from the why-improve-when-you-can-reinvent? dept.
Glyn Moody over at the Linux Journal brings attention to the idea that Android's days are probably numbered and that it is time to consider viable exit strategies and file them for when they are needed later. Android is currently on over 2-billion devices around the world but the EU, goaded by Microsoft partners and proxies, has decided to fine Google 4.34 billion euros over Android for breaching EU antitrust rules weakening its usefulness. With an obvious replacement, Fuchsia, nearing completion at Google, and with the smartphone manufacturers also exploring alternative plans, such as Tizen and eelo, Android is starting to get alternatives. Just as the ages of CP/M, MS-DOS, and MS Windows have ended, so too will the current age of Android draw to a close. Eventually. Someday.
Previously on SN, Google Hopes to Replace Android with Fuschia[sic] in Five Years
Related Stories
Bloomberg reports that Google's Project Fuchsia may eventually succeed Android.
Here's what's already known about Fuchsia: Alphabet Inc.'s Google started quietly posting code online in 2016, and the company has let outside app developers tinker with bits of the open-source code. Google has also begun to experiment with applications for the system, such as interactive screen displays and voice commands for YouTube.
But members of the Fuchsia team have discussed a grander plan that is being reported here for the first time: Creating a single operating system capable of running all the company's in-house gadgets, like Pixel phones and smart speakers, as well as third-party devices that now rely on Android and another system called Chrome OS, according to people familiar with the conversations.
According to one of the people, engineers have said they want to embed Fuchsia on connected home devices, such as voice-controlled speakers, within three years, then move on to larger machines such as laptops. Ultimately the team aspires to swap in their system for Android, the software that powers more than three quarters of the world's smartphones, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing internal matters. The aim is for this to happen in the next half decade, one person said.
[...] The company must also settle some internal feuds. Some of the principles that Fuchsia creators are pursuing have already run up against Google's business model. Google's ads business relies on an ability to target users based on their location and activity, and Fuchsia's nascent privacy features would, if implemented, hamstring this important business. There's already been at least one clash between advertising and engineering over security and privacy features of the fledgling operating system, according to a person familiar with the matter. The ad team prevailed, this person said.
The dirty word: 'Android' wasn't said a single time during the Google Pixel 3 event
Android is the world's most ubiquitous OS and one of the most important parts of Google's business. But it's becoming clearer that the company no longer wants the word associated with its phones. The latest evidence is in the transcript for its event this week in New York City.
"Android" wasn't said a single time during the Made by Google 2018 keynote. It marks the first time ever that Google has held a public-facing hardware event like this — since the introduction of the operating system in 2008 — without at least mentioning it by name.
[...] While Android went unsaid, Google had no shame talking Chrome OS, which powers the new Pixel Slate tablet. Google told an entire story around Chrome OS, where it's come from, why it makes sense on the tablet, and touted it as a great desktop alternative to Windows and macOS. To me it seemed Chrome OS was clearly marketed as a standout feature of the Pixel Slate. To add insult to injury for Android, the "universe" of Android apps that can now run on Chrome were referred to as simply "apps" or "apps from the Google Play Store" during the keynote.
[...] It's understandable that, given the Android brand's association with "lower quality" non-premium phones that Google doesn't want to associate the name of that OS with its phones — at least not in terms of the public-facing marketing message. Android phones are made by dozens of scattered manufacturers, all with varying approaches to their products, their design, their features, etc. — which has lead to an arguably good thing: immense diversity of phones running Android today. But that means "Android" doesn't really have much meaning other than just being not-iPhone. [...] And it doesn't want the baggage of the Android connotation mucking up the image of a phone that competes with the iPhone and costs upwards of $1,000.
Also at BGR.
Related: Now Is the Time to Start Planning for the Post-Android World
Google is officially releasing its Fuchsia OS, starting w/ first-gen Nest Hub
Google's long-in-development, from-scratch operating system, Fuchsia, is now running on real Made by Google devices, namely, the first-generation Nest Hub.
Google has told us that as of today, an update is beginning to roll out to owners of the first-generation Nest Hub, first released in 2018. For all intents and purposes, this update will not change any of the functionality of the Nest Hub, but under the hood, the smart display will be running Fuchsia OS instead of the Linux-based "Cast OS" it used before. In fact, your experience with the Nest Hub should be essentially identical. This is possible because Google's smart display experience is built with Flutter, which is designed to consistently bring apps to multiple platforms, Fuchsia included.
We've been tracking the development of Fuchsia since 2016, starting from an ambitious experimental UI, to running on Google's many internal testing devices for Fuchsia, ranging the full gamut of Google's smart home and Chromebook lineup. In the time since then, the OS has gradually progressed and recently even begun a steady release schedule.
Also at The Verge and Notebookcheck.
Previously:
(Score: 5, Insightful) by MrGuy on Tuesday October 09 2018, @03:20PM (8 children)
So, 88%+ market share [netmarketshare.com] is considered "ended"?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by fyngyrz on Tuesday October 09 2018, @03:45PM (2 children)
Yeah, those statements are straight-up nonsense. Likewise any idea that Android is under any stress or threat.
Clickbait.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday October 09 2018, @04:00PM
Welcome to the new web, where anyone with an opinion is treated as if that opinion was actually worth the bandwidth to bring it to you.
Newspapers used to filter opinion pieces that were too easily shot down (unless they needed to please someone famous, or the boss, of course).
(Score: 2, Insightful) by messymerry on Wednesday October 10 2018, @03:51PM
Not so fast, homeboy,,, Google doesn't want Android either. That is why they are building Fuschia. They took the high road and created AOSP and quickly learned their mistake. Since then, they have tried to increase their control by bastardizing Android to the point where it is a management mess. They want it gone. I'm sure Fuschia is going to be pretty much entirely proprietary globs.
This is the time for the other 'wannabes' like Tizen etc. to step up and force allowances by the manufacturers and carriers to allow for more than two existing OSs. Observing the two party political system in the United States, we can clearly see that they only pretend to compete. Not much different between Apple and Android.
Please all you other mobile OS possibilities keep working on getting something out so we can have a choice that includes dignity, privacy, and control over our devices.
Those who mortgage their freedom for the promise of security shall have neither.
Only fools equate a PhD with a Swiss Army Knife...
(Score: 4, Interesting) by canopic jug on Tuesday October 09 2018, @06:27PM (4 children)
So, 88%+ market share is considered "ended"?
That's cherry picking. If you count what most people actually use, which includes smartphones, tablets, and netbooks, then Microsoft’s share of the consumer market had dropped to 20% by 2012 already [extremetech.com]. They've been a no-show in the phone market where they peaked at 1.5% despite the overwhelming persistent hype and astroturfing. Now they are at 0% in the phone market.
Same for supercomputing [networkworld.com]. There were some hybrid OSX+Linux or UNIX+Linux until the last few years but Windows disappeared long ago from the Top500 [top500.org]. In the server market, their Chernobyl-like presence is felt severely where they have a poor ratio for machines to services and worse mainenance record. Yes, they are still a problem, but, no, they do not have 80%
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by fyngyrz on Tuesday October 09 2018, @09:01PM (2 children)
The smartphone, tablet, even netbook markets do not even distantly equate to the desktop market. Trying to compare market shares across those markets against the desktop is outright absurd, irrelevant, and incorrect.
Windows is out there kicking butt in the exact market it's aimed at. I wish it were OS X or Linux I could say that about, but no. And frankly, there are no other comparisons worth making at this point in time, nor are there likely to be in the 5-year time frame mentioned in TFS (the assertion in the TFS was so ridiculous I couldn't be bothered to read TFA.)
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Tuesday October 09 2018, @10:55PM
Apart from a Federal Government department back in the 1990's, I have yet to see any company in Australia running anything but Windows and MS Office on desktops.
Servers are Microsoft of some sort, or, rarely, some places have Cisco stuff running.
Microsoft isn't going away any time soon.
As for phones, ther may be some fragmentation, but people like Google Play Store and Apple's store.
F-droid is "too hard" for most people.
So whatever comes along will have to be compatible with Play Store, until a competitior comes along (don't hold your breath)
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Insightful) by canopic jug on Wednesday October 10 2018, @03:52AM
Maybe people will grow out of them but I doubt it. Again, if you look at what people are actually using and spending (wasting ineffectually) time on, it includes a lot of smartphones, tablets, and netbooks. For many, those are what they spend almost all of their screen time with even if they also own a laptop or desktop. I fully agree phones, tablets, and some netbooks are not up to the task for many activities but they are what people are using. I'll also agree that Windows is still a major problem on the destktop. M$ haven't backed off. Until that mob is broken, the office furniture auctioned off, and the many individuals who where part of it sent off to "correctional facillities", there is always the problem they are just regrouping.
I have heard that them dropping to somewhere under 85% will pop the bubble. Below that, monopoly rents are not possible and historically that is where they have been making their money not software or services. There is no time to be complacent until some years have passed with them holding 0% market share in any submarket, especially the desktop. However, the days of "WIndows Everywhere" is long over.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Wednesday October 10 2018, @12:18PM
I'm a dues-paying Free Software Foundation member. But you have some wishful thinking there. Windows is being replaced by Chromebooks and iPads in school. Windows use is being replaced by Samsung Galaxy S-whatevers and Pixels and iPhone Xs in homes. Windows Server is losing market share to Linux server like crazy and has been for over ten years. But Windows is still wildly popular on corporate and government computers, it's still sold on hundreds of millions of laptops per year, and it's still the most popular dedicated gaming platform. It's not the computing monopoly it was 15 years ago, but it's many decades from being genuinely dead. It doesn't matter how much I wish otherwise.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @03:31PM (2 children)
Eeloo [kerbalspaceprogram.com] and Tizer [tizer.co.uk]
You're welcome.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @04:38PM (1 child)
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @04:49PM
You're just jealous because the EU sees monopoly abuse as a failure of a market that needs correcting, rather than as a success story to be celebrated and spread to other markets.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @03:51PM (3 children)
Yeaaaah, mabe let Google make atleast a beta release of Fuschia, before starting your predictions. Tizen is dead in the phone area. Nobody gives a shit about some Huawei propietary crap. 5 years, there's still half the Android users running versions 5 years or older. Good luck taking over Android with Fuschia within 5 years.
PS. Fuschia is a stupid name.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by takyon on Tuesday October 09 2018, @04:10PM
We call it Fucksya, Google will just call it Chrome or Android. All they need to do is make it compatible with what they have.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Zinho on Tuesday October 09 2018, @04:45PM (1 child)
I agree, considering that not long ago Google couldn't even spell fuchsia. [xkcd.com] (follow that link and search for "Spelling and Spam"). At least they didn't name it "beige"...
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
(Score: 4, Touché) by DannyB on Tuesday October 09 2018, @05:55PM
Google couldn't even spell Googol.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @06:28PM (3 children)
Android can be forked if Google gets too carried away. That way phone vendors don't have to completely start from scratch.
However, I imagine Google may start using IBM/MS-style F.U.D. to keep their control over the OS.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by stretch611 on Tuesday October 09 2018, @07:48PM
They already do have control over forking... The Google Play Store.
It only exists on open source Android forks to basically allow google to add its tracking powers to those people.
However, it is powerful because anyone that has bought multiple programs from google already do not need to but them again.
Its also the major difference between Android devices and Android based Amazon Fire products.
Its hard to claim independence from Google if it means all the programs you like are no longer available.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday October 10 2018, @11:57AM
Google style is crazy slow adoption rates to make things toxic.
Half the android community won't use LiveData or material design widgets because they're only half a decade old. You'll see online forums with some wet behind the ears kiddo screeching about how the whole world has already moved to Kotlin because as a little kid his world is extremely small, and the other 90% of actual experienced devs still use java and shake their heads at the kid.
Another BEAUTIFUL shitshow of high contract programming rates is the "fantastic" global library roll from ancient.random.wtf.bullshit.oldstuff.com hierarchy to the new unified and centrally designed androidx hierarchy.
I'm sure if google releases a new WTF operating system they'll continue their path of it not really being useful until a decade passes and adoption rates will be single digits for the first five years.
Its a little different from the "I buy a new $800 phone every year" apple ecosystem where I suspect rounded to single digits, no one is using hardware older than 2016, which has certain implications for the software side.
Most android apps are a shitshow anyway and boil down to "we is running CICS on a fancy ass 3270 terminal" in general concept. Gaming is a completely separate subculture which I have no experience with other than those guys bitch a lot about having infinity different device resolutions to support their pixel-perfect game UIs. Much like HTML was originally designed not to be a weird compressed .gif format but "web designers" insisted on making it so, thats what game devs do all day, or so it seems.
Also the android studio system is really slow.
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Wednesday October 10 2018, @12:22PM
Read https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/07/googles-iron-grip-on-android-controlling-open-source-by-any-means-necessary/ [arstechnica.com]
Google has gradually replaced more and more open features in Android with proprietary features and services, a fork will lack so many features that normal consumers expect it will be dead on arrival. The ship has sailed, the world is in the grip of the new equivalent to Windows XP.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @08:13PM (3 children)
Wall off the cellular phome/modem if you must, but I want root install/boot control over ALL the rest, dammit!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @11:55PM
So what's stopping you. Plenty of devices can run plain linux, even stuff like nethunter. Find them and buy them used.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday October 10 2018, @07:50PM
Any chance the new phones to come from Purism are going to satisfy you?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday October 10 2018, @08:35PM
If you really-really want it and you train hard enough, you can end by being able to hold in your hand your desktop workstation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford