In an effort to free itself from other tech behemoths such as Google, Facebook is designing its own OS (operating system), the media claims. In the coming period, hardware products by Facebook, such as Portal and Oculus devices, might operate on the operating system, Ficus Kirkpatrick (Facebook exec) claimed.
The OS will be developed from ground, and the project is being spearheaded by an ex-Microsoft engineer, Mark Lucovsky, who co-authored the Windows NT OS. Facebook has not hinted when the OS may launch or which devices might use it first.
This is not the first time the firm has mulled over designing its own OS. Facebook once designed prototypes of a tailored OS for Home, but eventually made a decision to employ Android.
The current OS work by Facebook is fraction of a bigger effort to make the firm self sufficient. “We actually need to make certain the next gen has room for us,” Facebook’s head of AR and VR, Andrew Bosworth, claimed to the media. “We do not think we can trust the competitors or marketplace to make sure that is the case. And so we are going to do it ourselves.”
Facebook is also still operating on its brain computer UI. An engineer claimed to the media that Facebook has reduced the tech to a device from the size of a refrigerator that can fit in your hand. It can take more 5–10 Years prior to that tech comes in any consumer device. Meanwhile, Facebook may design a variant that needs users to learn specific movements and wear armbands that link to brain signals, similar to the technology designed by CTRL-labs, which in September was purchased by Facebook.
Facebook is designing a voice helper same as Alexa and Siri, too. The firm even approached Microsoft to permit info from its search engine Bing to skill the assistant, a source claimed to the media.