Nearly three decades after founding an online bookstore, Jeff Bezos has become the richest person in the world after transforming Amazon.com into an online retail behemoth (and a store where you can buy practically anything) and expanding into digital media, groceries, and first-party hardware, among other things.

Now Bezos has announced that’s he’ll step down as CEO later this year, transitioning to a new role as Executive Chair of the Amazon Board. It’s unclear what impact, if any, this will have on your ability to place an order for cat food, light bulbs, a new laptop, and a smart speaker and have it delivered the same day… or if the move has anything to do with the unfortunate shape of its new HQ in Virginia, also announced today.

Here’s a roundup of recent news from around the web.

  • Amazon.com Announces Financial Results and CEO Transition [Amazon]
    Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is stepping down in Q3, 2021 when Amazon Web Services head Andy Jassy will become the new CEO. Bezos will transition to executive chair of the board, so he’ll still be involved with the company he founded.
  • Email from Jeff Bezos to employees [Amazon]
    In the letter Bezos highlights some of the highs from the last 27 years… but surprisingly doesn’t mention the lows. Anyone remember the Fire Phone? He also mentions spending more time on other projects including Blue Origin, The Washington Post, Amazon Day 1 Fund, and Bezos Earth Fund.
  • Ubuntu Core 20 secures Linux for IoT [Canonical]
    Canonical releases Ubutu Core 20, a stripped down, containerized version of Ubuntu 20.04 LTS that’s designed for embedded systems and IoT devices. It supports secure boot, full disk encryption, and secure device recovery.
  • PinePhone Community Edition program comes to an end [LinuxSmartphones]
    After releasing five Community Edition versions of the $150 smartphone, each loaded with a different operating system, Pine64 announces it’s ending the program. Next steps will be revealed in the coming weeks, including the default OS for the PinePhone moving forward (but a key selling point is that you will always be able to replace the OS with alternate options]
  • Phone Hub for Chrome OS is slowly rolling out [Android Police]
    Google brings Phone Hub is rolling out for Chrome OS 89 and 90 Beta and Dev channels, letting users view chat notifications, Chrome browser tabs, and other data from a phone on a Chromebook. It’s not available for all users yet though.
  • Huawei’s HarmonyOS: “Fake it till you make it” meets OS development [Ars Technica]
    Huawei says HarmonyOS is its Android alternative. But at this point it’s just a lightly modified version of Android according to this hands-on from @arstechnica which finds plenty of references to Android and support for existing Android apps.

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