Facebook is building an operating system so it can ditch Android (opens in new tab)

(techcrunch.com)

62 pointsRmDen6y ago21 comments

21 comments

By moving to its own OS, Facebook could have more freedom to bake social interaction — and hopefully privacy — deeper into its devices.

Privacy? I expect some amazing detailed & intrusive data gathering.

twiceaday6y ago

By 'Privacy' they mean they will be the only ones with access to your data.

hurricanetc6y ago

Except for all the companies that accidentally leak it to, all the companies that grab it in breaches, all the companies that find it sitting in S3, all the companies they sell it to, etc.

But otherwise yes only Facebook will have it.

MobileVet6y ago

Seriously, what a ridiculous comment by TechCrunch. Facebook is openly hostile to your privacy, don’t give them an inch.

It would be great if journalists stopped sharing the PR snippets from companies and focused on what they actually do.

Actions should always speak louder than words

mattynice6y ago

All the more reason to consider the HTC Vive or Steam Index if interested in being an early adapter of VR where their achievements can be more collaborative.

Side note regarding Portal and other "social hardware", I can't imagine there being user-friendly privacy toggles when facebook owns the complete stack..

baroffoos6y ago

Valve has done a pretty good job at standardizing VR tech with OpenVR/SteamVR. All of the headsets except the oculus seem to have really good hardware compatibility. The vive controllers can be used with the pimax hmd, etc.

Facebook seems to be trying really hard to create a lockin with the oculus, if you buy games on the oculus store, you are now forever locked in to only buying oculus hardware from now on.

collias6y ago

Thankfully you can use Oculus devices (or at least, the Quest) with the new Link feature to turn the headset into a sort of external display, which is then compatible with SteamVR.

Honestly it's the biggest selling point of the Quest for me, in addition to being able to hack around on it through an adb shell.

Slippery_John6y ago

I doubt this will get much in the way of mainstream penetration. You're never going to see any competitive phone installations of this. It'll probably mostly be for things like portal. I doubt they'd be successful in doing a chromebook competitor either given how horribly tarnished their name is, but it does at least seem more realistic than a phone.

behringer6y ago

You kidding? Free phones with Facebook OS built in all funded by selling every scrap of your data? Third world countries are gonna eat that up to begin with, and then it'll spread all over.

WatchDog6y ago

Android privacy is bad enough as it is, I can't imagine how horrible a facebook operating system would be.

rb8086y ago

Wasn't there one like this already (though used android) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_First

npo96y ago

It’s an obvious vertical integration play to make an operating system for the hardware you manufacturer.

I’d like to see an AR/VR first OS/UI.

Apocryphon6y ago

Finally, a rival for Fuchsia.

r00fus6y ago

Good luck with that, Mark.

whoisjuan6y ago

For a company of the size of FB and its ambitions, this seems kind of late. I would have thought they already had something like this.

kerng6y ago

Mark Lucovsky is pretty legendary! Every Windows exe starts with the two bytes ML!

EDIT: As others pointed out its actually another Mark, MZ. Lucovsky was the Mark, who Steve Ballmer was throwing chairs around when he said to leave for Google. Still legendary. :)

umeshunni6y ago

That's MZ for Mark Zbikowski - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Zbikowski

justinsaccount6y ago

Every windows exe starts with the two bytes MZ

kerng6y ago

Ah, thanks for correcting. Microsoft always had too many Marks, Russinovich is another famous one.

sjg0076y ago

Makes sense. It'll be a *nix variant probably.. we might get a nice new UI layer out of it.

tommyengstrom6y ago

Eye OS, because they will always be watching you?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

21 comments

protomyth6y ago

By moving to its own OS, Facebook could have more freedom to bake social interaction — and hopefully privacy — deeper into its devices.

Privacy? I expect some amazing detailed & intrusive data gathering.

twiceaday6y ago

By 'Privacy' they mean they will be the only ones with access to your data.

hurricanetc6y ago

Except for all the companies that accidentally leak it to, all the companies that grab it in breaches, all the companies that find it sitting in S3, all the companies they sell it to, etc.

But otherwise yes only Facebook will have it.

MobileVet6y ago

Seriously, what a ridiculous comment by TechCrunch. Facebook is openly hostile to your privacy, don’t give them an inch.

It would be great if journalists stopped sharing the PR snippets from companies and focused on what they actually do.

Actions should always speak louder than words

mattynice6y ago

All the more reason to consider the HTC Vive or Steam Index if interested in being an early adapter of VR where their achievements can be more collaborative.

Side note regarding Portal and other "social hardware", I can't imagine there being user-friendly privacy toggles when facebook owns the complete stack..

baroffoos6y ago

Facebook seems to be trying really hard to create a lockin with the oculus, if you buy games on the oculus store, you are now forever locked in to only buying oculus hardware from now on.

collias6y ago

Thankfully you can use Oculus devices (or at least, the Quest) with the new Link feature to turn the headset into a sort of external display, which is then compatible with SteamVR.

Honestly it's the biggest selling point of the Quest for me, in addition to being able to hack around on it through an adb shell.

Slippery_John6y ago

behringer6y ago

You kidding? Free phones with Facebook OS built in all funded by selling every scrap of your data? Third world countries are gonna eat that up to begin with, and then it'll spread all over.

WatchDog6y ago

Android privacy is bad enough as it is, I can't imagine how horrible a facebook operating system would be.

rb8086y ago

Wasn't there one like this already (though used android) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_First

npo96y ago

It’s an obvious vertical integration play to make an operating system for the hardware you manufacturer.

I’d like to see an AR/VR first OS/UI.

Apocryphon6y ago

Finally, a rival for Fuchsia.

r00fus6y ago

Good luck with that, Mark.

whoisjuan6y ago

For a company of the size of FB and its ambitions, this seems kind of late. I would have thought they already had something like this.

kerng6y ago

Mark Lucovsky is pretty legendary! Every Windows exe starts with the two bytes ML!

EDIT: As others pointed out its actually another Mark, MZ. Lucovsky was the Mark, who Steve Ballmer was throwing chairs around when he said to leave for Google. Still legendary. :)

umeshunni6y ago

That's MZ for Mark Zbikowski - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Zbikowski

justinsaccount6y ago

Every windows exe starts with the two bytes MZ

kerng6y ago

Ah, thanks for correcting. Microsoft always had too many Marks, Russinovich is another famous one.

sjg0076y ago

Makes sense. It'll be a *nix variant probably.. we might get a nice new UI layer out of it.

tommyengstrom6y ago

Eye OS, because they will always be watching you?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse