Amazon has always employed FireOS for their televisions, tablets, and the Echo. They will be gravitating away from this Android-based operating system to Linux. According to a report from Janko Roettgers, Amazon has been testing a Linux OS code-named Vega, which has been under development for years, but which has “picked up steam more recently.”
The Echo Show 5 Kids Edition has been running Vega for the past few months. The 3rd-gen Echo Show 5 is running a new operating system with a very low version number of 1.1. This is distinctly different from all other Echo devices with operating system version numbers like 7.5.6.0 for the Echo Show 8 and 6.5.6.0 for the previous generation Echo Show 5, which are both version numbers that coincide with Fire OS 7 and Fire OS 6.
According to aftvnews , Vega OS is a Linux-based operating system that runs HTML-based React Native apps, instead of Java/Kotlin apps, like Android does. Amazon’s developer advocates have been hyping up React apps for years to help prepare developers for its new OS. Amazon held a Fire TV App Partner Summit in January to get developers interested in supporting Vega OS. Roettgers says, “Paramount, Rakuten and the BBC’s UKTV subsidiary are among the publishers building TV apps” for Vega OS.
Many apps outside the top streaming services will likely never be ported over. Amazon seems to be betting that most people won’t care as long as a handful of popular streaming services are available.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.