detailed links handy, but it's definitely common knowledge that this is the case (or used to be, anyway). Manu Cornet's comic captures it well: http://www.bonkersworld.net/organizational-charts/

Re: Google’s not-so-secret new OS

#506

Post by jgon »

Touche wrote: post #495
untog wrote: post #51

If nothing else comes out of this, I hope we end up with an Android OS that works better than the current one. I've been running Android since the Nexus One so I'm no newbie to the platform, but the ease with which iOS manages to get all UI interactions at ~unnoticable FPS and outstanding battery life is staggering when you're used to Android. It feels like some really fundamental choices were made badly on the platf…

I'd love to see data that concludes that iOS has better battery life than Android. I haven't seen such data and doubt the truth of that statement.

iOS devices routinely ship with batteries ~60% the size of flagship android devices and have competitive amount of battery life. If apple chose to ship an iphone with a 3000mah battery like what can be found in Android flagships it would absolutely crush the competition in terms of battery life.

Re: Google’s not-so-secret new OS

#507

Post by flukus »

pjmlp wrote: post #385
flukus wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My S3 is 4 years old now, and it is works perfectly fine. Is it still getting security patches? If not then it's not running perfectly fine.

No and I don't care, because even Google doesn't care about us. 2 years update + 1 security for mobiles that cost more than a computer is not something I am willing to pay a premium for.

So if you're phone was part of a botnet wasting your battery and data cap would you care?

Re: Google’s not-so-secret new OS

#508

Post by mcguire »

lliamander wrote: post #93
mcguire wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tmux or screen? Wouldn't it be nice if there were a graphics-over-the-network system?

I remember the glee of the first time I got an X-Window application to run over the network. I was so confused though because the "x-server" is the software you run on your client machine.

You and the Unix Hater's Handbook authors.

There is a small terminology issue here: a "server" is a program that offers services to remote "client" programs. The clients make requests and the server responds to them. A client program will make a request like "allocate me a chunk of the screen and put these here bits in it", or "let me know about any of these events that happen". The server manages the screen and notifies the clients about things they're interested in.

IT MAKES PERFECT SENSE, DAMMIT!

Re: Google’s not-so-secret new OS

#509

Post by mcguire »

afsina wrote: post #85
mcguire wrote: post #28

" The pitch will clearly be that developers can write a Flutter app once and have it run on Andromeda, Android, and iOS with minimal extra work, in theory. " How's that going to work? iOS, specifically? Is Dart a supported language?

This may answer your question: https://flutter.io/faq/#how-does-flutter-run-my-code-on-ios and https://flutter.io/faq/#can-i-interop-with-my-mobile-platfor...

From the first link:

"The engine’s C/C++ code is compiled with LLVM, and any Dart code is AOT-compiled into native code. The app runs using the native instruction set (no interpreter is involved)."

Thanks!

Re: Google’s not-so-secret new OS

#510

Post by the_af »

xyzzyz wrote: post #496
the_af wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Or we could drive linux into irrelevance and not have to worry about that anymore I know this is going to sound flippant, but believe me it's not: who's "we" in your sentence? Google? Because I wouldn't want to see Linux "driven into irrelevance" unless it gets replaced by another free software OS which works and is not completely owned and controlled by a single corporation. Actually, I'd rather see Linux's proble…

The problem with lack of stable driver ABI in Linux will not get resolved as long as Linus et al. are calling the shots. They are fundamentally opposed to the idea, and there's nothing you can do about it.

There's not much I can do to influence Google's vision either. At least Linux is Free software (note: I'm equally fine about other pieces of software which are not Linux but are Free software).
Post reply on HN