According to rumors, Amazon will present tomorrow the first Fire TV with Vega OS as the operating system. The company wants to have greater control over its streaming devices and also distance itself from Google, but I'm not at all sure that's the best option for many of its customers. Or at least for users who understand a bit about all this and want to do more. Vega OS will come with limitations not found in Android, something the company is seeking.
Every time I've read about new Fire TVs without Android, I've been unable to avoid thinking about my Apple TV.I bought it in 2015, and in 2025 it was possible to update to tvOS 26. The support has been long, but so have the frustrations it has caused me. I'll always say, it's the best TV box I've ever owned... for everything legal. There are times when you want to travel through "the waters of the Caribbean," and that's not so simple or straightforward on tvOS.
The bad things about Apple TV are worse on Fire TVs with Vega OS.
When I first started using the Apple TV 4th generation, the experience was very positive. It had games and apps for almost everything, and navigating the interface was a delight. But then I wanted to install Kodi and I had to use my iMac to do the side loading…once a weekIf I was in a hurry to see something and my certificate had been revoked, I was left wanting.
I did install it more recently, but some add-ons I assume don't work on tvOS. In the end, the experience is half-baked, and that's why I bought a mini PC with Windows which, it must be said, cost me less than that Apple TV.
Which brings us to those Vega OS-powered Fire TVs Amazon is preparing. When Apple launched its 4th-generation TV, the App Store had already been available for 7 years — since 2008. Many apps were supported from the start, as the port It wasn't very difficult, but others took a while to arrive. For example, Movistar Plus.
Although Amazon is already working with different developers, the Vega OS store will have very few apps on offer. We'll probably find Netflix, Spotify, Disney+, and all those popular apps, but not others like Kodi or Stremio. So I don't imagine the experience will be very different from what my LG with WebOS offers: so limited that I decided to get that mini PC with Windows. For the use I'm interested in, I think I only use the Movistar Plus app, and lately not even that, since DAZN looks terrible — it cuts out — and I'm watching it on the Movistar addon for Kodi.
Very uncertain future
VegaOS not yet officially presented, and, of course, developers who can make modifications haven't had access to anything. When the first Fire TVs with Vega OS start shipping, we'll know what the final experience will be like. It's known that it will be based on Linux, but not to what extent it will be closed and difficult to modify.
If you can't install Kodi at the very least, it's not an option for me, not even close. I already have an Apple TV with so many apps that I haven't even updated to tvOS 26 because I don't want to use it again.
Now, for the completely legal user, it's perhaps a better option than Android or Google TV. I also had a Xiaomi Mi Box that I gave to a nephew because its poor performance drove me crazy. That's something I've never experienced with the Apple TV. Plus, Fire TVs tend to be competitively priced, in part because Amazon hopes to make more money from selling content.
We'll have to see how this all plays out. It could be a shot in the foot for Amazon. Whether it turns out to be that way or not, we'll know more starting tomorrow, September 30th.