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Google’s not-so-secret new OS

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Re: Google’s not-so-secret new OS

#151

Post by [deleted] »

Inconel wrote: post #83
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…

As a fellow Nexus user, I've owned the Nexus One, 5, and currently use a 6P, how much of this is due to the OS versus hardware? Will Google ever be able to achieve Apple level battery life or overall UI smoothness, not to mention update support, without having their own custom SoC? I was very happy with the 5, even with the intermittent lags, especially considering it's price at release. I suppose I'm not a very heav…

[deleted]

Re: Google’s not-so-secret new OS

#153

Post by maheart »

How credible is this source?

I don't understand half the decisions outlined in the article.

> I also have to imagine the Android update problem (a symptom of Linux’s modularity)

I seriously doubt the Linux kernel is anything but a minor contributor to Android's update problem. Handset developers make their money by selling physical phones. In two years, your average consumer probably doesn't care if their device is still receiving software updates. They'll jump onto a new phone plan, with a fresh, cool new mobile, with a better screen, newer software (features!), and a refreshed battery.

Maintaining existing software for customers costs handset manufacturers $$$, and disincentives consumers purchasing new phones (their cash cow). The money is probably better spent (from their POV) on new features, and a marketing budget.

Re: Google’s not-so-secret new OS

#154

Post by ktta »

jm_l wrote: post #72
techenthusiast wrote: post #10

Article author here. Posted this in the notes, but possibly too buried: For anyone interested, I intend to write quite often about consumer technology on this blog. Topics will include hardware, software, design, and more. You can follow via RSS or Twitter, and possibly through other platforms soon. Sorry for the self promotion! Thanks for reading. Please do send any corrections or explanations.

Hiroshi Lockheimer has publicly stated several times that there is no merger of Chrome OS and Android. https://chromeunboxed.com/some-andromeda-perspective-hiroshi... I think you alluded to this, "cue endless debates over the semantics of that, and what it all entails," but it might be worthwhile to add the official statement.

But there are frequent commits to multiple repositories on the fuchsia code base[1]. I don't really see where Google is going with this, if it's neither meant to replace chrome OS or Android.

Maybe a long term project? I think Google is at a position where they can write a great OS from scratch, learning from the mistakes of others, and it has a chance of becoming the greatest OS that ever was.

With the talent of it's engineers, they can bring new ideas that can be better implemented, from scratch on a new OS. They already have a bunch of languages, web frameworks, and so many more technologies from Google that can be well integrated in this.

And looks like the project is mostly BSD licensed, which is great! I'm excited for just that alone.

[1]:https://github.com/fuchsia-mirror

Re: Google’s not-so-secret new OS

#155

Post by username223 »

scott_karana wrote: post #141
username223 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You missed the biggest issue: "write once, mediocre everywhere." Windows, Mac, and X were all different, and Java Applets were necessarily bad at emulating all of them. While there are fewer Unices today, there are more GUIs, and cross-platform apps suck at least as much.

You missed the biggest difference: Chrome is the same everywhere.

So were Java Applets with AWT. Users hated that, so Sun tried PLAF, a half-assed emulation of each platform. That didn't work either, so Applets died.

If Chrome manages to provide better versions of most applications on most platforms, it may win. Otherwise, people who use those applications will hate it with the heat of a thousand Suns, and it will go the way of the Java Applet.

Re: Google’s not-so-secret new OS

#156

Post by [deleted] »

antoncohen wrote: post #36
ekianjo wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So their strategy is to go full-blown closed source?

The OS Fuchsia, including the kernel Magenta, appears to be open source, mostly under BSD 3-clause, with parts of the kernel under MIT and similar licenses. https://fuchsia.googlesource.com/fuchsia/+/master/LICENSE https://fuchsia.googlesource.com/magenta/+/master/LICENSE https://fuchsia.googlesource.com/

[deleted]

Re: Google’s not-so-secret new OS

#157

Post by username223 »

MarkMc wrote: post #146
username223 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You missed the biggest issue: "write once, mediocre everywhere." Windows, Mac, and X were all different, and Java Applets were necessarily bad at emulating all of them. While there are fewer Unices today, there are more GUIs, and cross-platform apps suck at least as much.

"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".

Webapps in the sense of "fancy JavaScript" are no better than Applets. Google has the infrastructure, money, and business model to put most of the code on their servers and write native clients. Modulo privacy issues, they have found a solution.

Re: Google’s not-so-secret new OS

#158

Post by flukus »

MarkMc wrote: post #146
username223 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You missed the biggest issue: "write once, mediocre everywhere." Windows, Mac, and X were all different, and Java Applets were necessarily bad at emulating all of them. While there are fewer Unices today, there are more GUIs, and cross-platform apps suck at least as much.

"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".

> There are tons of webapps which are very successful, despite being written 'once'.

Actually they suffer from most of the same problems, only computers have gotten faster (masking performance issues) and our expectations have lowered. How many of these web apps obey the native OS themeing for instance?

Re: Google’s not-so-secret new OS

#160

Post by MarkMc »

goldenchrome wrote: post #123
MarkMc wrote: post #74

It bothers me that Google does not seem particularly interested in doing the one thing that would make their Android platform absolutely dominant: Allow Chrome to run Android apps on Mac and Windows. Google has already done 90% of the necessary work by adding Android apps to ChromeOS. Two and a half years ago it created "App Runtime for Chrome" which demonstrated that Android apps could run on Windows and Mac in a li…

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

I'm not saying that the app would have exactly the same UI on a phone and a desktop computer - the developer is free to customise the UI for the device.
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