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It is sad that it takes a Meta developer having some fun to realize they should open up ADB. This isn't the repairability and reuseability of old devices minds

It is sad that it takes a Meta developer having some fun to realize they should open up ADB. This isn't the repairability and reuseability of old devices mindset people have been begging for. This is some guy using internal privileges to having some fun, and deciding the rest of us should get a piece of the fun as well. This is a "happy story" in the same way it is a "happy story" when some kid successfully fundraises a classmate's cancer treatment because the healthcare system neglects them.

jenders 4mo ago
boz is the CTO
- petterroea 4mo ago
  Even sadder. Turns out all we needed to not have our old devices locked down was the CTO having some fun
  - wfme 4mo ago
    *all we needed was the technical leader of the company that produced the product to... the same could be said for pretty much any change or update rolled out by any of these companies.
    - petterroea 4mo ago
      I feel like this is reducing the problem to a simpler one. Of course you'd expert larger product decisions to be made by a technical leader. The problem here is that devices being locked down is something being fought against, repairability is a big topic for discussion, and some companies even try to play into it pretty hard, like Framework and seemingly Valve. Yet, to this Meta CTO, this wasn't really a concern until he vibecoded something and decided everyone should be able to have this fun. It say's something about his (and probably other people in his position) awareness of public opinion and discussion.
  - ashdksnndck 4mo ago
    Why is this sad? I’m having a hard time understanding the thought you are communicating. It seems cool that a CTO had fun and that motivated him to enable ADB for everyone?
    - saagarjha 4mo ago
      Why didn’t it occur to someone that this would be fun to do within the CTO having to realize this
      - l23k4 4mo ago
        Why didn't it occur to someone without occurring to someone first?
        saagarjha 4mo ago
        Because the idea that something this obvious occurred to the CTO first is very, very unlikely. What is more probable was that leadership ignored people who disagreed until the CTO convinced himself it was a good idea and went ahead with it.
        Shish2k 4mo ago
        People within Meta have been campaigning for this for _years_; even people as high up as John Carmack were pushing for open bootloaders on deprecated hardware (and he achieved that on the Go headset, but not as a general policy)
    - jazzyjackson 4mo ago
      Just that the default reality is the hardware you buy belonging to someone else, who only really sold you a license to use the hardware on limited terms until the manufacturer drops support
      - ashdksnndck 4mo ago
        This generalizes to “good news is bad news because things must be bad by default for good things to be news”
KaiserPro 4mo ago
> It is sad that it takes a Meta developer having some fun to realize they should open up ADB. Former facebook research lab twat here. It wasn't one dev. We asked when they shitcanned portal (which was a great product, badly managed) to open it up. Infact one of the kernel devs made a very direct plea to allow the community to adopt the hardware so that we could avoid Ewaste. It was denied because there are keys on the device that would leak if meta opened it up. (I'm not an android dev so I don't know the ins and outs of that) However, portal was a casualty of the dash to VR. They scaled up the team briefly, which meant that lots of weird stuff was tried, but the roadmap was diluted. The idea was that they portal would be the "portal" to horizon worlds. this meant that they pushed back the plan for thirdparty app stores that would have meant you had something to actually do on the device. neglect and stupidity from zuck meant that the portal was killed, even though the next gen device was actually a really great media device (wireless, removable charging stand, excellent speakers, but nothing to run on it.)
- mft_ 4mo ago
  > It was denied because there are keys on the device that would leak if meta opened it up. (I'm not an android dev so I don't know the ins and outs of that) Any idea what changed? > neglect and stupidity from zuck meant that the portal was killed Is Facebook really set up such that one person's whim is the single point of failure? Is there really no way for teams to progress projects with value somewhat independently?
  - karlmedley 4mo ago
    Is there any company set up so that the CEO's whim isn't a single point of failure?
    - mcintyre1994 4mo ago
      Arguably the old fashioned ones where the CEO doesn’t have special shares that give them a voting supermajority?
    - fancyfredbot 4mo ago
Shish2k 4mo ago
> It is sad that it takes a Meta developer having some fun to realize they should open up ADB. I'm not even sure if the motivation is as positive as that - the video, blog, and dev docs read more like a sales pitch for meta's AI tools... (I'm glad they did it, the portal is great hardware; but I don't expect that this will be a pattern of opening up old hardware unless it provides tangible benefits to the AI department)

jenders 4mo ago

boz is the CTO

petterroea 4mo ago
Even sadder. Turns out all we needed to not have our old devices locked down was the CTO having some fun
- wfme 4mo ago
  *all we needed was the technical leader of the company that produced the product to... the same could be said for pretty much any change or update rolled out by any of these companies.
  - petterroea 4mo ago
    I feel like this is reducing the problem to a simpler one. Of course you'd expert larger product decisions to be made by a technical leader. The problem here is that devices being locked down is something being fought against, repairability is a big topic for discussion, and some companies even try to play into it pretty hard, like Framework and seemingly Valve. Yet, to this Meta CTO, this wasn't really a concern until he vibecoded something and decided everyone should be able to have this fun. It say's something about his (and probably other people in his position) awareness of public opinion and discussion.
- ashdksnndck 4mo ago
  Why is this sad? I’m having a hard time understanding the thought you are communicating. It seems cool that a CTO had fun and that motivated him to enable ADB for everyone?
  - saagarjha 4mo ago
    Why didn’t it occur to someone that this would be fun to do within the CTO having to realize this
    - l23k4 4mo ago
      Why didn't it occur to someone without occurring to someone first?
      - saagarjha 4mo ago
        Because the idea that something this obvious occurred to the CTO first is very, very unlikely. What is more probable was that leadership ignored people who disagreed until the CTO convinced himself it was a good idea and went ahead with it.
      - Shish2k 4mo ago
        People within Meta have been campaigning for this for _years_; even people as high up as John Carmack were pushing for open bootloaders on deprecated hardware (and he achieved that on the Go headset, but not as a general policy)
  - jazzyjackson 4mo ago
    Just that the default reality is the hardware you buy belonging to someone else, who only really sold you a license to use the hardware on limited terms until the manufacturer drops support
    - ashdksnndck 4mo ago
      This generalizes to “good news is bad news because things must be bad by default for good things to be news”

KaiserPro 4mo ago

> It is sad that it takes a Meta developer having some fun to realize they should open up ADB. Former facebook research lab twat here. It wasn't one dev. We asked when they shitcanned portal (which was a great product, badly managed) to open it up. Infact one of the kernel devs made a very direct plea to allow the community to adopt the hardware so that we could avoid Ewaste. It was denied because there are keys on the device that would leak if meta opened it up. (I'm not an android dev so I don't know the ins and outs of that) However, portal was a casualty of the dash to VR. They scaled up the team briefly, which meant that lots of weird stuff was tried, but the roadmap was diluted. The idea was that they portal would be the "portal" to horizon worlds. this meant that they pushed back the plan for thirdparty app stores that would have meant you had something to actually do on the device. neglect and stupidity from zuck meant that the portal was killed, even though the next gen device was actually a really great media device (wireless, removable charging stand, excellent speakers, but nothing to run on it.)

mft_ 4mo ago
> It was denied because there are keys on the device that would leak if meta opened it up. (I'm not an android dev so I don't know the ins and outs of that) Any idea what changed? > neglect and stupidity from zuck meant that the portal was killed Is Facebook really set up such that one person's whim is the single point of failure? Is there really no way for teams to progress projects with value somewhat independently?
- karlmedley 4mo ago
  Is there any company set up so that the CEO's whim isn't a single point of failure?
  - mcintyre1994 4mo ago
    Arguably the old fashioned ones where the CEO doesn’t have special shares that give them a voting supermajority?
  - fancyfredbot 4mo ago

Shish2k 4mo ago

> It is sad that it takes a Meta developer having some fun to realize they should open up ADB. I'm not even sure if the motivation is as positive as that - the video, blog, and dev docs read more like a sales pitch for meta's AI tools... (I'm glad they did it, the portal is great hardware; but I don't expect that this will be a pattern of opening up old hardware unless it provides tangible benefits to the AI department)