Zhang Chen put away the confidentiality agreement, looked at Andy Rubin's expectant eyes and smiled slightly: "Yes, Matrix wants to develop its own operating system. ”

Although Andy Rubin already had psychological expectations, he was still speechless in surprise when he really heard Zhang Chen's answer.

Zhang Chen poured Andy Rubin a cup of tea and said calmly: "Don't be so surprised, the focus of x's work is still on the release of iCom. Oh, and iCom is a PC we're working on right now, and it's still going to be with the indos operating system. ”

"So, in the initial release, I wanted to have an Easter egg virtual machine system embedded in the pre-installed Indos system. ”

Andy Rubin was a little disappointed when he heard this, if it was just a virtual machine system, without large-scale promotion and application, it would be no different from the netBSD version of UNIX, and it was still just a toy for a small number of people.

Zhang Chen couldn't help but smile when he saw Andy Rubin's expression: "Microsoft has been developing indos for five years, and the actual development cycle is more than two years. Apple's MacOS is taking longer. We are now starting from scratch, we can only take it one step at a time, and this little easter egg is a start. ”

Andy Rubin was overjoyed, if he could be asked to do an operating system research and development, even if it was only for R&D funds and not for salary, he could discuss it.

Andy Rubin said excitedly: "If it is just the underlying core of the architecture and makes an open source easter egg, I can complete it within two months, and if the follow-up system development has enough R&D funds, it can be quickly done." ”

Zhang Chen smiled and shook his head: "Andy, you misunderstood, I said before, this is a commercial operating system, which will not be open source, but we will open up some API excuses for third parties to make various applications for us." ”

Andy Rubin looked extremely disappointed, most geeks have a strong spirit of the open source and free software movement, and Andy Rubin is no exception.

The free software movement, from the eighties to the beginning of the two millennia, was a force to be reckoned with in the IT world. They detest the behavior of software companies that only sell the right to use the software without disclosing the source code and prohibit users from modifying the software, and believe that it is an infringement of people's right to freedom.

Of course, there is a deeper philosophical discussion behind it, and in the mid-to-late nineties, the open source spirit and the free software movement have almost become one of the spiritual beliefs of many geeks.

"Zack, software is supposed to be free and public, and this is not contradictory to commercialization. When it comes to the battle of faith, Andy Rubin naturally won't give up so easily.

Zhang Chen waved his hand: "Andy, I have no intention of arguing about the justice of software open source, but in the short term, the possibility of commercial operating system open source is almost zero, and if there is, it will be a failed work." ”

Andy Rubin just wanted to argue, Zhang Chen continued: "There is a reason for this, if you are willing to listen, I can say more. ”

"The first thing that needs to be ensured for a commercial operating system is the security of the system. 99.99% of users who use computers don't know what lunix or Unix is, they just know that I bought a computer, and I need to use this computer to safely surf the Internet, work, play games, watch movies, listen to music, and run the software they need. That's all they need. ”

"If the source code of the system is all made public, it is good, whether it is a Trojan horse or a virus, it can control the entire computer in a long way, and the user's personal information and privacy will be gone. ”

"If a user goes online on a computer to buy something, he will enter his credit card number, and you don't want to just shoot two laser pointers on eBay and find out that you have exceeded the overdraft limit on your account, right?"

Andy Rubin retorted: "Zack, the virus on Linux is not even 1% under indo. ”

Zhang Chen smiled: "Linux's share is less than 1% of indos. ”

Although Andy Rubin disagrees with Zhang Chen's evaluation of free software and open source, he also has to admit that the more closed the system, the safer it is.

Zhang Chen continued: "Secondly, after open source, the quality of developers is uneven, and their personalities are also very different. Let's put it this way, the ethical ceiling of open source code developers may be higher and they may be higher than that of proprietary software developers, but the moral ceiling of open source code users will be lower and less technical than that of proprietary software developers. ”

"The quality of an application or operating system is determined by its lower limit, not the upper limit. ”

Andy Rubin couldn't help but be stunned, Zhang Chen's words had a great impact on his values that he had always believed that open source was justice.

"It's not over yet. Zhang Chen continued, "If you talk about the flaws of open source or free software, you can't talk about it in a day or a night, so I will only say one thing in the end: due to the lack of organization of open source, the advocates of open source are just a group of genius rabble. ”

"The rabble is inherently the opposite of the word great. ”

With a bang, it was like a bomb exploding in Andy Rubin's head, blowing up all the ideas he had always had.

At this moment, he had long forgotten about wanting to get more wages, and the collapse of his faith had prevented him from thinking about anything else.

"A great product is bound to be restrained and perfect. And open source, because developers can't get financial rewards, can only be a group of enthusiasts to entertain themselves. Even these enthusiasts will attack each other, think about it, how many times has the BSD camp split now?netBSD, openBSD, freeBSD, they all had the same ideal before, why can't they work together to make a great product?"

"There is a lot of open source, free, and free software on the market today, and there are more free operating systems, but why can't any of them beat Indos? ”

"What can beat Indos is not a cheaper operating system, nor a freer operating system, but a more perfect operating system. ”

"Open source doesn't make this world a better place, what makes this world a better place is a more perfect and great product. Pursuing open source and ignoring perfection is the ultimate mistake! This is the biggest mistake!"

After Zhang Chen finished the last sentence, he looked at Andy Rubin quietly.

Andy Rubin looked at Zhang Chen in despair, his eyes were blank, as if there was no focus in his pupils.

"No, no, you're just talking about the problems that open source encounters in the development process, and one day, we can solve these problems. Only the spirit of open source can bring together the greatest minds in the world, come up with the greatest creativity, and make the greatest products! Yes, it will be solved!" Andy Rubin muttered to himself.

Zhang Chen looked at Andy Rubin quietly, and suddenly smiled: "Of course, of course it will be solved, but not now, nor is it the current open-source operating model." ”

Andy Rubin's eyes lit up, like a drowning man grasping at the last straw: "Do you have a way?"