back to article Father of Android Andy Rubin steps down for Chrome OS boss

It's all change at Google as Andy Rubin, the man who shepherded Android into becoming the world's biggest mobile operating system, is stepping down in favor of Chrome OS boss Sundar Pichai. "Having exceeded even the crazy ambitious goals we dreamed of for Android – and with a really strong leadership team in place – Andy’s …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    Is it?

    Is it because he was never interested in the integration of Google's services and was more focused on 'how Android works'?

  2. Timmay
    Happy

    Google Now

    Personally, I love Google Now, one of my favourite "wow" features of Android, and is genuinely useful, if you do any kind of a commute, or when travelling.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Missing mergers?

    Now all they have to do is merge with Windows 8 and Ubuntu and full fledged genericide is upon us. BTW, where is Apple's "one size fits all OS" approach, did I miss that article? Funny, I remember when being unique was "in". Oh well, must of been a trend, so I'll forget the red door and just paint it all black.

  4. h3

    I don't like Google Now it doesn't tell me anything interesting. (Tried it for about a week).

    The new in thing is to do as little work as possible. Or copy Apple. And exist only as a platform for showing ad's first and foremost.

    (Microsoft is probably the only one out of the three to have written more than 50% of their own code).

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge
      Trollface

      Yes, more than 50% bloat and the rest is BSD licensed.

  5. W. Anderson

    OS Merger mania at Google

    If the information I received about Chrome OS on new Google Pixel being Gentoo Linux based, then for one I am anxious for any "sensible" merge of Chrome OS with Android which would those like myself considerable power and flexibility in new mobile/notebook computing capability.

    At long last Linux, in it's most rudimentary forms of Android, ChromeOS, Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble (BN) Nook, combined with the great potential of emerging mobile FirefoxOS, Ubuntu mobile and the Intel/Samsung backed Tizen mobile - all linux based, have actually achieved "world domination" as once joked by Linus Torvalds, probably never once considering that it could be true.

  6. Z80
    Alert

    the red-headed stepchild of desktop operating systems

    Careful now. There'll be letters.

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/13/fotw/

    1. Captain Hogwash

      Re: the red-headed stepchild of desktop operating systems

      As there should be.

      1. James 51

        Re: the red-headed stepchild of desktop operating systems

        You beat me too it. It's a lazy and ignorant sterotype.

        1. Dave 126 Silver badge

          Re: the red-headed stepchild of desktop operating systems

          The image your metaphor bought to mind was of a red headed boy driving a fancy car - the car being a Chromebook Pixel- i.e Ron Howard accosting Homer Simpson on the street.

          Anyway:

          'Prejudice' (AKA 'Only a ginger can call another ginger ginger') by Tim Minchin:

          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7UGjNKKXH8

  7. 6 inches long, handle.

    @Reg

    "...he'll be working on the integration of Android and Chrome via apps..."

    What does that mean?

    @Reg

    "...habit-spotting code..."

    LOL

    I think they all are going the WebOS way i.e. make web technologies as the core of the OS just as FirefoxOS and Tizen are doing now. I hope WebOS is treated properly at LG.

    1. Andrew Baines Silver badge

      the integration of Android and Chrome via apps

      Android emulator in Chrome?

      Must admit, my Nexus 7 is great - really shows up Apple's iOS. Sadly, the whole Google thing gives me the creeps.

  8. Mikel
    Pint

    Rubin's next?

    Can't wait to see it. I'm sure it will be Amazing. Also, it will be quite a while. He's a big thinker. Probably started the skunkworks on his next big thing quite a while back though - they do that at Google. It's called the "20%."

    The merger of Android and Chrome is a way off yet too. Just too different as yet.

    Apple is reportedly not happy that Google considers them so defeated they're sending in the second string coach. Phil Schiller in particular it having a case of the shrills.

    Google I/O looks to be fantastic this year.

    Google Now, that I turned off. It was just too creepy.

  9. Charlie Clark Silver badge

    Android into maintenance mode?

    Sounds more like Pichai is being pulled off an unimpressive product (Chrome OS). Maybe he's being given the resources to scale Android up for notebooks, maybe they just want to back port the web app code to Android.

    Android is more or less "done" so it makes sense to move Rubin onto something new to keep him interested.

  10. GrantB
    Alert

    I see your problem

    "Google's not the front-runner with this. Microsoft's Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 share kernel code as well as a user interface"

    Thing is, that seems like the entirely wrong approach to me.

    Sharing a common kernel between a mobile and desktop device is more or less OK, though I suspect small/low powered mobile devices like iPod's and Android phones are benefiting from running a kernel that has been stripped down and tuned for mobile, and not just the desktop kernel recompiled for the target processor. Things like quad-core fast ARM processors in mobile devices are making this less of an issue.

    On the other hand, sharing a common user interface between a 4" mobile device and a 27" multi-screen desktop is absolutely insane. Google and Apple don't currently attempt to do this (and are wildly successful with there respective products), whereas Microsoft and Ubuntu have attempted this and failed IMHO.

    Either scaling up a mobile UI (Win8) or scaling down a desktop UI to mobile (i.e. classic Win Mobile / WinCE) has not worked historically, and while somebody (Ubuntu?) might come up with something that works, I am not holding my breath that one UI will work seamlessly across platforms.

    The obvious thing that Mobile and Desktop OS's should be sharing is apps. Chrome and other apps like email and twitter clients should work consistently across devices and seamlessly share state. Right now, I can post this response on Chrome on my Win7 notebook but when I pick up my Nexus 7 (which shares my Gmail login), it is totally unaware of where I left the pages open on the desktop. Gmail works a little better, but it frustrates me when I use an app like maps on the N7, but switching to a desktop version, it can't pull up the address of the last place I was looking at on the mobile.

    Some apps won't scale well, but many would, as they already have to scale between a ~3" phone and ~10" tablet, and at least classically, we can run apps in a window or docked as a widget. Not sure if iOS/OSX is much better than Android/Chrome or Win8 in this respect, but Google really need to get ChromeOS and Android running the same apps unchanged. Don't care if they merge kernel and drivers, but hopefully they won't attempt to merge operating system UI.

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