Androids

The Team That Built the Android Operating System

By: Chet Haase

Narrated by: Chet Haase

The fascinating inside story of how the Android operating system came to be.

In 2004, Android was two people who wanted to build camera software, but couldn't get investors interested. Today, Android is a large team at Google, delivering an operating system (including camera software) to over 3 billion devices worldwide. This is the inside story, told by the people who made it happen.

Androids: The Team That Built the Android Operating System is a firsthand chronological account of how the startup began, how the team came together, and how they all built an operating system from the kernel level to its applications, and everything in between. It describes the tenuous beginnings of this ambitious project as a tiny startup, then as a small acquisition by Google that took on an industry with strong, entrenched competition.

Author Chet Haase joined the Android team at Google in May 2010 and later recorded conversations with team members to preserve the early days of Android's history leading to the launch of 1.0. This engaging and accessible book captures the developers' stories in their own voices to answer the question: How did Android succeed?

©2021 Chet Haase (P)2022 Tantor

takes me back to my days working in a startup

I worked in the startup in silicon valley in the early '80s this book reminds me a lot of the fun we had building something from scratch ( and a lot of the pain too ). I especially liked it when he mentioned the IP over carrier pigeon I remember when that came out. What a bunch of crazy people in the IETF. You don't have to have a tech background to enjoy this book but it probably wouldn't hurt.

Captivating

This is so well told. The level of detail* is perfect, keeping you interested, learning and smiling. The characters back stories are so interesting.

Thank you for making it and an audio version too. Chet can always fall back to audiobook narration if things don't work out.

Looking back I had no idea that getting that G1 shipped by my brother from NYC to NZ would change my life so much. I'm sure I'm one of many people whose lives we're changed by this platform.

* contains footnotes.

Very well written, informative, and fun

Provides an excellent overview of what Android is and why, not just for technical reasons but for historical, economic, and social reasons. While it is not, and is not meant to be, an in depth technical overview of Android I would still suggest it as a starting place before doing a deep dive. Written in narrative story form the author makes the history of Android and the people involved very enjoyable and interesting.
No technical knowledge is needed to enjoy this book. For those with a technical background, you will likely still come away with useful technical knowledge regardless.

Lovely photo insight into the birth of the smartphones

This book is of course interesting for a certain kind of people. Either you love tech in some way or another or you might just love to learn new interesting things.
I found my self just falling in love with this book, all the small anecdotes and insight in the making of a fantastic OS. And as a non programmer I goubd it interesting to learn about the small things a programmer has to think about when building something like this (The SD-card cover)

Good story of how Android was built

Good story of how Android was built and why it became what it is today.