Whether intentional or not, Rubin's earlier initiative vacuuming up many of the interesting robot companies into Google, would seem to create great new opportunities for new robotics startups.
Andy Rubin Leaving Google
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Re: Andy Rubin Leaving Google
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
I am kind of hoping that it was something insane, like to be transformed into a living giant green Android, a sort-of reverse "bincentennial man" kind of story.
I suspect my hopes will be dashed.
Re: Andy Rubin Leaving Google
#33I 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.
Apple has borrowed at least as much from Android. Pretty much all the banner features in the last several releases of iOS are just catch-up with stuff Android has been doing for years.
Re: Andy Rubin Leaving Google
#34I 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.
What about the underlying architecture of the OS though? Linux with a Java runtime and a new windowing layer that stops "normal" Linux apps running? Running each dalvik process in its own confined user process? What about the design for background services and foreground activities that can be switched to/from (multitasking) right from the beginning, with AIDL for implementing service definitions? What about Intents and the ability to pass messages between processes? What about access to the filesystem in a "normal" way?
What about the "desktop" on Android? Where did they copy that from?
iOS didn't have multitasking until a lot later, and the concept of background services is more aggressively policed (that is, processes killed often) on iOS, as far as I know?
Sure, the superficial layer on top (look! icons! rows of icons!) that children in a sweet shop would notice may look familiar, but underneath it is not anything alike is it?
Or are you saying it is?
Re: Andy Rubin Leaving Google
#35The surprise is he lasted so long. I really hope this is not the last we've heard of him. Sundar appears to be walking proof that victors get to write history, but I'm not sure how long he'll be able to keep that act up.
Excellent Victor pun, if I may say so.
Re: Andy Rubin Leaving Google
#36This 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.
Rubin was asked to step away from running Android because he was not collaborating well with other teams within Google and with external Android partners. He is tremendously smart, accomplished, and successful, but he can be difficult to work with and was antagonizing external partners like Samsung (which badly want to build their own OS but don't have the expertise to do so successfully). The robotics group was a consolation prize given to him after taking Android away from him. As to his departure from the robotics group, my guess is that he and Page don't see eye to eye on how to run it, and he was asked to step away.
Re: Andy Rubin Leaving Google
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
"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!
Yup, G perks are cool, but also G salary was the lowest I was offered outside of France...
Re: Andy Rubin Leaving Google
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
By riding the coat tails and blatantly copying Apple.
What about the underlying architecture of the OS though? Linux with a Java runtime and a new windowing layer that stops "normal" Linux apps running? Running each dalvik process in its own confined user process? What about the design for background services and foreground activities that can be switched to/from (multitasking) right from the beginning, with AIDL for implementing service definitions? What about Intents…
> iOS didn't have multitasking until a lot later, and the
> concept of background services is more aggressively
> policed (that is, processes killed often) on iOS, as far
> as I know?
Re: Andy Rubin Leaving Google
#39Asking HN
This might be a little bit of a far stretch, but based on the belief that anyone is reachable, would anyone have any leads to Mr. Rubin or would know how to make contact with him?
tw @carlosvivaldi
Re: Andy Rubin Leaving Google
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Yeah, I definitely think users of both platforms have seen immense benefits due to the "copying" of features. Some of the strongest recent examples have actually been things from Android showing up on iOS like the control center toggles and replaceable keyboards.