Amazon has begun replacing Android on its smart devices with an all-new custom OS.
It might not seem like it, but Amazon devices in the Fire HD tablet, Fire TV, and Echo Show lines run on a heavily forked version of Android. You’dthink that Amazon would be keen to purge one of its biggest tech rivals from its system, and you’d be right.
It recently emerged that the online retail giant was developing its own Linux-based operating system, called Vega OS, with the intention of writing Android out of the story altogeteher. The claim made was that Amazon would start the process next year, but now it seems the swap may have started already.
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The Zatz Not Funny website has discovered that this so-called Vega OS is already up and running on final Amazon hardware. An Amazon Echo Show 5 (3rd Generation) has been observed with software that resets its naming and numbering to the generic ‘OS 1.1’.
Another indicator that this is an early version of an all-new operating system is the fact that the OS 1.1 Eco Show no longer runs Netflix.
Of course, running a new OS on a smart display is one thing. It’ll be a much bigger task bringing that OS to Fire devices, which have offered a vast App Store filled with Android-based apps for more than a decade now.
Presumably the sheer install base of Amazon’s device ecosystem will encourage those developers to make the necessary changes to tweak their apps.
Originally posted 2023-11-15 09:03:49.