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Everything We Knew About Fuchsia's UI, Armadillo, Is Gone (9to5google.com)

Posted by msmash on from the closer-look dept.

Over the last two years, we have heard numerous reports about Fuchsia, a new operating system for phones, computers, and just about everything else by Google. We've seen it in a variety of demos, all of which featured a UI, codenamed "Armadillo." Now it seems that Armadillo, and thus everything about Fuchsia we've "seen," has been removed. Reader Suren Enfiajyan shares a report: Everything we've known Fuchsia to look like falls under Armadillo. Last May, when we got our first look at Fuchsia UI, it was possible because Armadillo was simply a Flutter app that could be built to run on Android. After some months, we were also able to show off the first five minutes of Fuchsia UI on the Pixelbook using Fuchsia's screenshot tool, and we saw improvements to Armadillo, like Google Sign-In support. All in all, it was clear Fuchsia was shaping up to become a clean operating system that implements and extends Material Design. Unfortunately, none of the demos and examples are accurate anymore. With a recent code change, humorously titled "Armadillo fainted!", spotted by Redditor alawami, we've reached the end of an era. Every single piece of Armadillo code has now been permanently removed from Fuchsia's Topaz repo.

86 comments

  1. Huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is news? Armadillo fainted years ago which was pretty obvious to anyone who was paying attention :)

    1. Re:Huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      oops. they were just testing to see how many internal /. links would fit into a post.

    2. Re: Huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and what a post

    3. Re: Huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not until Netcraft confirms.

  2. More like 'armadillo feinted' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It was never a real thing. It was a red herring to distract would-be copycats.

    1. Re: More like 'armadillo feinted' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Anyone remember that API called MGT?

  3. If now one has it... by houstonbofh · · Score: 2

    It was open source. If really no one has a mirror it was not worth having!

    1. Re:If now one has it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It was a Google side project. It wasn't worth having.

    2. Re: If now one has it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I really hate these immature complicated APIs with too many squiggly braces

    3. Re:If now one has it... by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Insightful

      At least they killed it early before people started using and liking it.

    4. Re:If now one has it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey, don't call it yet, it IS Google.
      They'll probably release it because 3 people are sad, support it at an hour a weeks work, then shitcan it in a 15 months because only 1 of them still cared for it.

    5. Re:If now one has it... by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Interesting

      If you want to look at the Fuschia source code, it's available here. To me, it looks more like a college-level project, rather than a kernel that has come into contact with the messy realities of the real world.

      Their goal is to make things secure, and they want to do things 'right' by making it a micro-kernel.

      Again, to me it looks like the authors have good knowledge on the theory side of things, but lack understanding of a lot of real-world use cases. For example, they removed a lot of the syscalls that the Linux kernel has, it's not Posix compliant, and you really should think long and hard before removing things in a decades-old, well-tested standard.

      But who knows, maybe they'll get lucky and hit all the use cases Android needs. Maybe someone with experience will help them make the kernel solid. But most likely, the code will get uglier and uglier as it needs to accomodate more use cases, until it's so ugly that someone at Google starts a side project to replace it.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    6. Re:If now one has it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It wasn't worth having. The lack of options for phone OSes isn't the only issue--it's the lack of players as well. Armadillo was still Google. Google is still...ugh. We need someone else besides Google and Apple in the game. Microsoft tried and failed. Not that they were any better of an option. I'd say it's too little too late now anyway. Android and iOS dominate. Getting coders, telcos, device makers, and end users into the idea of a new OS is just too daunting at this point. Any entry into the market would be purely niche.

      Though everyone said Android wouldn't make it versus Apple. So maybe it's possible something could come along to compete. That's going to be a long, long road, however.

    7. Re: If now one has it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Keep fucking that chicken, Mr. Republican.

    8. Re: If now one has it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How can you like a stupid and ugly as fuck "material design"? Whatever that means

    9. Re: If now one has it... by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Bitter are we?

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    10. Re: If now one has it... by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Greybeards are the ones who've built a bunch of OSes. They have the experience.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    11. Re:If now one has it... by Kjella · · Score: 2

      Well what you say it looks like is also roughly what it was meant to be. It was meant to be a concept/model OS, like what if we could start over and forget all the baggage we already have. Sometimes you manage to come up with really bright ideas when you start with blank sheets. If the new OS is so great you want it to take over you make some kind of legacy/compatilibility mode for the old, but more likely it'll be something like concept cars... some of the ideas will make it into production models. And some will be more like okay it was an interesting concept but let's pass on that for now.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    12. Re: If now one has it... by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      As a concept OS, what is there that's new or interesting? People are talking about Fuschia replacing Linux in Android.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    13. Re: If now one has it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You don't have to be a Republican to step on a snowflake. Man up douche bag.

    14. Re: If now one has it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I never understand this metaphor. Dems do get outraged more often than they should, but if there's someone wailing "but muh riiiiights!" then usually you can make a pretty good guess which party they represent, especially if the asserted "rights" are a gross misrepresentation of the actual law.

    15. Re: If now one has it... by vtcodger · · Score: 2

      Material Design: "The visual details are delightful, and the paradigmatic underpinnings — that interfaces are three-dimensional constructions, composed of layers of “physical” components — are refreshingly novel. But I’ll spare you more “oohs” and “aahs” over the language’s use of bright colors, large images, and depth. If we take anything from Material Design it isn’t how to use color,how your ease timing should be set, or what the resting elevation of an object should be.It’s not the details themselves we take away, it’s how the details combine to create purposeful brand experience...." https://www.wired.com/insights...

      And that, unlikely as it might seem, is the most comprehensible of the first page of links a quick search turned up.

      Now that you've been enlightened, you are no doubt ready to embrace those paradigmatic underpinnings (whatever that means). Good luck to you on your journey into this fantastic new technology.

      --
      You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
    16. Re: If now one has it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Greybeards are the ones who've built a bunch of OSes. They have the experience.

      Some of us are so goddamn old we no longer have beards, or hair, for that matter.

    17. Re:If now one has it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, the Fuchsia people who came from QNX and BeOS have no fucking idea what they're doing. They should really listen to you and your weird worship of POSIX and create another dumpster fire that you're begging them for.

    18. Re: If now one has it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Everyone knows: in Soviet America, workers have no rights. It's DUH LAW!!!1!!

    19. Re: If now one has it... by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 3, Funny

      "the paradigmatic underpinnings...are refreshingly novel.

      Because the first requirement of a UI is of course that the user should be totally unfamiliar with it.

    20. Re: If now one has it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unfamiliar Interface?

    21. Re: If now one has it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken. Keep plucking that chicken.

    22. Re:If now one has it... by houstonbofh · · Score: 1

      One thing that always happens... The dominant players always fall. If someone was to come up with a secure phone OS that could still access the play store or the Apple ecosystem, it would sell. (Secure meaning I decide what access an app gets.)

  4. And nothing of value was lost. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I don't go to funerals of people I've never heard about. I have even less interest in dead vaporware. The degradation of /. is complete.

  5. Material UI was more of the wrong progress. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It went even further down the road of what is called "simple" or "K.I.S.S." design, but is actually just more and more cumbersome and limiting and taking away the very point of using a computer. (To automate your information processing work away.)

    Hell, how many times did you have to do repetitive tasks on a stupid mobile UI, because it did not even allow basic things like executing a certain action for an entire list, or even copying and pasting, ... and generally ... scripting anything.
    It's always "Oh the average user can't do this, and can't do that... hurr, durr" ... How the hell did he get a job to pay for that thing then?? How does he even get up in the morning or tie his shoes?? Because we're way beyond that level of dumbing down now.
    And on top, this cancer spread to a generalized minset of self-restriction masochism, where everything possible is taken away, regardless of the power lost.

    I swear, I will make a video and OS UI that will prove, that everybody can program, and not only actually already has all the skills required for it, but does all the actions required for it all the time in daily life! ... *grabs money* ... *begins stuffing mouth with it*

    And if I fail, I will manufacture perfect featureless slabs of rock, so thin and so large, that if you put them on your shoulder like a boom box (mainframez in da hood!) to call somebody, they'll slice right through, down to the floor. I'll take $10000 per item, and it will be hailed as the most perfect consumer device ever built by Apple, Google, Gnome, Canonical and the K.I.S.S. crowd. (Not the band.)
    I'll make a killing!

    1. Re:Material UI was more of the wrong progress. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know that it would make a difference but it would be nice if someone with all the necessary talents put together a mockumentary showing the (de)evolution of UI...

      Or if some charismatic youtuber familiar with the principles of USABLE UI posted in depth (and highly critical) assessments of various contemporary platforms...

    2. Re:Material UI was more of the wrong progress. by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 1

      Really, the usability of UIs have mirrored very closely the change from computing as a workstation to computing as a consumption device. It's the golden age of consumption, yay :/

    3. Re: Material UI was more of the wrong progress. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It would have worked if they did not lock down the system calls. It is way too late now. Lesson learned: keep it simple as often as possible. You never know when complexity will rear itâ(TM)s ugly head

    4. Re:Material UI was more of the wrong progress. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really, the usability of UIs have mirrored very closely the change from computing as a workstation to computing as a consumption device. It's the golden age of consumption, yay :/

      This.

      I'm old enough to remember the "reason" why Windows 7 Aero effects had to go away in Win8: "Because the minimum spec machine for Win7 can't render transparent UI elements, so fuck it, we're going to make it opaque for everyone."

      And if you think about it, that's the same excuse for both The War On Skeumorphism (on Apple) and Material Design (at Google): "This shit has to work on phones with sub-1GHz processors and GPUs that barely draw a watt or two of power. Instead of drawing circles or rendering 3D/shadow effects, we'll fill in 2D squares."

    5. Re:Material UI was more of the wrong progress. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hate to break it to you but many people have only ever used their computers to do nothing more than play games and browse the web for multiple decades. Boohoo. Computers aren't some black magic only allowed to the annointed priesthood of graybeards.

      Get over yourself.

    6. Re:Material UI was more of the wrong progress. by Desler · · Score: 1

      Ignoring the fact that more time has been spent by more people playing solitaire on computers than those producing content? You lost this war since at least when Windows 95 came out.

    7. Re:Material UI was more of the wrong progress. by omnichad · · Score: 2

      It's not just that. A lot of the shaded and skeuomorphic designs relied on bitmap elements, but we're entering an age of high DPI and resolution Independence. Sure, you can make fancy effects scale, but at a much higher processing cost than what we had.

    8. Re:Material UI was more of the wrong progress. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ignoring the fact that more time has been spent by more people playing solitaire on computers than those producing content

      It's the golden age of consumption, yay :/

      Uhhhh... He agreed with you.

    9. Re:Material UI was more of the wrong progress. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Both of you forgot the true main reason, one admitted by Microsoft themselves when they unleashed the flat plague on Windows 8 : metro, and flat design in general, makes it easier for software developers to make software that looks nice. Not great, but nice. They don't have to work their asses off as hard or hire a designer to give them great bitmaps and follow a HIG.
      Use the same accent color everywhere, put in simple kid shapes, large amount of white space. It's the same whether you look at Metro, modern iOS or Android.

    10. Re: Material UI was more of the wrong progress. by p91paul · · Score: 1

      I'd say not nice, but consistent. I personally found Windows 8 design guidelines really ugly (all those squares). Material design is actually nice, but then again, nice is an opinion, consistent is a fact. Today we have 90% of the apps behaving in the same way, which is awful if you don't like that interface, but it's easy for both developers and users (nobody has to think).

  6. huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I can't even. I literally can't even. Also, why is slashdot deleting my posts? Not just -1, or even -5, they're flat out deleted. CptnTaco never did that shit.

  7. ARS predicted this in the mentioned article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In the mentioned article showing Fuchsia UI on the Pixelbook, ARS Technica concludes:
    "If Fuchsia ever becomes a real product, I don't think this interface will make it."

  8. open source homonym? by Crash+McBang · · Score: 1

    perhaps this is an armadillo feinting...

    --
    To put a witty saying into 120 characters, jst rmv ll th vwls.
  9. Just another f***ed up Google project by gweihir · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They really cannot do anything except search (badly, but with a huge DB) and ads...

    This is obviously very far removed from their "vision" and "image", but in the end all Google management seems to care about is making money and only ads make money and search brings in the ads and improves targeting them. Oh, and they can operate a fairly vanilla mail-server and use it to get more information to target ads.

    As a provider of infrastructure or longer-term available services of any kind, Google is entirely the wrong choice.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    1. Re:Just another f***ed up Google project by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 3, Insightful

      agreed that google is a selfish prick of a company and anything they offer to 'users' has strings attached. no doubts at all, they can't be trusted, they employ mostly young people, lacking in real world experience and google, overall, has the attention span of a teenager.

      android is total shit, from a tech POV. its not about users or user freedom, never was and never will be. the only thing android does well is deliver eyes and clicks to google's real customers, the corporations.

      given that they ruined their linux os and the update 'story' is worse than MS (and that says a lot, right there), I have zero faith in anything they do, other than to optimize their own money making machine. they do that very well. they collect and sell a lot of info about us. but makers of a trustable ANYTHING? no. not in a million years.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    2. Re:Just another f***ed up Google project by gweihir · · Score: 1

      android is total shit, from a tech POV. its not about users or user freedom, never was and never will be. the only thing android does well is deliver eyes and clicks to google's real customers, the corporations.

      given that they ruined their linux os and the update 'story' is worse than MS (and that says a lot, right there)

      This is perhaps the most striking evidence. I mean how can you support an OS _worse_ than MS? The mind boggles. Also agree about the young people with no real-world experience. These are easiest to manipulate and exploit, after all and these people will usually not realize when they are contributing to evil.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    3. Re:Just another f***ed up Google project by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      " but makers of a trustable ANYTHING?"

      Well, if you dial down the hyperbole maybe I'll agree with you. Google projects with published source code or specs are about as trustable as any other Free and Open Source project made by companies or organizations like Red Hat or GNU. No guarantee that the apps won't come without malware. But if you build the programs yourself, and do some basic source code audits, even if it's just running it by some automated security tool or debugger, then you could come up with software that's about as secure as any other software published out there. Note that even the most secure software can be comprised by hardware level exploits or backoors.

    4. Re:Just another f***ed up Google project by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yet the numerous OSes designed for mobile computing by MS failed for that very reason: the burden of licensing, device compatibility and commitment to long term support are great for large corporations running office software.

      They are not compatible with OEMs who produce toss-away devices which are obsolete before they come off the manufacturing line.

      Android gave OEMs the flexibility they needed as well as limited their commitments to long-term support.

      "Support? What's that?"

    5. Re:Just another f***ed up Google project by omnichad · · Score: 1

      MS pulled out of the phone market on their own. Ironically, right about the time they finally figured out how to make a decent phone UI.

    6. Re:Just another f***ed up Google project by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I mean how can you support an OS _worse_ than MS?

      You can't. At least Google still tries to get updates to users that doesn't break their systems, and of course you can still reject the updates. The GP doesn't know what they are talking about.

      Further, Project Treble is more or less the answer Google needed for getting regular updates out to users on time. The only reason that wasn't possible before was due to the Linux Kernel's lack of a stable API for drivers. Project Treble more or less implements this as a side project to Android and if it sees widespread adoption, it may find it's way into the mainline kernel out of sheer necessity. At which point, Google is no longer responsible for maintaining it.

      Compare that outcome to Fuchsia which is a complete kernel replacement that has to be debugged, updated regularly, and talk to low-level hardware, while being written from scratch. No OSS developer is going to make serious commitments to supporting that without significant adoption, and serious agreements about it remaining OSS. If anything, initially you'll see efforts to port the replaced Linux Kernel to the Fuchsia devices like you do everything else. Which means Google will be on the hook for maintenance and feature addition. Every device manufacturer will need to redo their development pipeline to support Fuchsia, including retraining developers on brand new APIs. Then there will be the consumer lash back as a result of regressions in performance, usability, stability, and security. So there will be push back on Google for the change. As manufacturers will not want to spend the $$$$ needed to make the transition to Fuchsia, and they may just choose to become competitors instead. (AOSP is free you know, and with OSS devs continuing to support the old system.....)

      Basically, Google's biggest competitor for Fuchsia is Android's ecosystem and infrastructure. That's quite the obstacle to overcome, just ask other members of the BSA, and Fuchsia may just go the way of Google+ long before it hits the market. At least it will if Alphabet's shareholders have anything to say about it that is.

    7. Re:Just another f***ed up Google project by iampiti · · Score: 1

      " its not about users or user freedom"
      Well, you can argue no OS is except for those that are open source. Apple does seem to have a different business model (not involving user data) but I wouldn't call them user friendly. Meanwhile Microsoft is busy androidizing Windows 10 (user data gathering, integrating ads in the OS and several apps).
      I'm not excusing Android though, I'd be nice if I could pay some money and it be ad and spying-free but alas that's not so

    8. Re:Just another f***ed up Google project by Lonewolf666 · · Score: 1

      I mean how can you support an OS _worse_ than MS?

      Slightly OT:
      They had some help from Microsoft there, Windows used to be better but has gone downhill in the last years.

      Say what you will about pre-Win10 OSes from MS, they promised their 10 years (security) support from release and mostly kept that promise. I'm typing this on an older Win7 machine, and it still gets security updates. The biggest (and intentional) flaw is that new processor generations don't get these updates at all for Win7. Also, there are relatively few compatibility problems with the updates in Win7.

      --
      C - the footgun of programming languages
    9. Re:Just another f***ed up Google project by Lonewolf666 · · Score: 1

      Oops, my logic was upside down here:
      Windows 10 made it more difficult to support an OS _worse_ than MS

      --
      C - the footgun of programming languages
  10. Wasn't fuchsias the color by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    of the magic lolipops in Santa Claus: The Motion Picture? Also, I dare you to find a more obscure reference.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re: Wasn't fuchsias the color by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Santa Claus versus the martians? I am not the least bit embarrassed to admit I have watched this over and over more times than I can count and I know every word and intonation of the characters as well as the running commentary. I keep it in the DVD box very safe and eventually I will bump into that one other dork who will watch it with me

    2. Re:Wasn't fuchsias the color by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Hey, if this works, we could make a liquid version - 'Puce Juice'!"
      "...Sometimes I wonder about you, Towser."
      Full marks for the reference.

    3. Re: Wasn't fuchsias the color by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, OP is referring to "Santa Claus - The Movie", which came out in 1985 and starred Dudley Moore as an elf, John Lithgow as a wicked businessman, and David Huddleston (aka the "evil" Lebowski in TBL) as Santa Claus. It was my favorite movie when I was a kid. I must have watched that VHS until it wore out.

    4. Re: Wasn't fuchsias the color by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Great movie. I watch the first act with my kids every December 24. The 2nd and 3rd acts were entirely forgettable, except whenever Lithgow is in the frame.

    5. Re: Wasn't fuchsias the color by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They were Puce, dude.

  11. Gosh! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A project I don't care about, and one I'd rate as having about a 0.0005% chance of succeeding, has disappointed. Someone.

    Not me.

  12. Can confirm! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This destruction of information has been unusually effective: I have no remaining memory of a "Fuchsia" Operating System of an "Armadillo" interface, even though I also have no knowledge of ever having granted Google any credentials or permissions to delete, alter, or access any of my memory.

  13. excellent! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    now we just need them to remove all of the fuschia code and finally put this bad idea in the graveyard where it belongs

  14. Maybe maybe they'll tru by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A UI WHERE THINGS YOU CAN CLICK LOOK DIFFERENT TO THINGS YOU CANNOT CLICK ?!

    Maybe they will also resurrect the tight-click-for-menu, do we can get stuff done instead of wadting tone on UX designer morons fluffy ideas of "clean".
    You useless arty #@*%s.

  15. creimer's phat bootay is sexy as hell!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe they can cram it up creimer's ass? It's not like anyone will notice since it's already huge as phuck!

    1. Re:creimer's phat bootay is sexy as hell!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cdreimer left /. after 20 years and posted 100+ videos in 2018. His trolls are still butthurt that he left them alone with APK.

      The thing to do for him: post more videos :)

    2. Re: creimer's phat bootay is sexy as hell!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fag alert mod down.

  16. Can somebody parse this for me? by jtara · · Score: 1

    Has 9To5 Google ever employed writers? Or has it always been like this?

  17. Google: The Woke ADHD child of Corporate America by Jarwulf · · Score: 1

    The only thing you can rely on Google for is starting and dropping the majority of their projects according to whats trending on the hype train in tech media, vacuuming up your pi on a massive scale, and bleating about social justice.

  18. The update story is "complicated" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm not a fan of Google, their products or their APIs... but Google is actually pretty good about updating Android. What they're NOT good at is getting vendors to adopt those updates and push them. They need to change the way Android is packaged so that Android is Android and Google pushes updates, not the vendors. That's never going to happen though because of the diversity of hardware (though Google has the resources to handle that) and because most vendors will react violently if they can't infect their handsets with their "premium" bloatware.

    I have every confidence that if Microsoft followed the same model with Dell, HP, Acer, Asus, etc, etc. all pushing their own builds of Windows it would be every bit the sh*t show that Android is.

  19. Unforeseeable Fuchsia by InterGuru · · Score: 1

    Most did not see it coming

  20. Can we ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... get Google to lose systemd somehow?

    1. Re: Can we ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I bet they want to keep systemd. Systemd is a rather dated piece of software but it manages file handles better than most operating systems

    2. Re:Can we ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The plan is to have the next Browser patch accidentally install SystemdOS, then forget all the evidence.

  21. It's Google. by msauve · · Score: 2

    Google being distracted by a new shiny thing and abandoning some project isn't news. Quite the opposite - it's entirely predictable. They lack adult supervision.

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  22. Can the hardware's capability expand upward? by tepples · · Score: 1

    The difference is that if someone wanted to upgrade from "do nothing more than play games and browse the web" to use as a workstation, he could do so by installing free software. Upgrading from a phone or tablet, on the other hand, generally requires purchasing new hardware.

    1. Re:Can the hardware's capability expand upward? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Theoretically it can. See project Ara, but yes it's dead. The real question is, are there serious market for upgradeable phone, tablet?

  23. "Everything we knew" is gone?? by l2718 · · Score: 1

    How could knowledge be erased from people's brains by a change to a code repository?

  24. Re:Hipsters by ArchieBunker · · Score: 1

    I really have no idea what is happening in that second paragraph. Can anyone care to rephrase this for someone not familiar with its development?

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
  25. You mean the people who ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... thought dynamically linked libraries was a concept "too complicated" to implement, and just gave up on it?

    Or those who thought window frame heads should be sole tabs to waste space *while* lacking space?

    Yeah, geniuses!

    1. Re:You mean the people who ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At first I was confused by your comment because Zircon/Fuchsia certainly supports dynamic linking, but then I realized you are a moron who seems to think Google is a monolithic entity and that the Plan 9/Go team and Chrome team have anything to do with what's being discussed and furthermore that you didn't actually understand the comment you were responding to.

      Aren't you precious.

  26. news by matushorvath · · Score: 2

    Irrelevant project is irrelevant.

  27. No. Keep it as *emergent* as possible! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As simple as possible means *no* functionality. That was exactly my point. Simplicity is just the dumbed down version of emergence, efficiency, elegance, however you want to call it, *itself*.

    What you want, is the highest power per complexity ratio!

    Three examples:
    * Emacs is extremely powerful. But also extremely complex. Its ratio is crap.
    * Notepad is extremely simple. But also extremely powerless. Its ratio is crap *too*.
    * And then there's things like Godot (the game engine), or Maya, which are extremely powerful, but also very easy to use for their amount of power. (Especially Godot.) Their ratio, unlike that of the two above, is really really good.
    (If you want an example of an editor with such a ratio ... I don't know one. ... The best I can do, is Kate.)

    I want a whole OS like Godot! Fuck simple! I want *power!* But at a very low cost! *No compromises!!*