Amazon Vega OS, the operating system with which the e-commerce giant wants to replace Android as an operating system on own-brand devices, it appeared in the Echo Show 5 assistant.

For more than a decade, Amazon has used a fork of Android, Fire OS, to control its Fire TV streams, its Echo assistants, or its own brand of tablets. One of the most closed variants of Android on the market, but Android anyway. That will change in the future, and last week we reported on the development of ‘Vega’, a custom Linux-based system that will replace Fire OS.

Amazon Vega OS on Echo Show 5

This version of Amazon’s virtual assistant would be chosen to start the transition. A recent software update allowed us to see “OS 1.1” on the device. Amazon hasn’t officially announced Vega, nor is the name visible on the device, but Fire OS is version 8 and generally consists of four numbers. It is clearly a new system.

Although Amazon Vega OS will drive all of the company’s client hardware in the future, It makes sense to start with the simplest. Most Echo devices are essentially on-premises clients of cloud-based virtual assistant software. They run “skills” instead of apps, and developers focus on cloud platforms rather than the device hardware itself. It’s the same approach Google used to bring Fuschia OS to Nest Hubs.

And it’s much easier to migrate to Amazon Vega OS from the Assistant than from a tablet that requires third-party apps. Amazon hasn’t released an SDK for Vega, but it’s believed to have already talked to core developers about adopting a more web-centric software model, and specifically React Native as an application framework, which would allow them to create native applications with a Javascript-based interface. These apps could work equally well on Android or iOS.

Amazon is trying to end its dependence on Google, gain more control and hardware performance, and have more freedom to create new features and abandon other Android features it doesn’t need. But developing your own operating system it has its problemsin development and maintenance, moreover, it depends entirely on the ability to attract external developers.

A proprietary system has its advantages, yes, but it’s cold outside of Google, and the current appeal of Amazon’s own-brand devices may be diminished without Android. Amazon is aware and would compensate by advertising and selling services. We’ll see.