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posted by janrinok on Friday December 20 2019, @08:13PM   Printer-friendly
from the choice-is-good,-right? dept.

Facebook is developing its own OS to reduce dependence on Android:

Despite the recent privacy scandals, mishandling of user data, and a potential federal injunction looming in the distance, Facebook seems to be going full steam ahead with its ambitions. According to a recent report by The Information, the company is now developing its own operating system to reduce dependency on Google’s Android. The development, as per The Verge, is being led by Mark Lucovsky — an ex-Microsoft official who co-authored the Windows NT operating system.

While the report provides a limited amount of information about how Facebook plans to use the new operating system, it does point out that currently Facebook’s Oculus and Portal devices run on a modified version of Android. This leads us to believe that with its new operating system the company plans to replace Android on its VR and smart devices. And one of Facebook’s AR and VR heads, Ficus Kirkpatrick, mirrors this sentiment. According to Kirkpatrick, “it’s possible” that Facebook’s future hardware won’t need to rely on Google’s software which could possibly remove Google’s control over the company’s hardware.

Andrew Bosworth, Facebook’s head of hardware, also told The Information that the company “want(s) to make sure the next generation has space for us. We don’t think we can trust the marketplace or competitors to ensure that’s the case. And so we’re going to do it ourselves.” Along with the aforementioned Oculus and Portal devices, Facebook is also working on AR glasses. Bosworth reveals that these glasses, codenamed “Orion”, could arrive as early as 2023. Interestingly, Apple is also expected to come out with its own pair of AR glasses around the same time. Facebook is reportedly also working on a brain control interface for its glasses, which could allow users to control them with their thoughts.


Original Submission

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Previously: Facebook to Buy Rift Maker Oculus VR for $2bn
Facebook/Oculus Ordered to pay $500 Million to ZeniMax
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Facebook Announces Oculus Go for $200
Facebook's Zuckerberg Wants to Get One Billion People in VR
Facebook Launches Oculus Go, a $200 Standalone VR Headset
Oculus Co-Founder Says there is No Market for VR Gaming
John Carmack Steps Down at Oculus to Pursue AI Passion Project
Facebook is Developing its Own OS to Reduce Dependence on Android


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 2, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @08:42PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @08:42PM (#934805)

    Vote for freedom

  • (Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @08:42PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @08:42PM (#934806)

    Bezos is cheap as shit and loves to "leverage" things that have already been done. Here's a thought--start from https://reactos.org/ [reactos.org] and fork from that?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @08:52PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @08:52PM (#934807)

      s/Bezos/Zuckerberg
      Sorry, just read something about Bezos and had him on my mind.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Snow on Friday December 20 2019, @09:17PM (9 children)

    by Snow (1601) on Friday December 20 2019, @09:17PM (#934812) Journal

    There is no way I'd use facebook OS, I'd rather disconnect from the Internet.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @09:29PM (8 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @09:29PM (#934815)

      Chances are you posted that from a Google OS.

      • (Score: 2) by Snow on Friday December 20 2019, @09:44PM (7 children)

        by Snow (1601) on Friday December 20 2019, @09:44PM (#934817) Journal

        Windows.

        SN is not very mobile friendly. I doubt many comments are from android.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @11:52PM (2 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @11:52PM (#934857)

          And the browser? For most purposes, that's really part of the OS now.

          • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Saturday December 21 2019, @02:13AM (1 child)

            by Grishnakh (2831) on Saturday December 21 2019, @02:13AM (#934886)

            I don't know about you, but I'm posting this from Firefox (on Ubuntu). No Google involved here.

            That said, I'd be *much* happier to use any Google product than anything from Facebook.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 22 2019, @02:39PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 22 2019, @02:39PM (#935175)

              I don't see why the distinction matters. I have the general impression that Google's technical prowess is best-in-industry and thus well ahead of Microsoft and Facebook and even somewhat ahead of Apple. But in terms of user privacy, I think Google is worse than Facebook.

              If you don't want Facebook to track you, you can use a privacy add-on for your browser and not have a Facebook account. Problem is mostly solved. If you don't want Google to track you, you need a privacy add-on for your browser, not to use Google search, and not to have a GMail account nor email anyone else with a GMail account. Good luck with that last one.

              I host my own email for privacy, and it means zip for my privacy because my whole fucking social graph is on GMail.

        • (Score: 2) by NickM on Saturday December 21 2019, @02:25AM (2 children)

          by NickM (2867) on Saturday December 21 2019, @02:25AM (#934896) Journal
          This site work great on Firefox for Android.
          --
          I a master of typographic, grammatical and miscellaneous errors !
          • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Acabatag on Saturday December 21 2019, @02:41AM (1 child)

            by Acabatag (2885) on Saturday December 21 2019, @02:41AM (#934906)

            With Opera on Android you can set the text to be zoomable and when you zoom in the text reflows so the paragraphs are sized to fill the frame. No other Android browser I have found does that.

            • (Score: 2) by stormwyrm on Saturday December 21 2019, @05:44AM

              by stormwyrm (717) on Saturday December 21 2019, @05:44AM (#934926) Journal
              That's the main reason why I also use Opera as my primary mobile browser and won't touch anything else. Opera Mobile at least tries do a decent job of text reflow on zoom that my ageing eyes really appreciate. I've tried several other browsers and none of them even try. I can already see signs of impending macular degeneration as I progress through my forties, so it's very important to me.
              --
              Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 21 2019, @07:19PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 21 2019, @07:19PM (#935031)

          windows? omg, wtf, lol.

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by looorg on Friday December 20 2019, @09:33PM (6 children)

    by looorg (578) on Friday December 20 2019, @09:33PM (#934816)

    FaceOS is probably bad, it will probably contain more spy-crap and telemetry then windows. That said it could still be interesting if this manages to relaunch an actual OS-war -- Facebook vs Google vs Microsoft and possibly a few minor contenders as well.

    • (Score: 4, Funny) by barbara hudson on Friday December 20 2019, @10:05PM (1 child)

      by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Friday December 20 2019, @10:05PM (#934820) Journal
      The OS wars are over. Mega corps won, users lost. Do you really trust FaceHuggerOS?
      --
      SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
      • (Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @11:16PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @11:16PM (#934841)

        As long as it's systemd-free, sign me up.

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by Grishnakh on Saturday December 21 2019, @02:15AM (3 children)

      by Grishnakh (2831) on Saturday December 21 2019, @02:15AM (#934887)

      Maybe I'm missing something, but Microsoft is not a competitor here; Apple is. This new OS is supposed to be for mobile devices. But I can't imagine why anyone would want a Facebook OS on their phone, unless they do what Blackberry did and make it highly Android-compatible (and that didn't exactly work out well for Blackberry either). Microsoft showed exactly why attempting to enter the mobile market with another OS and no apps is a guaranteed failure.

      • (Score: 2) by Acabatag on Saturday December 21 2019, @02:46AM (2 children)

        by Acabatag (2885) on Saturday December 21 2019, @02:46AM (#934907)

        Microsoft tried to morph Windows for the mobile market. They refused to instead fork. I used Windows 8 mobile on a phone for a while. It was snappy and very usable, but there was zero support whatsoever for any of Googles mobile services, and a very thin-gruel app store. If they had pushed it differently it might today be a viable choice. But not as a unified platform the way MS tried.

        • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday December 21 2019, @06:04AM (1 child)

          by Grishnakh (2831) on Saturday December 21 2019, @06:04AM (#934929)

          I think there were three things working against them: 1) the Microsoft brand name. Windows just isn't a brand that carries any value to regular consumers, especially if they have to use it at work. Blame the IT department all you want, but corporate workers everywhere know Windows as the OS that's dog-slow and just gives them agony all day. Outlook is even worse, and MS can't easily blame that turd on IT departments.

          2) Lack of apps. While Apple had its curated app store with tons of apps, and Google had its not-so-curated app store with 10 times as many apps, MS's app store barely had anything. So for people who just wanted a reliable smartphone, supposedly Windows Phone actually worked pretty well.

          3) Lack of support. They did this with "PlaysForSure": after Zune came out, everyone who bought stuff on PFS didn't have access to it any more. Then with Windows Phone, they kept releasing new and incompatible versions. So of course app developers didn't bother with the platform because it was a moving target with no users, and users didn't want to bother with it because it would quickly be superseded by something else new and incompatible.

          Honestly, MS couldn't have managed the whole thing worse if they really tried.

          • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 21 2019, @12:47PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 21 2019, @12:47PM (#934960)

            I think you missed the most important thing working against them: previous adopters of Microsoft mobile operating systems got burned. PocketPC, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone 6, Windows Phone 7. Each one came out, and then was dropped and the people that bought them were screwed. Windows Phone 6 apps were not, if I recall correctly, compatible with Windows Phone 7. Windows Phone 8 had a compatibility layer to run Windows Phone 7 apps for a while, but later devices dropped it and from what I understand nothing from Windows Phone 7 ran on Windows Phone 10.

            It's sad and hilarious because fanatic focus on backward compatibility is one of the only ethical ingredients to Microsoft's recipe for desktop operating system dominance, but somehow they forgot about it in the mobile world. All the Microsoft fanatics I know had some earlier Microsoft mobile operating system that got sold and then dropped, so when Windows Phone 10 came out they didn't care.

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by toddestan on Saturday December 21 2019, @12:41AM (1 child)

    by toddestan (4982) on Saturday December 21 2019, @12:41AM (#934866)

    While I'd never run it, I'm curious about what they plan on, or are doing. I would guess it would be Linux based like Android, but on the other hand they have a Windows guy leading the project. BSD maybe? I'll assume it's not Windows-based, because if it was, it would just be running "Windows".

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday December 21 2019, @01:00AM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday December 21 2019, @01:00AM (#934867) Journal

      While the report provides a limited amount of information about how Facebook plans to use the new operating system, it does point out that currently Facebook’s Oculus and Portal devices run on a modified version of Android. This leads us to believe that with its new operating system the company plans to replace Android on its VR and smart devices.

      FaceOS for Oculus Quest 2

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Bot on Saturday December 21 2019, @01:06AM

    by Bot (3902) on Saturday December 21 2019, @01:06AM (#934869) Journal

    Facebook, for the glorification of the inner-platform antipattern.

    Facebook, replicating www+rss with a replicated php, soon on a replica OS, with a replica cryptocoin.

    Again, the best business opportunities arise from tragedies.

    --
    Account abandoned.
  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 21 2019, @02:23AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 21 2019, @02:23AM (#934893)

    I just look forward to Replicant or similar. I simply do not trust proprietary stuff anymore.

    All too often, stuff I pay for just causes me problems.

    I go to great lengths to avoid " I agree" to pages of legalese that starts out with " we may change these terms and conditions without notice". I see that, my trust is gone. I will go to great lengths to avoid using such a thing.

    If I am lucky, someone else has faced the same business talk assholery and has bypassed it.

    I hate signing contracts that are purposefully made so long and confusing as to discourage comprehension. If I can get around that aspect of the business relationship, I will.

     

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 21 2019, @04:55AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 21 2019, @04:55AM (#934921)

    Summary says:
    "being led by Mark Lucovsky — an ex-Microsoft official who co-authored the Windows NT operating system"

    A more accurate statement would be:
    "being led by Mark Lucovsky — an ex-Microsoft official who co-ripped off DEC while creating Windows NT"

    One link, there are others if you dig deeper:
    https://www.osnews.com/story/30510/windows-nt-and-vms-the-rest-of-the-story/ [osnews.com]

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 21 2019, @07:30PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 21 2019, @07:30PM (#935034)

      you already know he's a suited whore by the fact that he was a "MS official".

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