9 ms·

Andy Rubin Leaving Google

230 points by atupem 12y ago

TheTaO 12y ago
Not surprising given how things have come together under Sundar in recent months.
- amaks 12y ago
  What's wrong with Sundar?
fidotron 12y ago
The surprise is he lasted so long. I really hope this is not the last we've heard of him. Sundar appears to be walking proof that victors get to write history, but I'm not sure how long he'll be able to keep that act up.
- judk 12y ago
  What does that mean? What history?
  - oldxoog 12y ago
    I agree it's a pretty trite comment - unless op meant he lasted so long ".. on the robotics junket" aka exit lobby, in which case I'd agree. Andy could be a pain but his accomplishments speak for him -- Android has long been seen as a massive success, warts and all, at the highest levels of goog.
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
    - mbca 12y ago
      Android is only a "success" insofar as being the only game in town for an open-source iOS competitor. I'm frankly amazed it ever gained any traction at all, but when your competition is non-free garbage like Symbian, Blackberry, and Windows mobile, I guess you can just win by default. Especially when you have the might of Google's multi-billion dollar support behind you. Android has already gotten miles better in the year since Rubin is no longer involved, seeing long-needed improvements such as Chrome for the browser and WebViews, radically better runtime, more unified UI design, etc. Overall, Android is much better off without him and I look forward to whatever comes next (for Android, not Rubin).
      - nostrademons 12y ago
        That could be an indication that building a viable mobile phone OS is really, really hard. While I'm also quite glad to see the recent Chrome/Android integration, I think Rubin should get a lot of credit for getting Android to the point where it's even worth integrating with. A bunch of competitors tried and failed; I'm glad that there's more than just Apple available in the mobile OS market.
        sounds 12y ago
        Interestingly, the hard part is not the core "OS" code. There are many, many good open source OS's available for study (and/or license). I realize I'm being pedantic. I think it illustrates my point: until the mid-90's, Computer Science would occasionally wish for a new OS to fix all the bad things about current OS's. Even the lack of a killer app was not considered insurmountable, because apps weren't that complex. Witness the proliferation of open source OS's. As Android continues to dominate iOS in sheer numbers, it underscores just _why_ building a strong mobile phone OS is hard––enough that even Apple with all the early advantages still gets marginalized. Android has: • Open source OS (Google's/OEM's proprietary bits notwithstanding) • Free SDK as the gold standard • Multiple strong hardware vendors competing for the best designs and attempting to find underserved markets • One central "authority" that champions consistentcy, interoperability, and polish (that google.com is the economic incentive to stay in charge of android becomes a strength for android––because unless another company thinks it can unseat google in their core business, they are not incentivized to try to take android from google either. Xiaomi and Samsung's Tizen may be vanity forks but other than vertical integration they have no edge in the larger android picture) • Complete administrative backend (cloud, app store, PR, etc.)
        xorcist 12y ago
        It is. But something I never understood was the choice of Java. For the original Android it made sense as it was an excellent argument for an acquisition. But since Google it was just an invitation for trouble with Sun/Oracle. It's not like they don't have excellent runtime designers in house. They could have taken the opportunity to go with Python or something else entirely when they rewrote so much anyway.
  - i_am_ralpht 12y ago
    Maybe the business week puff piece on Sundar (which somewhat atypically spent a page complaining about Andy)?
- 72deluxe 12y ago
  Excellent Victor pun, if I may say so.
wfjackson 12y ago
This thread just 4 days ago on HN is interesting in this context. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8506911 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8506911 Google employees were implying that Andy Rubin got bored of Android and left to work on robotics and people suggesting the opposite were getting downvoted. It still could be true but looks less likely down.
- oldxoog 12y ago
  Throwaway because I know with pretty strong confidence what went down -- The truth seems to be both (a) unpleasant for Andy and (b) unremarkable to the rest of us. In other words, it wasn't his choice, but there wasn't a scandalous smoking gun either. He just wanted what Larry wouldn't give him. Nothing that would be front page news.
  - ChuckMcM 12y ago
    I expect it might be more unpleasant for wannabe Andys. But I agree it was unremarkable. Scott McNealy used to congratulate people getting promoted with "One step up, one step closer to the door." That captured the balancing act between climbing the ladder versus being pushed off of it because someone else wanted your spot. I think Andy will be much happier in his new role, and it isn't like he has to work for a living any more :-)
    - larrys 12y ago
      "Scott McNealy used to congratulate people getting promoted with "One step up, one step closer to the door."" God knows when I hear things like that I thank my lucky stars I don't have to work in a large corporation or answer to anyone but customers. (Well more than that obviously but at least I'm not at the whims of corporate culture.)
      - atmosx 12y ago
        Any idea of the salary of the people Larry Page likes to whim? I mean, lets not get crazy, working for G comes with all kind of perks!
emehrkay 12y ago
Him and Forstall will team up and change computing
- isomorphic 12y ago
  ...an open-source BigDog with a locked bootloader, and green felt outer cladding.
edderly 12y ago
I think it’s a good time to reflect on the massive impact of Android on the mobile OS market. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_operating_system#Market_share http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_operating_system#Market_... The Android team under Rubin executed extraordinarily well with a tiny fraction of Google’s engineering resources.
- autism_hurts 12y ago
  By riding the coat tails and blatantly copying Apple.
  - DannyBee 12y ago
    Andy was being innovative and succeeding with things like the hiptop/ sidekick well before phones were a twinkle in Apple's eye.
  - edderly 12y ago
    Even if you take that argument at face value, do you think anyone could just have done that? There are enough failed and feeble mobile OS vendors out there (Symbian, RIM, Palm, Microsoft) to prove that doing what Android has done is hard.
    - 001sky 12y ago
      At some stage, it takes huge talent to follow in the footsteps certain pathbreakers. At leasts successfully. Even if android did nothing but 'copy apple' they created a second player in the space on Apple's level. If you think this is a trivial task -- look at RIM. The creation of viable choice and a establishment of business model that hasn't (yet) forced the implosion of the platform, is a huge amount of work even of one were to abstact away any "groundbreaking originality" (whatever that means anyway) in the platform.
  - Ologn 12y ago
    And how many existing mobile devices did Apple blatantly copy with the first iPhone? The first iPhone was nice, but how many features were original, aside from multi-touch?
throwawaygoogle 12y ago
Sundar is heir apparent and everyone else gets a pet project or gets out of his way. Just how it feels right now-- not exactly earth shattering news.
dougabug 12y ago
Whether intentional or not, Rubin's earlier initiative vacuuming up many of the interesting robot companies into Google, would seem to create great new opportunities for new robotics startups.
charlie_vill 12y ago
Asking HN This might be a little bit of a far stretch, but based on the belief that anyone is reachable, would anyone have any leads to Mr. Rubin or would know how to make contact with him? tw @carlosvivaldi
- elpachuco 12y ago
  https://twitter.com/Arubin https://twitter.com/Arubin Who knows if he still checks it though.

230 points by atupem 12y ago

TheTaO 12y ago

Not surprising given how things have come together under Sundar in recent months.

amaks 12y ago
What's wrong with Sundar?

fidotron 12y ago

The surprise is he lasted so long. I really hope this is not the last we've heard of him. Sundar appears to be walking proof that victors get to write history, but I'm not sure how long he'll be able to keep that act up.

judk 12y ago
What does that mean? What history?
- oldxoog 12y ago
  I agree it's a pretty trite comment - unless op meant he lasted so long ".. on the robotics junket" aka exit lobby, in which case I'd agree. Andy could be a pain but his accomplishments speak for him -- Android has long been seen as a massive success, warts and all, at the highest levels of goog.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - mbca 12y ago
    Android is only a "success" insofar as being the only game in town for an open-source iOS competitor. I'm frankly amazed it ever gained any traction at all, but when your competition is non-free garbage like Symbian, Blackberry, and Windows mobile, I guess you can just win by default. Especially when you have the might of Google's multi-billion dollar support behind you. Android has already gotten miles better in the year since Rubin is no longer involved, seeing long-needed improvements such as Chrome for the browser and WebViews, radically better runtime, more unified UI design, etc. Overall, Android is much better off without him and I look forward to whatever comes next (for Android, not Rubin).
    - nostrademons 12y ago
      That could be an indication that building a viable mobile phone OS is really, really hard. While I'm also quite glad to see the recent Chrome/Android integration, I think Rubin should get a lot of credit for getting Android to the point where it's even worth integrating with. A bunch of competitors tried and failed; I'm glad that there's more than just Apple available in the mobile OS market.
      - sounds 12y ago
        Interestingly, the hard part is not the core "OS" code. There are many, many good open source OS's available for study (and/or license). I realize I'm being pedantic. I think it illustrates my point: until the mid-90's, Computer Science would occasionally wish for a new OS to fix all the bad things about current OS's. Even the lack of a killer app was not considered insurmountable, because apps weren't that complex. Witness the proliferation of open source OS's. As Android continues to dominate iOS in sheer numbers, it underscores just _why_ building a strong mobile phone OS is hard––enough that even Apple with all the early advantages still gets marginalized. Android has: • Open source OS (Google's/OEM's proprietary bits notwithstanding) • Free SDK as the gold standard • Multiple strong hardware vendors competing for the best designs and attempting to find underserved markets • One central "authority" that champions consistentcy, interoperability, and polish (that google.com is the economic incentive to stay in charge of android becomes a strength for android––because unless another company thinks it can unseat google in their core business, they are not incentivized to try to take android from google either. Xiaomi and Samsung's Tizen may be vanity forks but other than vertical integration they have no edge in the larger android picture) • Complete administrative backend (cloud, app store, PR, etc.)
      - xorcist 12y ago
        It is. But something I never understood was the choice of Java. For the original Android it made sense as it was an excellent argument for an acquisition. But since Google it was just an invitation for trouble with Sun/Oracle. It's not like they don't have excellent runtime designers in house. They could have taken the opportunity to go with Python or something else entirely when they rewrote so much anyway.
- i_am_ralpht 12y ago
  Maybe the business week puff piece on Sundar (which somewhat atypically spent a page complaining about Andy)?
72deluxe 12y ago
Excellent Victor pun, if I may say so.

wfjackson 12y ago

This thread just 4 days ago on HN is interesting in this context. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8506911 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8506911 Google employees were implying that Andy Rubin got bored of Android and left to work on robotics and people suggesting the opposite were getting downvoted. It still could be true but looks less likely down.

oldxoog 12y ago
Throwaway because I know with pretty strong confidence what went down -- The truth seems to be both (a) unpleasant for Andy and (b) unremarkable to the rest of us. In other words, it wasn't his choice, but there wasn't a scandalous smoking gun either. He just wanted what Larry wouldn't give him. Nothing that would be front page news.
- ChuckMcM 12y ago
  I expect it might be more unpleasant for wannabe Andys. But I agree it was unremarkable. Scott McNealy used to congratulate people getting promoted with "One step up, one step closer to the door." That captured the balancing act between climbing the ladder versus being pushed off of it because someone else wanted your spot. I think Andy will be much happier in his new role, and it isn't like he has to work for a living any more :-)
  - larrys 12y ago
    "Scott McNealy used to congratulate people getting promoted with "One step up, one step closer to the door."" God knows when I hear things like that I thank my lucky stars I don't have to work in a large corporation or answer to anyone but customers. (Well more than that obviously but at least I'm not at the whims of corporate culture.)
    - atmosx 12y ago
      Any idea of the salary of the people Larry Page likes to whim? I mean, lets not get crazy, working for G comes with all kind of perks!

emehrkay 12y ago

Him and Forstall will team up and change computing

isomorphic 12y ago
...an open-source BigDog with a locked bootloader, and green felt outer cladding.

edderly 12y ago

I think it’s a good time to reflect on the massive impact of Android on the mobile OS market. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_operating_system#Market_share http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_operating_system#Market_... The Android team under Rubin executed extraordinarily well with a tiny fraction of Google’s engineering resources.

autism_hurts 12y ago
By riding the coat tails and blatantly copying Apple.
- DannyBee 12y ago
  Andy was being innovative and succeeding with things like the hiptop/ sidekick well before phones were a twinkle in Apple's eye.
- edderly 12y ago
  Even if you take that argument at face value, do you think anyone could just have done that? There are enough failed and feeble mobile OS vendors out there (Symbian, RIM, Palm, Microsoft) to prove that doing what Android has done is hard.
  - 001sky 12y ago
    At some stage, it takes huge talent to follow in the footsteps certain pathbreakers. At leasts successfully. Even if android did nothing but 'copy apple' they created a second player in the space on Apple's level. If you think this is a trivial task -- look at RIM. The creation of viable choice and a establishment of business model that hasn't (yet) forced the implosion of the platform, is a huge amount of work even of one were to abstact away any "groundbreaking originality" (whatever that means anyway) in the platform.
- Ologn 12y ago
  And how many existing mobile devices did Apple blatantly copy with the first iPhone? The first iPhone was nice, but how many features were original, aside from multi-touch?

throwawaygoogle 12y ago

Sundar is heir apparent and everyone else gets a pet project or gets out of his way. Just how it feels right now-- not exactly earth shattering news.

dougabug 12y ago

Whether intentional or not, Rubin's earlier initiative vacuuming up many of the interesting robot companies into Google, would seem to create great new opportunities for new robotics startups.

charlie_vill 12y ago

Asking HN This might be a little bit of a far stretch, but based on the belief that anyone is reachable, would anyone have any leads to Mr. Rubin or would know how to make contact with him? tw @carlosvivaldi

elpachuco 12y ago
https://twitter.com/Arubin https://twitter.com/Arubin Who knows if he still checks it though.