Meta Horizon OS

[Octavean]

Introducing Meta Horizon OS​

This new hardware ecosystem will run on Meta Horizon OS, the mixed reality operating system that powers our Meta Quest headsets. We chose this name to reflect our vision of a computing platform built around people and connection—and the shared social fabric that makes this possible. Meta Horizon OS combines the core technologies powering today’s mixed reality experiences with a suite of features that put social presence at the center of the platform.

Meta Horizon OS: Powering a New Era for Mixed Reality | Meta Quest Blog

Today we’re taking the next step toward our vision for a more open computing platform for the metaverse. We’re opening up the operating system powering our Meta Quest devices to third-party hardware makers, giving more choice to consumers and a larger ecosystem for developers to build for. We’re...

www.meta.com

Simply put, Meta is allowing their VR OS to function on third party hardware from Lenovo, ASUS and others. Not sure if this is just rebranded hardware or licensing on bespoke hardware from each manufacturer respectively but in due time we will see what we will see.

Bob’s your Uncle!

 

[cvaldes]

A lot of it is just rebranded hardware. Remember that Meta has no manufacturing lines of their own.

My Oculus Rift S was actually manufactured by Lenovo so it comes with zero surprise to see Lenovo's name on that shortlist.

 

[xtreemchaos]

i was hoping for some support for intel ARC but lucked out after reading the link. thanks.

 

[Octavean]

A lot of it is just rebranded hardware. Remember that Meta has no manufacturing lines of their own.

My Oculus Rift S was actually manufactured by Lenovo so it comes with zero surprise to see Lenovo's name on that shortlist.

Sounds a little like the HTC Vive deal with respect to Valve / Steam. As soon as Valve started to roll their own VR HMDs the value and exclusivity just drained away from HTC.

 

[cvaldes]

I see this as very different since Meta is releasing its VR OS to the world. Meta isn't a company driven by hardware sales. They make their money collecting their users' online activity and selling it to others.

By having more users on Meta Horizon OS (on multiple manufacturers' VR HMDs) they can collect more data.

The closer analogy would be what Alphabet does with the Android OS. They aren't in it to make a lot of bucks from Google Pixel smartphone sales. They want your user activity history. That is what is monetizable to Alphabet.

If you surf the Internet on some spatial computing web browser on your ____ HMD running the Meta Horizon OS, Meta will log where you visited.

Maybe you look around your living room with your VR HMD. The Meta Horizon OS will eventually log everything it sees, make a catalog of your belongings and use this information to sell to advertisers. "Oh, look, this guy owns a Breville toaster oven. He likes heavy metal concert posters, eats Doritos straight out of the bag, drinks Angry Orchard cider..." Stuff like that.

 

[Octavean]

Yes, it’s all quite invasive from a privacy perspective to be sure. This is problematic but it gets worse if you use the platform more and more for things beyond the odd VR game.

BTW, presumably this move will also shoehorn more Android games onto these VR HMDs.

 

[xtreemchaos]

ive give up fighting for privacy its a fight i can not win i mean my telly watches me so do most of electrical kit in my house that connects to the internet its just wasted time and energy even worrying about it.

 

[Octavean]

ive give up fighting for privacy its a fight i can not win i mean my telly watches me so do most of electrical kit in my house that connects to the internet its just wasted time and energy even worrying about it.

Well, IMO it depends one what the nice bit of kit is. While I have a number of 4K smart TV’s I tend not to use that feature and don’t even give them Internet access. Instead opting for other devices (PS5 for example) to consume media. That doesn’t mean Sony isn’t doing their fair (or unfair as the case may be) share of data mining.

However, something like a server or NAS that holds my personal data isn’t something I want being run through by companies So some effort may go into preventing such a thing. That doesn’t mean an app like Plex won’t be giving away a lot of information whenever it does some meta / data scraping or streaming.

I’m not too bothered by Meta and the Quest 2 / Quest 3 privacy concerns but of the use case. Something like Amazon Alexa is more concerning because it’s always active and always listening.

Anyway, my hope is that this move will allow for a Quest 3 level competitor at a lower price point. Naturally future product parity and lower prices in perpetuity would be great too.

 

[xtreemchaos]

darn Amazon Alexa, the misses has it on everything, a couple of weeks ago we had a nice indian curry but the thing about currys is thay give me wind the next morrning i booted my main rigg and went on line with Edge and on the first page was loads of adds for wind tables to tell the truth i could not stop laughing thinking something was lisening to me farting all night .

 

[Octavean]

Ah, you’ve got to love a good curry (or kabob) but it doesn’t always love us back does it? Not a great choice for date night mind you. Still a funny story. All that spying coming in handy.

BTW, the Meta Horizon OS story broke on the 22nd IIRC. It just made the front page of TechPowerUp this morning though. Worth a read I reckon if you haven’t visited the link.

As an aside, wouldn’t it be Interesting if Valve made a dual boot VR HMD using their own OS and Meta Horizon OS?

 

[xtreemchaos]

As an aside, wouldn’t it be Interesting if Valve made a dual boot VR HMD using their own OS and Meta Horizon OS?

yes it would be very good, i just wish intel and meta would sort the intel A750/770 for VR im looking forward to seeing how they perform, flat games are running well on the ARC now. ive been emailing intel they just say soon but won't put a date on it.

 

[cvaldes]

As an aside, wouldn’t it be Interesting if Valve made a dual boot VR HMD using their own OS and Meta Horizon OS?

Not really. The Meta store doesn't really offer anything unique that you can't get elsewhere.

Let's review what an operating system is: an operating is a big complicated program that lets other big complicated programs live in (relatively) harmony on the same system. It could be things like a word processor, device driver, audio subsystem, web browser, spreadsheet, calculator, camera, games, music player, etc.

Steam already has tons of content for the Valve HMD. The Meta Horizon OS doesn't offer anything else. Plus it wouldn't put any extra dollars in Valve's pocket. And we already know what a lot of people think about Meta's offerings anyhow. We know Meta doesn't book much profit from things like hardware or content sales. They make almost all of their profit by selling user activity data to advertisers.

Booting Meta Horizon OS on a Valve HMD would just hand some money over to Meta. Valve gets nothing.

That's partly why SteamOS exists. It exists to interface well with their content store. Like Nintendo, Valve doesn't make any significant profit from Steam Deck sales. They make the lion's share of their profits through software sales (i.e. game titles).

 

[Octavean]

Not really. The Meta store doesn't really offer anything unique that you can't get elsewhere.

Let's review what an operating system is: an operating is a big complicated program that lets other big complicated programs live in (relatively) harmony on the same system. It could be things like a word processor, device driver, audio subsystem, web browser, spreadsheet, calculator, camera, games, music player, etc.

Steam already has tons of content for the Valve HMD. The Meta Horizon OS doesn't offer anything else. Plus it wouldn't put any extra dollars in Valve's pocket. And we already know what a lot of people think about Meta's offerings anyhow. We know Meta doesn't book much profit from things like hardware or content sales. They make almost all of their profit by selling user activity data to advertisers.

Booting Meta Horizon OS on a Valve HMD would just hand some money over to Meta. Valve gets nothing.

That's partly why SteamOS exists. It exists to interface well with their content store. Like Nintendo, Valve doesn't make any significant profit from Steam Deck sales. They make the lion's share of their profits through software sales (i.e. game titles).

Point well taken,…

Ultimately I was thinking in terms of being able to play every VR game on a single VR HMD. Steam does a great job of equalizing the playing field In terms of game access. Unfortunately not all titles are available on Steam. So for example, Lone Echo and alone Echo 2 aren’t on Steam. Not sure about Robo Recall and other such exclusives.

It is fair to say a few games that fall through the cracks isn't a big deal. Game develop either have draconian exclusivity deals or they don’t, it will all come out in the wash eventually. However, if you can’t play the game you want to play (because of platform), it’s a bit of a downer,….

 

[evernessince]

ive give up fighting for privacy its a fight i can not win i mean my telly watches me so do most of electrical kit in my house that connects to the internet its just wasted time and energy even worrying about it.

Get a router with VLAN capability and put your SMART devices on a separate VLAN with restricted or no internet access.

Alternatively you can get a NGFW firewall (whether that be Sophos or OPNsense based) which supports deep packet inspection and application / service awareness and control.

 

[cvaldes]

Point well taken,…

Ultimately I was thinking in terms of being able to play every VR game on a single VR HMD. Steam does a great job of equalizing the playing field In terms of game access. Unfortunately not all titles are available on Steam. So for example, Lone Echo and alone Echo 2 aren’t on Steam. Not sure about Robo Recall and other such exclusives.

It is fair to say a few games that fall through the cracks isn't a big deal. Game develop either have draconian exclusivity deals or they don’t, it will all come out in the wash eventually. However, if you can’t play the game you want to play (because of platform), it’s a bit of a downer,….

It's really no different than regular PC games.

No one has all games including Steam. Minecraft, Roblox, World of Warcraft, Fortnite, Valorant, the list goes on and on. Those aren't obscure titles with a handful of players.

And you won't find Counter-Strike 2, Portal, or Half-Life: Alyx on Epic Game Store, Battle.net, GOG, EA, Meta/Oculus Store, whatever.

Besides that, VR hardware isn't well standardized. There are hardware requirements that aren't clearly explained but some devices simply aren't adequately specced to play some titles.

Worse the control devices are a big mess right now. Some have tried to mimic PC gamepads (like my Oculus Rift S). Others don't even have handheld controllers (Apple's new VR HMD for example).

Exclusivity certainly isn't unique to the videogame industry. Lots of businesses do this. Hell, Taylor Swift exclusively released the theatrical version of her Eras Tour film to AMC Theatres. There are plenty of examples of exclusivity for digital content (music, television, movies). This is even more common with physical goods. Want a Big Mac? You're not going to find it on Burger King or Taco Bell's menus.

 

[Octavean]

Want a Big Mac? You're not going to find it on Burger King or Taco Bell's menus.

Indeed, but if you go to a mall with a McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell and so on then all of the sudden much of what you want becomes easily accessible under one roof.

The simplest way is for the game devs to support a previously unsupported platforms. If for example, Sony makes their PS game library available on PC it would make a lot of people happy. Same for the PSVR2 coming to PC. Are such things likely? Meh,…..

Sony has their shareholders to think about though,…

You never get all the games but every barrier that comes down is a win.

 

[xtreemchaos]

Get a router with VLAN capability and put your SMART devices on a separate VLAN with restricted or no internet access.

the thing is ive been married 40 years in November and i still love her and she likes all her kit connected to the internet so i have to put my paranoia on a shelf for love .

 

[Octavean]

the thing is ive been married 40 years in November and i still love her and she likes all her kit connected to the internet so i have to put my paranoia on a shelf for love .

Good man! Congratulations on those 40 years! I’m in a similar situation but my Wife is a developer (she was a computer science major and I was an Electrical Engineer major). She has some specific requirements with respect to access so I accommodate them.

I lucked out in that my router eventually gained VLAN support and a couple of switches I already had support VLANs. A guest LAN might also be advisable. I say this because if, for example, guests come over or your kids invite friends over they often want WiFi access. If granted on a flat network they have access to everything on your network and they have your network SSID / password. There is no demarcation of any kind.

These things can be setup without much disruption so everyone gets what they want and need but there is better security

 

[xtreemchaos]

thanks bud, we do have a oldish SSG-140-SB firewall and guest channel on the wifi all my stuff is wired. could really do with upgrading the firewall really but keep putting it off as new faster kit is pricey here.

 

[evernessince]

the thing is ive been married 40 years in November and i still love her and she likes all her kit connected to the internet so i have to put my paranoia on a shelf for love .

With a NGFW you can keep the kit connected while only blocking data collection services. NGFW enables very fine granularity. You might not even need that much power, Firewalla might be a non-NGFW option that's extremely easy to use.

 

[cvaldes]

Sony has their shareholders to think about though,…

You never get all the games but every barrier that comes down is a win.

I'm all for more competition. However we know that in reality there will always be some exclusivity from retailers. When you buy a Big Mac, Yum Brands shareholders do not benefit.

Anyhow, there's a little chance that Valve's VR HMD will run Meta Horizon OS. Valve is doing a pretty good job offering a software environment where developer of VR titles can deploy their content to a wide variety of devices. I would rather have them focus on that rather than divert resources right now to supporting a newly opened VR OS with unproven popularity.

Worse, the Valve VR HMD occupies a price point that is the opposite of where Meta is trying to go. Valve's VR hardware ambitions are pretty much at a dead end unless they release an updated model at a much more competitive price point.

 

[Octavean]

You know, now that I think about it, maybe this is massive virtual land grab on the part of Meta. Competition / R&D is hard and Meta may be trying to position itself in a monopoly position by giving the OS (and access to their store) away.

 

[Mindweaver]

Meta Horizon OS sounds promising we will have to see. It sounds like what Microsoft tried to do with their mixed reality headsets. Look at how many manufactures (Samsung, Asus, Acer, HP, Lenovo) they had at start and they were sub 300 bucks. Of course Meta's tracking is much better. I'm curious to see what Google and Samsung announce next month at Google I/O.