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>The time to deliver a fix to VR users at Meta was often over six months, disregarding all the problems that were just ignored. I find it astounding that this

>The time to deliver a fix to VR users at Meta was often over six months, disregarding all the problems that were just ignored. I find it astounding that this could be true for someone as senior and respected as Carmack. Is it because he's working in a hardware division? What takes so damn long? Side note - its interesting how Carmack has come out and publicly bashed Meta so much. I guess you can do that when you're in his position.

ginger2016 4y ago
Maybe his ego got hurt at Meta. Why would you publicly bash your previous employer. Isn’t staying quiet the right thing to do?
- tormeh 4y ago
  He's a true VR believer. I think it pained him to watch it go less well than it could.
- OnlineGladiator 4y ago
  > Why would you publicly bash your previous employer. Maybe because they suck and deserve to be criticized? > Isn’t staying quiet the right thing to do? It's certainly the easier thing to do. It's a sad world we live in where being 'professional' means being dishonest.
MikeTheRocker 4y ago
Even software can move slowly because everything has to go through numerous levels of bureaucracy and review. Before you even start working on something, you often need to have meetings with stakeholders from various teams and disciplines to "align" (read: convince them to do the work on their part of the stack). Then on top of that, the Quest OS update shipping cadence is monthly. Source: worked at Meta on Quest system software with Carmack 2018-2021
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
Trasmatta 4y ago
Maybe the regular, 50 people all bikeshedding every single tiny decision rather than just letting the people who know what they're doing get their job done?
potatolicious 4y ago
> "Is it because he's working in a hardware division?" Likely? Certainly from all appearances from the outside there are many legitimate bones to pick about Meta's organizational sclerosis, but part of this is structural to the product itself. "I can fix the image quality issues with X relatively easily, I know exactly what needs to be done" elicits (rightfully!) "We operate on an intensely compute-constrained device where every cycle matters. Over-consumption of compute causes battery life to degrade significantly and the device to become uncomfortably warm to wear. How much compute will this solution cost?" Then you have to balance the additional compute with drawing down compute somewhere else. Maybe the tracking camera algorithms can be optimized to consume less compute, which opens room for additional usage elsewhere, but now you've introduced a blocking dependency to delivering this enhancement. Even in a well-functioning organization this prevent shipping as fast as a startup. Part of why startups ship fast isn't just organizational, it's because the products are simpler with fewer technical constraints. Hardware (particularly embedded hardware - which Meta Quests are not precisely, but are pretty close) presents intense levels of constraints that most people who write code on servers (or even PCs) don't often appreciate.
- tormeh 4y ago
  Meta Quest 2 has 6GB of DDR4 RAM. It has a 64bit CPU. I'd say it has more in common with a server than with an embedded device.
  - __anon-2023__ 4y ago
    > 6GB of DDR4 RAM. It has a 64bit CPU More like a phone from 2020. The Samsung Galaxy S20 base model has 8GB of RAM (the S20FE has 6GB)
bombcar 4y ago
Imagine how long it takes even Linus to get a fix into a Linux kernel in a distribution.
- fragmede 4y ago
  Why would Linus care about the distro kernel when he runs his own?

ginger2016 4y ago

Maybe his ego got hurt at Meta. Why would you publicly bash your previous employer. Isn’t staying quiet the right thing to do?

tormeh 4y ago
He's a true VR believer. I think it pained him to watch it go less well than it could.
OnlineGladiator 4y ago
> Why would you publicly bash your previous employer. Maybe because they suck and deserve to be criticized? > Isn’t staying quiet the right thing to do? It's certainly the easier thing to do. It's a sad world we live in where being 'professional' means being dishonest.

MikeTheRocker 4y ago

Even software can move slowly because everything has to go through numerous levels of bureaucracy and review. Before you even start working on something, you often need to have meetings with stakeholders from various teams and disciplines to "align" (read: convince them to do the work on their part of the stack). Then on top of that, the Quest OS update shipping cadence is monthly. Source: worked at Meta on Quest system software with Carmack 2018-2021

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

Trasmatta 4y ago

Maybe the regular, 50 people all bikeshedding every single tiny decision rather than just letting the people who know what they're doing get their job done?

potatolicious 4y ago

> "Is it because he's working in a hardware division?" Likely? Certainly from all appearances from the outside there are many legitimate bones to pick about Meta's organizational sclerosis, but part of this is structural to the product itself. "I can fix the image quality issues with X relatively easily, I know exactly what needs to be done" elicits (rightfully!) "We operate on an intensely compute-constrained device where every cycle matters. Over-consumption of compute causes battery life to degrade significantly and the device to become uncomfortably warm to wear. How much compute will this solution cost?" Then you have to balance the additional compute with drawing down compute somewhere else. Maybe the tracking camera algorithms can be optimized to consume less compute, which opens room for additional usage elsewhere, but now you've introduced a blocking dependency to delivering this enhancement. Even in a well-functioning organization this prevent shipping as fast as a startup. Part of why startups ship fast isn't just organizational, it's because the products are simpler with fewer technical constraints. Hardware (particularly embedded hardware - which Meta Quests are not precisely, but are pretty close) presents intense levels of constraints that most people who write code on servers (or even PCs) don't often appreciate.

tormeh 4y ago
Meta Quest 2 has 6GB of DDR4 RAM. It has a 64bit CPU. I'd say it has more in common with a server than with an embedded device.
- __anon-2023__ 4y ago
  > 6GB of DDR4 RAM. It has a 64bit CPU More like a phone from 2020. The Samsung Galaxy S20 base model has 8GB of RAM (the S20FE has 6GB)

bombcar 4y ago

Imagine how long it takes even Linus to get a fix into a Linux kernel in a distribution.

fragmede 4y ago
Why would Linus care about the distro kernel when he runs his own?