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Andy Rubin Leaving Google

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Re: Andy Rubin Leaving Google

#21

Post by Ologn »

autism_hurts wrote: post #17
edderly wrote: post #16

I think it’s a good time to reflect on the massive impact of Android on the mobile OS market. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_operating_system#Market_... The Android team under Rubin executed extraordinarily well with a tiny fraction of Google’s engineering resources.

By riding the coat tails and blatantly copying Apple.

And how many existing mobile devices did Apple blatantly copy with the first iPhone?

The first iPhone was nice, but how many features were original, aside from multi-touch?

Re: Andy Rubin Leaving Google

#22

Post by foobarqux »

oldxoog wrote: post #7
wfjackson wrote: post #4

This thread just 4 days ago on HN is interesting in this context. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8506911 Google employees were implying that Andy Rubin got bored of Android and left to work on robotics and people suggesting the opposite were getting downvoted. It still could be true but looks less likely down.

Throwaway because I know with pretty strong confidence what went down -- The truth seems to be both (a) unpleasant for Andy and (b) unremarkable to the rest of us. In other words, it wasn't his choice, but there wasn't a scandalous smoking gun either. He just wanted what Larry wouldn't give him. Nothing that would be front page news.

What did he want? Money, resources, position/title?

Re: Andy Rubin Leaving Google

#23

Post by 001sky »

edderly wrote: post #19
autism_hurts wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By riding the coat tails and blatantly copying Apple.

Even if you take that argument at face value, do you think anyone could just have done that? There are enough failed and feeble mobile OS vendors out there (Symbian, RIM, Palm, Microsoft) to prove that doing what Android has done is hard.

At some stage, it takes huge talent to follow in the footsteps certain pathbreakers. At leasts successfully.

Even if android did nothing but 'copy apple' they created a second player in the space on Apple's level.

If you think this is a trivial task -- look at RIM.

The creation of viable choice and a establishment of business model that hasn't (yet) forced the implosion of the platform, is a huge amount of work even of one were to abstact away any "groundbreaking originality" (whatever that means anyway) in the platform.

Re: Andy Rubin Leaving Google

#24

Post by sounds »

nostrademons wrote: post #13
mbca wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android is only a "success" insofar as being the only game in town for an open-source iOS competitor. I'm frankly amazed it ever gained any traction at all, but when your competition is non-free garbage like Symbian, Blackberry, and Windows mobile, I guess you can just win by default. Especially when you have the might of Google's multi-billion dollar support behind you. Android has already gotten miles better in the…

That could be an indication that building a viable mobile phone OS is really, really hard . While I'm also quite glad to see the recent Chrome/Android integration, I think Rubin should get a lot of credit for getting Android to the point where it's even worth integrating with. A bunch of competitors tried and failed; I'm glad that there's more than just Apple available in the mobile OS market.

Interestingly, the hard part is not the core "OS" code. There are many, many good open source OS's available for study (and/or license).

I realize I'm being pedantic. I think it illustrates my point: until the mid-90's, Computer Science would occasionally wish for a new OS to fix all the bad things about current OS's. Even the lack of a killer app was not considered insurmountable, because apps weren't that complex. Witness the proliferation of open source OS's.

As Android continues to dominate iOS in sheer numbers, it underscores just _why_ building a strong mobile phone OS is hard––enough that even Apple with all the early advantages still gets marginalized.

Android has:

• Open source OS (Google's/OEM's proprietary bits notwithstanding)

• Free SDK as the gold standard

• Multiple strong hardware vendors competing for the best designs and attempting to find underserved markets

• One central "authority" that champions consistentcy, interoperability, and polish (that google.com is the economic incentive to stay in charge of android becomes a strength for android––because unless another company thinks it can unseat google in their core business, they are not incentivized to try to take android from google either. Xiaomi and Samsung's Tizen may be vanity forks but other than vertical integration they have no edge in the larger android picture)

• Complete administrative backend (cloud, app store, PR, etc.)

Re: Andy Rubin Leaving Google

#25

Post by swang »

autism_hurts wrote: post #17
edderly wrote: post #16

I think it’s a good time to reflect on the massive impact of Android on the mobile OS market. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_operating_system#Market_... The Android team under Rubin executed extraordinarily well with a tiny fraction of Google’s engineering resources.

By riding the coat tails and blatantly copying Apple.

Arguably they have both copied from each other to the benefit of its users.

Imagine iOS still having those shitty popups and notifications. Glad they "copied" it from Android.

Re: Andy Rubin Leaving Google

#27

Post by Steko »

wfjackson wrote: post #4

This thread just 4 days ago on HN is interesting in this context. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8506911 Google employees were implying that Andy Rubin got bored of Android and left to work on robotics and people suggesting the opposite were getting downvoted. It still could be true but looks less likely down.

Eh, those downvoted comments were from me and one was totally deserved because it was awful and I left it there to accumulate negative karma as punishment for making it. The other is a bit relevant here and was initially upvoted. It likely got downvotes by association with the idiotic comment.

Here's a more upthread link with a bit more context for the discussion:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8506560

Re: Andy Rubin Leaving Google

#29

Post by elpachuco »

DannyBee wrote: post #20
wfjackson wrote: post #4

This thread just 4 days ago on HN is interesting in this context. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8506911 Google employees were implying that Andy Rubin got bored of Android and left to work on robotics and people suggesting the opposite were getting downvoted. It still could be true but looks less likely down.

"Google employees were implying that Andy Rubin got bored of Android and left to work on robotics and people suggesting the opposite were getting downvoted. It still could be true but looks less likely down." Andy definitely got bored and went to work on robots before. He even says that in the article. As for what happened this time, no idea. I have some guesses though, and none of them are "forced out".

Well don't leave us hanging. Let us know your guesses. I'm really interested to know. Several other people in this thread seem to know and yet are not saying anything.

Edit: I found this quote from [1]. "Jessica Lessin at The Information tweeted that Rubin wanted more freedom for his robotics group. She said he wanted a structure like Calico, which is the anti-aging company Google has started.

Our guess is that Page views robotics as something he understands better, and considers it core to Google, and therefore would not want to give it the same independence. "

If so it seems rather short sighted for Page to let somebody like Andy Rubin leave. Rubin is self motivated,passionate,driven about what he does and he could have done great work with robotics.

[1] http://www.businessinsider.com/andy-rubin-out-of-google-2014...

2nd Edit: At least now I'm hopeful that Google will not own robotics.

Re: Andy Rubin Leaving Google

#30

Post by atmosx »

larrys wrote: post #14
ChuckMcM wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I expect it might be more unpleasant for wannabe Andys. But I agree it was unremarkable. Scott McNealy used to congratulate people getting promoted with "One step up, one step closer to the door." That captured the balancing act between climbing the ladder versus being pushed off of it because someone else wanted your spot. I think Andy will be much happier in his new role, and it isn't like he has to work for a livi…

"Scott McNealy used to congratulate people getting promoted with "One step up, one step closer to the door."" God knows when I hear things like that I thank my lucky stars I don't have to work in a large corporation or answer to anyone but customers. (Well more than that obviously but at least I'm not at the whims of corporate culture.)

Any idea of the salary of the people Larry Page likes to whim? I mean, lets not get crazy, working for G comes with all kind of perks!
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