448: Chapter 448 Difficult Adaptation: Blue-Green On-Site Delivery

Sundar Pichai felt a little awkward. He used to be in a technical role, but after sitting in this position...

The allure of power had gradually changed him... he was no longer that former technical officer, but a CEO ensuring Google operated at full capacity.

Dave Burke continued to complain bitterly.

"This isn't just about modifying resolution or debugging display aspect ratios.

It requires modifying the window manager, rewriting the rendering mechanism, redoing the landscape/portrait switching architecture, fully adapting to virtual buttons, and troubleshooting compatibility for millions of apps. All core modules need to be rebuilt from scratch."

"Not to mention the massive amount of 'spaghetti code' we've accumulated. Mr. Pichai, much of this code can no longer be traced, and there's no documentation for reference.

Consequently, our engineers can only patch it, which has led to deeply intertwined vulnerabilities over the years. Three months isn't even enough time to sort through the old code."

Sundar Pichai nodded slightly, proving he was certainly aware of Android's issues and knew that the accumulated code made every underlying refactor a disaster.

But he had to apply pressure. After all, if they didn't proceed, the money the company invested in Silver Lake Capital would be completely wasted. Furthermore, once Chinese manufacturers turned to Transsion, that would be the real disaster.

Sundar Pichai walked over to him gently and pulled him to sit down, but Dave Burke remained stubborn and didn't want to sit!

"Sit down!" Sundar Pichai quickly scolded him. He had given him a little face, and he had become this arrogant; if he gave him any more, would he really start running his own show?

Seeing his boss like this, Dave Burke sat down quietly, though he remained stubborn and unconvinced. After all, this wasn't just assigning work...

"I know the difficulty of refactoring the underlying layer, but we have no way out now.

Transsion's Taishan System started in 2008, and it's been six years now. Their system has no gap with ours in terms of application ecosystem, and it's even slightly ahead.

Most importantly, they have very few bugs, are very stable, and the fluidity is very good, almost like iOS.

Now, the Android camp has suffered a total defeat, and some of them even want to turn to Taishan System!"

"If we can't complete the native adaptation by the end of this year, these manufacturers might develop based on Taishan System.

Samsung and HTC might not, but Oppo and Vivo definitely will turn to them. This is a massive market of at least 200 million users.

At that point, we won't just be losing a feature adaptation; we'll be losing the dominant position of the entire Android ecosystem.

What do you expect me to do? I have to answer to the capital!"

Dave Burke was both angry and anxious, his chest heaving violently, while a look of emptiness appeared in his eyes.

"But CEO, rushing the work will only create a completely defective product.

To be honest, we've already collaborated with Samsung on a test version, and the project has already crashed.

Widespread app crashes, stretched screens—in short, all kinds of problems.

And these aren't just ordinary bugs; they are a systemic disaster of the underlying architecture. If we launch it hastily, what kind of disaster will it trigger? You know better than I do."

Dave Burke kicked the ball right back at him. You can ask me to develop it, but if you still want me to take the blame, that's absolutely impossible.

Sundar Pichai pondered for a long time. The originally tense expression on his face suddenly broke into a smile:

"Actually, it's not all bad news. Although the shareholders demanded three months—that's the bottom line—Microsoft has provided support with a batch of technical developers. Since they want to pressure us, then we will..."

After saying this, a subtle expression appeared on his face. He originally didn't want to let Microsoft in, but with time pressing, he could only let these excellent scapegoats in.

"You should know how to handle the specifics!"

"I understand, but I'm stating this in advance: if the year-end version crashes, it absolutely won't be because of poor coordination among everyone, but because three months is simply not enough time."

He pushed open the office door, walked back to his own office, opened his email, and sent a message to the Android system architecture team.

"We only have three months to complete the native adaptation for the Full-screen Display within this timeframe.

Start immediately! All core module architects, meeting tomorrow at 9 AM!"

But after sending the email, before waiting for others to blow up, he continued to grumble in his office!

"What can you do in three months? It's not even enough to write a test framework!"

Yet, he still carried on, doing the bare minimum. Afterward, he opened the code repository and began reviewing the corresponding code records.

Each record was a tombstone—code from 2008, 2009, and even some from 2007. He had helped pile up this mountain of crap, and now he was building on top of the mountain of crap he had piled up himself.

...

When Shen Fei saw the pie in the sky he had released, he laughed.

Manufacturer after manufacturer claimed they would definitely produce a Full-screen Display solution by the end of 2014, and that future mobile phones would fully transition to the Full-screen Display era.

The key was that it wasn't just one company; Samsung, HTC, Xiaomi, and Ruiyi Mobile had all issued relevant statements!

"A Full-screen Display isn't that hard; it's just a matter of aspect ratio adaptation. A certain company just had the advantage of speed!"

"Just wait; not every company's Full-screen Display is called a Full-screen Display. Google's will definitely be better. Better late than never, right?"

"Better late than never? I'm not sure if we can use it within the year, and I'm not certain, but I can be sure that there will definitely be a bunch of bugs by then [doge]."

"The guy above, you really understand Google!"

"Have you noticed a problem? These manufacturers have all announced it, but why haven't Vivo and Oppo? Shouldn't these two companies be very interested in this technology that can significantly improve aesthetics?"

"So what if they're interested? Don't Full-screen Displays cost money? How could those two be willing to spend it?"

"Forget about domestic brands; I want to know how long it will take for Google to prove that a Full-screen Display isn't something anyone can just make if they want to?"

"One month?"

"With that 'spaghetti' code of theirs, if they can clean up half the performance in a three-month project plan, that would be considered good."

...

Meanwhile, at Transsion headquarters, the door to Shen Fei's office was pushed open.

When Wang Hua entered, he was followed by two familiar faces.

Shen Fei glanced over and saw the founder of Vivo, Shen Wei, and the founder of Oppo, Chen Mingyong, following behind Wang Hua.

"Mr. Chen, Mr. Chen, what wind blew you two here?"

Chen Mingyong shook hands with a smile, but his eyes were a bit flustered. Instead, Shen Wei, who was standing beside him, spoke first:

"Mr. Shen, we've come to pay our respects."

"That's right, we wouldn't have come here without a reason."

Chen Mingyong looked a bit hesitant. Shen Fei looked at the two of them for a few moments, calculating in his mind: what exactly was their intention?

Was it screens, processors, or some other supply contract? Of course, the biggest and yet smallest possibility was the system.