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Given the history of layoffs, I am afraid that one day soon we’ll be reading about Fuchsia being dropped. It was always ambitious but it’s not the kind of proje
by acdha 3y ago
Given the history of layoffs, I am afraid that one day soon we’ll be reading about Fuchsia being dropped. It was always ambitious but it’s not the kind of project modern Google seems capable of committing to.
- cqqxo4zV46cp 3y agoLayoffs? Recency bias. I think you mean given Google’s much more established history of ditching things when they see something shiny.
- kmeisthax 3y agoThe weird thing about Fuchsia is that it's been public for at least eight years. In that time Google has gone through several messaging apps - like, launched them, got bored with them, launched a successor, and killed the original, multiple times over. All for an OS they only shipped on one weird voice-assistant-with-a-screen appliance.
- Ferret7446 3y agoThey rebranded their messaging app several times. I doubt the guts of the backend/protocol changed all that much.
- acdha 3y agoIn general, yes, but I was thinking specifically about how hard that division was hit last year. This kind of thing can become self-fulfilling and since it’s not tightly coupled to revenue I’d be worried if I worked there, which is never good for productivity.
- poisonborz 3y agoGoogle would not be able to create any of the products now that made it what it is today. It's the classic IBM playbook.
- pjmlp 3y agoIBM still makes enough research in quantum, AI, patents, and contributions to the Linux ecosystem, that many startup founders on HN can only dream of.
- squiffsquiff 3y agoAnd which of those is a marketable IBM product that 'normal' people have heard of? Red Hat was an acquisition.
- pjmlp 3y agoThe money to acquire Red Hat came from somewhere, which is also beyond many startups accomplishments. Money in the bank doesn't care if it comes from stuff 'normal' people is aware of, or something else. Just like despite all issues, many here won't be aware Bell Labs and UNIX legacy now belong to Nokia. Or how many Linux projects depend on Oracle and Microsoft money, as per contributors on their salaries.
- dangus 3y agoJust because they don't sell consumer products doesn't mean that their products aren't marketable. In the case of research and semiconductor technology, typically IBM isn't out to deliver a finished product, they work with other companies who bring the end result to market. E.g., there's a joint venture between Intel and IBM to advance Intel's fabrication capabilities. When you think of IBM as more of an R&D consulting company or custom enterprise application company it starts to make more sense. To some extent they also have an off-the-shelf product lineup, but most of the reasons to choose them involve custom solutions. Example of a $700 million contract with Disney: https://www.computerworld.com/article/2555832/ibm-signs--730m-it-services-deal-with-disney.html https://www.computerworld.com/article/2555832/ibm-signs--730...
- justinclift 3y ago> Example of a $700 million contract with Disney That looks like a fairly straight forward outsourcing / "consulting" contract rather than anything to do with R&D.