10 ms·

Hugo Barra is joining Facebook to lead virtual reality

173 points by hurrycane 10y ago

nullnilvoid 10y ago
That was quick. He just left Xiaomi several days ago. Good luck to Hugo.
- alvarosevilla95 10y ago
  Most probably he had already signed with Facebook by the time he left Xiaomi.
tmsldd 10y ago
"É nóis mano !"
hueving 10y ago
Can someone provide some context as to who this is and why it's newsworthy?
- blazespin 10y ago
  Sigh. Clearly something has fallen down the hype cycle.
  - Twirrim 10y ago
    HN often seems to pretty much exist of a long stream of Names we're all apparently supposed to know and track.
    - snarf 10y ago
      Some of these execs keep a high public profile and do a lot of press. It's part of the game at most large tech companies that aren't Apple. I personally find it really amusing that they get all this coverage in the tech press almost like they are NBA players, but it's to be expected when they have such a high public profile. Funnily enough, as accomplished as he is and despite the carefully curated PR, I remember him most for being the other part of that Sergey love triangle: http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2014/04/sergey-brin-amanda-rosenberg-affair http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2014/04/sergey-brin-amanda-r...
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
- nl 10y ago
  Hugo Barra was previously a VP of product development in Google's Android division. He moved to Xiaomi a few years ago, and oversaw their international expansion. That was seen as a pretty big move, since it was probably the most significant poaching of a non-Chinese executive from US tech company by a Chinese tech company. His resignation from Xiaomi was announced a few days ago - presumably in order to move to this role.
  - hueving 10y ago
    I see, so is there something significant about this move to Facebook? Or is it just more about the fact that he left Xiaomi?
    - otalp 10y ago
      Both. It's not often that a former VP of Google ends up at Facebook.
  - Markoff 10y ago
    judging by success of xiaomis international expansion one would think he was fired, they are pretty much only in India and withdrawn from Brazil and Singapore, so his presence was utter failure and it's good riddance for Xiaomi
- Achshar 10y ago
  There's all what everyone else said plus one small thing more which some would call drama. It involves a love triangle between Hugo, Sergey Brin and a girl.
blazespin 10y ago
" I look forward to building the future of immersive technology with Mark Zuckerberg, Brendan Trexler Iribe, Mike Schroepfer, and the visionaries in the Oculus team". Ouch!
- Roritharr 10y ago
  I wouldn't take Palmer for a guy that's hurt by this. He became richer than his wildest dreams and doesn't have to take shit from anybody. He's probably too busy trying to develop a healthy lifestyle that helps him keep the friends he wants to care for some corporate politics like this to register. Let them take the attention, he'll find another venue for his engineering itches.
  - notfreeyet 10y ago
    Michael Abrash, and Palmer Luckey should move to Texas where Carmack is and co-found an Oculus successor. They could raise $500 million easily based on their recent $2 billion exit, or however much they would need. They could probably also hire away the very best people who wouldn't want to work at Facebook given the choice. Carmack probably doesn't give a shit about Palmer's political tom foolery. All three of these guys don't get the respect they deserve because they not born rich and didn't attend fancy schools like Zuck and this guy. Those douches claims to fame are creating knock offs of Friendster and iOS. Palmer Luckey made consumer VR happen. Carmack/Abrash made internet FPS worlds happen. They weren't copying anyone. Iribe is not needed, nor are any of the other douches that jumped on the bandwagon. Free the visionaries. Shit, they could fund it themselves with that Facebook cash.
  - adammunich 10y ago
    Ram jets
  - cr0sh 10y ago
    > ...he'll find another venue for his engineering itches. Will he? I followed Palmer for a couple of years (on MTSB3D forums) before the kickstarter; it was his passion and dedication for hacking old/vintage HMDs that got me interested, and ultimately led me to supporting the KS. He showed the kind of interest and dedication in DIY VR that I hadn't seen since the mid-1990s (and I only knew of one other individual at that time with the same kind of interest - DIY VR, heck VR in general outside of a few niche areas - was really dead). DIY VR -was- his "engineering itch". Sure - he got rich beyond his wildest dreams, but I don't think (or maybe I don't want to believe?) that was his endgame. From what I could see then, the endgame was to make VR something again - to make it "take off", to get it back to where it was (the hype?) in the 1990s. I'm not even sure if he wanted it commercialized - just more popular, and more people hacking on it. I think - or want to believe, maybe - that had the only thing that came out of the KS had been the DK1, that Palmer would be happy to have done only that. I don't think he ever intended it to become what it has, but I don't know him - maybe he did. From my perspective, which is skewed for a number of reasons (most of all because I don't know him personally), he never intended for it to explode like it has. Personally, it surprised me greatly that it did. What I couldn't understand then (nor even now) is why there was an apparent pent-up demand for an HMD for the PC and gaming, yet virtually no one (outside of Palmer and one or two others) was hacking on HMDs? In the 1990s, there was a fairly vibrant DIY VR culture - a few well known books, an unfortunately short-lived magazine (PCVR) - but there were more than a handful of people hacking their own systems together, sharing stuff on the nascent internet and BBS's. ...then, it died off. But apparently there was still demand for it, but it seemed like nobody wanted to DIY their own systems, until after the Rift was announced. It isn't like there wasn't any information on the internet to get people started, plus the whole "maker movement" was strong. The software was all available to play with (game engines, 3d tools, etc). Yet - there wasn't any DIY movement. Until the Rift. Strangely, though, the DIY VR movement is still fairly small; bigger than it was in 2012 and before, certainly - but it still seems like a lot of people don't want to DIY their own VR rig - most seems to only want to be consumers of the devices, not hackers/innovators - which is a bit strange to me. Total tangent there - my apologies. As far as Palmer is concerned - well, I hope he continues with hacking VR - but I worry that the FB acquisition and the Oculus brand may dash that. I worry that he may have inadvertently killed the one thing he cared most about - hacking VR as his personal hobby - by making it big. I hope not, but I do wonder. I'm not Palmer, but I know if I had the stark choice of choosing between being super-wealthy vs being able to freely work on and happily pursue my hobbies, I think I would ultimately kick myself if I chose the former.
praneshp 10y ago
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Hugo+barra http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Hugo+barra
- hueving 10y ago
  I'm on this site a lot and don't know who this is. It would help if someone actually provided context in a comment so readers can understand why this made it to the front page. Your response to Google it is juvenile and doesn't add to the discussion.
  - whowalrus 10y ago
    I'm on this site a lot, I know who it is and I understand why it made to the front page. It would help everyone (you included) if you try Google first whenever someone (or something) you don't know is mentioned in a discussion. Even if you search for previous mentions of Hugo Barra on Hacker News, you'd learn that stories mentioning his leaving Xiaomi have made the frontpage in the last few days [1]. As a person who is on this site a lot, I'm surprised that you aren't familiar with him. Let's not even get into what is (or isn't) juvenile at this point. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13461387 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13461387
    - bshimmin 10y ago
      Just think - the time you spent writing that snarky response could just as easily have been spent writing, for example, "He worked at Google from 2008-13 and had various prominent positions relating to Android, then he took a role as VP at Xiaomi where he played a big role in turning that outfit into a company you've heard of".
      - brynjolf 10y ago
        Same time it would have took to Google it...
      - whowalrus 10y ago
        > Just think - the time you spent writing that snarky response could just as easily have been spent writing... Is it better to feed fish to a person, or teach them to catch one? I admit that I was snarky as a response to the entitlement I sensed in his reply to the LMGTFY link. When I come across a discussion on Hacker News (or elsewhere) talking about things I don't know, I take a moment to Google first. Because asking "who is he, and why should I care?" (which is what the original question amounts to) isn't contributing to the discussion much either.
Tepix 10y ago
It's interesting that he's joining Facebook, not Oculus. Oculus is just a "team" now.
- rhaps0dy 10y ago
  So what if they're "just" a team now?
  - iagooar 10y ago
    It's interesting.
  - hueving 10y ago
    Being "just" a team changes internal politics a lot. You can have engineers re-assigned to other projects easily, you have to fight over internal resources, etc. Maybe it's not a problem at Facebook, but in many companies becoming just another team is the death knell for acquisitions.
    - amasad 10y ago
      Instagram has seen most of its success as "just a team" at Facebook. WhatsApp is probably the only acquisition Facebook made that didn't integrate fully.
      - acchow 10y ago
        Really? We acquired Whatsapp?
        thinkmassive 10y ago
        If "we" is Facebook, then yes, in 2014 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhatsApp#Facebook_era_.282014.E2.80.93present.29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhatsApp#Facebook_era_.282014....
        10y ago
owenwil 10y ago
Smart hire - Barra is a great hardware evangelist, quite technical and was a great personality for Xiaomi that wasn't a typical "technical" person so could appeal to the masses. Oculus/FB really needs that.
general_ai 10y ago
So much for "hard work was affecting my health".
- seanmcdirmid 10y ago
  More like Beijing air pollution was affecting his health. That was my reason as well, moving from Microsoft in Beijing to YC Research in LA.
  - B1FF_PSUVM 10y ago
    That's amusing in that the LA basin had an infamous "smog cap" for a good stretch of the XX century. Helped a lot getting those seminal strict emission laws in California, I believe.
    - seanmcdirmid 10y ago
      Yep. LA in the 70s and early 80s was pretty bad. The irony that I'm escaping to here for the clean air! It is really good now, and china can really turn a corner in the future if they work hard enough at their pollution problem. Unfortunately, I just can't wait for that.
  - raverbashing 10y ago
    And Chinese idiosyncrasies, and Chinese food, and the emotional stress of being far from family and friends (I'm not saying the pollution is not a factor, but it's probably not the main one)
    - seanmcdirmid 10y ago
      None of those were deal breakers for me personally. It really came down to the air coupled with a pregnant wife and soon to be newborn who didn't need to suffer through that.
    - bostand 10y ago
      What's wrong with Chinese food?
beebeebush 10y ago
Facebook get more "dumb fucks" ? - zukenberi
i000 10y ago
Sooo... I'm guessing this fits into what Brendan Iribe was talking about in his recent blog post, when he mentioned that the company wanted to "accelerate [their] roadmap"? From what others have mentioned it sounds like Hugo Barra is good at rapidly growing software and hardware platforms. That could potentially work well for Oculus and VR as a whole. Hopefully for us ground-level users it means even more resources put into content development. Possibly new hardware revisions releasing earlier than had previously been planned as well? I must admit I'm also hoping that any knowledge he has of the Chinese manufacturing industry contributes to smoother supply chains for Oculus products. No more parts shortages or shipping delays, pretty please. :)

173 points by hurrycane 10y ago

nullnilvoid 10y ago

That was quick. He just left Xiaomi several days ago. Good luck to Hugo.

alvarosevilla95 10y ago
Most probably he had already signed with Facebook by the time he left Xiaomi.

tmsldd 10y ago

"É nóis mano !"

hueving 10y ago

Can someone provide some context as to who this is and why it's newsworthy?

blazespin 10y ago
Sigh. Clearly something has fallen down the hype cycle.
- Twirrim 10y ago
  HN often seems to pretty much exist of a long stream of Names we're all apparently supposed to know and track.
  - snarf 10y ago
    Some of these execs keep a high public profile and do a lot of press. It's part of the game at most large tech companies that aren't Apple. I personally find it really amusing that they get all this coverage in the tech press almost like they are NBA players, but it's to be expected when they have such a high public profile. Funnily enough, as accomplished as he is and despite the carefully curated PR, I remember him most for being the other part of that Sergey love triangle: http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2014/04/sergey-brin-amanda-rosenberg-affair http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2014/04/sergey-brin-amanda-r...
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
nl 10y ago
Hugo Barra was previously a VP of product development in Google's Android division. He moved to Xiaomi a few years ago, and oversaw their international expansion. That was seen as a pretty big move, since it was probably the most significant poaching of a non-Chinese executive from US tech company by a Chinese tech company. His resignation from Xiaomi was announced a few days ago - presumably in order to move to this role.
- hueving 10y ago
  I see, so is there something significant about this move to Facebook? Or is it just more about the fact that he left Xiaomi?
  - otalp 10y ago
    Both. It's not often that a former VP of Google ends up at Facebook.
- Markoff 10y ago
  judging by success of xiaomis international expansion one would think he was fired, they are pretty much only in India and withdrawn from Brazil and Singapore, so his presence was utter failure and it's good riddance for Xiaomi
Achshar 10y ago
There's all what everyone else said plus one small thing more which some would call drama. It involves a love triangle between Hugo, Sergey Brin and a girl.

blazespin 10y ago

" I look forward to building the future of immersive technology with Mark Zuckerberg, Brendan Trexler Iribe, Mike Schroepfer, and the visionaries in the Oculus team". Ouch!

Roritharr 10y ago
I wouldn't take Palmer for a guy that's hurt by this. He became richer than his wildest dreams and doesn't have to take shit from anybody. He's probably too busy trying to develop a healthy lifestyle that helps him keep the friends he wants to care for some corporate politics like this to register. Let them take the attention, he'll find another venue for his engineering itches.
- notfreeyet 10y ago
  Michael Abrash, and Palmer Luckey should move to Texas where Carmack is and co-found an Oculus successor. They could raise $500 million easily based on their recent $2 billion exit, or however much they would need. They could probably also hire away the very best people who wouldn't want to work at Facebook given the choice. Carmack probably doesn't give a shit about Palmer's political tom foolery. All three of these guys don't get the respect they deserve because they not born rich and didn't attend fancy schools like Zuck and this guy. Those douches claims to fame are creating knock offs of Friendster and iOS. Palmer Luckey made consumer VR happen. Carmack/Abrash made internet FPS worlds happen. They weren't copying anyone. Iribe is not needed, nor are any of the other douches that jumped on the bandwagon. Free the visionaries. Shit, they could fund it themselves with that Facebook cash.
- adammunich 10y ago
  Ram jets
- cr0sh 10y ago
  > ...he'll find another venue for his engineering itches. Will he? I followed Palmer for a couple of years (on MTSB3D forums) before the kickstarter; it was his passion and dedication for hacking old/vintage HMDs that got me interested, and ultimately led me to supporting the KS. He showed the kind of interest and dedication in DIY VR that I hadn't seen since the mid-1990s (and I only knew of one other individual at that time with the same kind of interest - DIY VR, heck VR in general outside of a few niche areas - was really dead). DIY VR -was- his "engineering itch". Sure - he got rich beyond his wildest dreams, but I don't think (or maybe I don't want to believe?) that was his endgame. From what I could see then, the endgame was to make VR something again - to make it "take off", to get it back to where it was (the hype?) in the 1990s. I'm not even sure if he wanted it commercialized - just more popular, and more people hacking on it. I think - or want to believe, maybe - that had the only thing that came out of the KS had been the DK1, that Palmer would be happy to have done only that. I don't think he ever intended it to become what it has, but I don't know him - maybe he did. From my perspective, which is skewed for a number of reasons (most of all because I don't know him personally), he never intended for it to explode like it has. Personally, it surprised me greatly that it did. What I couldn't understand then (nor even now) is why there was an apparent pent-up demand for an HMD for the PC and gaming, yet virtually no one (outside of Palmer and one or two others) was hacking on HMDs? In the 1990s, there was a fairly vibrant DIY VR culture - a few well known books, an unfortunately short-lived magazine (PCVR) - but there were more than a handful of people hacking their own systems together, sharing stuff on the nascent internet and BBS's. ...then, it died off. But apparently there was still demand for it, but it seemed like nobody wanted to DIY their own systems, until after the Rift was announced. It isn't like there wasn't any information on the internet to get people started, plus the whole "maker movement" was strong. The software was all available to play with (game engines, 3d tools, etc). Yet - there wasn't any DIY movement. Until the Rift. Strangely, though, the DIY VR movement is still fairly small; bigger than it was in 2012 and before, certainly - but it still seems like a lot of people don't want to DIY their own VR rig - most seems to only want to be consumers of the devices, not hackers/innovators - which is a bit strange to me. Total tangent there - my apologies. As far as Palmer is concerned - well, I hope he continues with hacking VR - but I worry that the FB acquisition and the Oculus brand may dash that. I worry that he may have inadvertently killed the one thing he cared most about - hacking VR as his personal hobby - by making it big. I hope not, but I do wonder. I'm not Palmer, but I know if I had the stark choice of choosing between being super-wealthy vs being able to freely work on and happily pursue my hobbies, I think I would ultimately kick myself if I chose the former.

praneshp 10y ago

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Hugo+barra http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Hugo+barra

hueving 10y ago
I'm on this site a lot and don't know who this is. It would help if someone actually provided context in a comment so readers can understand why this made it to the front page. Your response to Google it is juvenile and doesn't add to the discussion.
- whowalrus 10y ago
  I'm on this site a lot, I know who it is and I understand why it made to the front page. It would help everyone (you included) if you try Google first whenever someone (or something) you don't know is mentioned in a discussion. Even if you search for previous mentions of Hugo Barra on Hacker News, you'd learn that stories mentioning his leaving Xiaomi have made the frontpage in the last few days [1]. As a person who is on this site a lot, I'm surprised that you aren't familiar with him. Let's not even get into what is (or isn't) juvenile at this point. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13461387 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13461387
  - bshimmin 10y ago
    Just think - the time you spent writing that snarky response could just as easily have been spent writing, for example, "He worked at Google from 2008-13 and had various prominent positions relating to Android, then he took a role as VP at Xiaomi where he played a big role in turning that outfit into a company you've heard of".
    - brynjolf 10y ago
      Same time it would have took to Google it...
    - whowalrus 10y ago
      > Just think - the time you spent writing that snarky response could just as easily have been spent writing... Is it better to feed fish to a person, or teach them to catch one? I admit that I was snarky as a response to the entitlement I sensed in his reply to the LMGTFY link. When I come across a discussion on Hacker News (or elsewhere) talking about things I don't know, I take a moment to Google first. Because asking "who is he, and why should I care?" (which is what the original question amounts to) isn't contributing to the discussion much either.

Tepix 10y ago

It's interesting that he's joining Facebook, not Oculus. Oculus is just a "team" now.

rhaps0dy 10y ago
So what if they're "just" a team now?
- iagooar 10y ago
  It's interesting.
- hueving 10y ago
  Being "just" a team changes internal politics a lot. You can have engineers re-assigned to other projects easily, you have to fight over internal resources, etc. Maybe it's not a problem at Facebook, but in many companies becoming just another team is the death knell for acquisitions.
  - amasad 10y ago
    Instagram has seen most of its success as "just a team" at Facebook. WhatsApp is probably the only acquisition Facebook made that didn't integrate fully.
    - acchow 10y ago
      Really? We acquired Whatsapp?
      - thinkmassive 10y ago
        If "we" is Facebook, then yes, in 2014 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhatsApp#Facebook_era_.282014.E2.80.93present.29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhatsApp#Facebook_era_.282014....
        10y ago

owenwil 10y ago

Smart hire - Barra is a great hardware evangelist, quite technical and was a great personality for Xiaomi that wasn't a typical "technical" person so could appeal to the masses. Oculus/FB really needs that.

general_ai 10y ago

So much for "hard work was affecting my health".

seanmcdirmid 10y ago
More like Beijing air pollution was affecting his health. That was my reason as well, moving from Microsoft in Beijing to YC Research in LA.
- B1FF_PSUVM 10y ago
  That's amusing in that the LA basin had an infamous "smog cap" for a good stretch of the XX century. Helped a lot getting those seminal strict emission laws in California, I believe.
  - seanmcdirmid 10y ago
    Yep. LA in the 70s and early 80s was pretty bad. The irony that I'm escaping to here for the clean air! It is really good now, and china can really turn a corner in the future if they work hard enough at their pollution problem. Unfortunately, I just can't wait for that.
- raverbashing 10y ago
  And Chinese idiosyncrasies, and Chinese food, and the emotional stress of being far from family and friends (I'm not saying the pollution is not a factor, but it's probably not the main one)
  - seanmcdirmid 10y ago
    None of those were deal breakers for me personally. It really came down to the air coupled with a pregnant wife and soon to be newborn who didn't need to suffer through that.
  - bostand 10y ago
    What's wrong with Chinese food?

beebeebush 10y ago

Facebook get more "dumb fucks" ? - zukenberi

i000 10y ago

Sooo... I'm guessing this fits into what Brendan Iribe was talking about in his recent blog post, when he mentioned that the company wanted to "accelerate [their] roadmap"? From what others have mentioned it sounds like Hugo Barra is good at rapidly growing software and hardware platforms. That could potentially work well for Oculus and VR as a whole. Hopefully for us ground-level users it means even more resources put into content development. Possibly new hardware revisions releasing earlier than had previously been planned as well? I must admit I'm also hoping that any knowledge he has of the Chinese manufacturing industry contributes to smoother supply chains for Oculus products. No more parts shortages or shipping delays, pretty please. :)