Andy Rubin Leaving Google

http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/former-android-leader-andy-rubin-leaving-google-1414713040-lMyQjAxMTE0NTMxMDQzOTA4Wj

by atupem • 12 years ago

230 64 12 years ago

online.wsj.com

TheTaO• 12 years ago

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

amaks• 12 years ago

What's wrong with Sundar?

fidotron2• 12 years 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• 12 years ago

What does that mean? What history?

oldxoog3• 12 years 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.

i_am_ralpht• 12 years ago

Maybe the business week puff piece on Sundar (which somewhat atypically spent a page complaining about Andy)?

72deluxe5• 12 years ago

Excellent Victor pun, if I may say so.

wfjackson• 12 years ago

This thread just 4 days ago on HN is interesting in this context.

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.

oldxoog3• 12 years 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• 12 years 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 :-)

foobarqux• 12 years ago

What did he want? Money, resources, position/title?

DannyBee3• 12 years ago

"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."

Andy definitely got bored and went to work on robots before. He even says that in the article.

As for what happened this time, no idea.

I have some guesses though, and none of them are "forced out".

elpachuco2• 12 years ago

Well don't leave us hanging. Let us know your guesses. I'm really interested to know. Several other people in this thread seem to know and yet are not saying anything.

Edit: I found this quote from [1]. "Jessica Lessin at The Information tweeted that Rubin wanted more freedom for his robotics group. She said he wanted a structure like Calico, which is the anti-aging company Google has started.

Our guess is that Page views robotics as something he understands better, and considers it core to Google, and therefore would not want to give it the same independence. "

If so it seems rather short sighted for Page to let somebody like Andy Rubin leave. Rubin is self motivated,passionate,driven about what he does and he could have done great work with robotics.

[1] http://www.businessinsider.com/andy-rubin-out-of-google-2014...

2nd Edit: At least now I'm hopeful that Google will not own robotics.

Steko• 12 years ago

Eh, those downvoted comments were from me and one was totally deserved because it was awful and I left it there to accumulate negative karma as punishment for making it. The other is a bit relevant here and was initially upvoted. It likely got downvotes by association with the idiotic comment.

Here's a more upthread link with a bit more context for the discussion:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8506560

emehrkay• 12 years ago

Him and Forstall will team up and change computing

isomorphic• 12 years ago

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

edderly2• 12 years 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_...

The Android team under Rubin executed extraordinarily well with a tiny fraction of Google’s engineering resources.

autism_hurts• 12 years ago

By riding the coat tails and blatantly copying Apple.

DannyBee3• 12 years ago

Andy was being innovative and succeeding with things like the hiptop/ sidekick well before phones were a twinkle in Apple's eye.

edderly2• 12 years 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.

Ologn• 12 years 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?

swang• 12 years ago

Arguably they have both copied from each other to the benefit of its users.

Imagine iOS still having those shitty popups and notifications. Glad they "copied" it from Android.

cageface• 12 years ago

Apple has borrowed at least as much from Android. Pretty much all the banner features in the last several releases of iOS are just catch-up with stuff Android has been doing for years.

72deluxe5• 12 years ago

What about the underlying architecture of the OS though? Linux with a Java runtime and a new windowing layer that stops "normal" Linux apps running? Running each dalvik process in its own confined user process? What about the design for background services and foreground activities that can be switched to/from (multitasking) right from the beginning, with AIDL for implementing service definitions? What about Intents and the ability to pass messages between processes? What about access to the filesystem in a "normal" way?

What about the "desktop" on Android? Where did they copy that from?

iOS didn't have multitasking until a lot later, and the concept of background services is more aggressively policed (that is, processes killed often) on iOS, as far as I know?

Sure, the superficial layer on top (look! icons! rows of icons!) that children in a sweet shop would notice may look familiar, but underneath it is not anything alike is it?

Or are you saying it is?

revelation• 12 years ago

They executed so extraordinarily well that Google spent lots of time in practically every version of android to rewrite core components. They finally killed the horrible DalvikVM recently.

indymike• 12 years ago

done > perfect

Every software, pretty much ever has to have core components rewritten, sucks and is horrible. Fortunately, it's just code.

And yes, DalvikVM wasn't very good.

Aissen• 12 years ago

A good proof that "Worse is better". By using a worse implementation, then gaining market share, then fixing the core architectural problems bit by bit, Android was a success. Plus it had some really good ideas in there from the beginning.

joezydeco• 12 years ago

Um, there were a few helpers along the way:

1) Linux, from Torvalds onward. Android used Linux as the hardware abstraction layer and still does. How many developers there?

1B) The ARM Linux developers, especially. Russell King is an unsung hero in this space.

2) The sea of subcontractors that helped with device drivers, subcomponents, integration, and manufacturing. Remember that whole "Open Handset Alliance"[1] thing? Those were all companies doing work for the Google/Android either under contract or gratis in the hopes of getting future work thrown their way or increasing their handset sales with the Google monolith behind them. I was one of them.

3) Webkit. How many developers worked on that (including Apple engineers)? OpenBinder (started at Be)? OpenGL?

[1] http://www.openhandsetalliance.com/oha_members.html

throwawaygoogle• 12 years 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• 12 years 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• 12 years 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

elpachuco2• 12 years ago

https://twitter.com/Arubin

Who knows if he still checks it though.

Andy Rubin Leaving Google

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