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Google open-sources the Pebble OS

opensource.googleblog.com

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Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#131

Post by Eridrus »

elevatedastalt wrote: post #84

People passing cynical comments at Google need to understand that at a big co like Google, something like this doesn't 'just happen'. It probably happened because some passionate L6/L7 engineer wanted to do it and pushed through the bureaucracy to get approvals for it, probably largely on their own time (by which I mean that this was at best a side-project for them and at worst a distraction that was losing them favo…

IIRC based on my experience open sourcing some code for a paper, I think you just need to get VP approval, which is probably not that hard if you are a well respected L6/7 in your org.

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#132

Post by Gigachad »

Zamiel_Snawley wrote: post #130
Gigachad wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The pebble did not have an e ink display, It was just a low power LCD.

There were many models of Pebble. The original definitely had epaper[0]. [0] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/getpebble/pebble-e-pape...

It was an LCD[0] but you are right that they marketed it as "epaper". But it certainly was not people normally think of as epaper where there are colored capsules that can hold their image without power. The Pebble just had an LCD that looked visually similar to epaper.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_(watch)#Hardware

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#133

Post by dcreater »

andybak wrote: post #69

This, Google Wave, Tilt Brush (and more recently Blocks). And probably others I've forgotten. This really does help mitigate the damage done by "Killed by Google" and people are genuinely grateful (personally in my case). But even better would be to fix the dysfunctional internal dynamics that cause this syndrome in what appears to be disproportionally more frequently compared to other corporations.

That's what happens when you don't have to play by the rules of reality. Googles monopoly allows them to act like this. It's unfair and generally bad for everyone involved. Thankfully it seems that that era is finally going to end

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#135

Post by kccqzy »

abhishekjha wrote: post #77

Aren't floating point comparisons frowned upon? https://github.com/google/pebble/blob/main/src/libc/math/flo... I guess you can freeze some compiler options to give you consistent results.

This case looks okay. It's converting a double to an int64_t and then back to double for comparison. It doesn't really suffer from the typical reason why floating point comparison is frowned upon, such as catastrophic cancellation.

I've once optimized a function to be faster, and in a unit test asserted that the old slower version gives exactly the same floating point answer as the new optimized version. It's doable in some cases.

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#136

Post by tim-- »

Zamiel_Snawley wrote: post #128
pyuser583 wrote: post #90

How much work is being done in the RTOS space? I would think a lot, but then I hear programmers complain it’s not worth it. Are RTOSs still the future?

I’ve never heard that RTOSs are the future in general. With that said, there are a lot of great RTOS options out there today. 1) PREEMPT_RT recently brought realtime capability to mainline Linux[0]. 2) Amazon open sourced the safety-certified ThreadX[1]. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PREEMPT_RT [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThreadX

ThreadX was open sourced by Microsoft.

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#137

Post by addicted »

hayleox wrote: post #121
nialv7 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do wonder how they successfully justified this to the higher ups. If anything, I would like to learn from them so I can better justify the things I want to do..

The source code has zero business value to Google at this point – they have another smartwatch OS and there's never gonna be a business case for a company of Google's scale to revive a niche product like this. Releasing means getting free PR on Hacker News and a free morale boost for employees who care about this kind of thing.

And the opportunity for a shit ton of lawsuits.

Source code like this doesn’t just have no value for Google. It has negative value. It’s a massive liability.

That’s why big cos simply bury source code instead of releasing it in the open.

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#138

Post by xeromal »

itishappy wrote: post #114
elevatedastalt wrote: post #84

People passing cynical comments at Google need to understand that at a big co like Google, something like this doesn't 'just happen'. It probably happened because some passionate L6/L7 engineer wanted to do it and pushed through the bureaucracy to get approvals for it, probably largely on their own time (by which I mean that this was at best a side-project for them and at worst a distraction that was losing them favo…

I think it's perfectly reasonable to celebrate this action and the individuals who championed it while also being cynical of the big tech orgs that resist changes like this for the reasons described.

Being cynical is almost a default of the internet and I think it squanders a lot of hope. It's better not to be cynical

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#139

Post by xeromal »

hnlurker22 wrote: post #82
devrand wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was dead long before Google was involved. Pebble filed for insolvency back in 2016 with Fitbit acquiring much of the assets. It was dead at this point. 5 years later Google bought Fitbit.

Looks like there is money in the business of hyped-dying startups. First Pebble, then Beeper, and now Pebble again.

Is beeper dead?
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