Why AI can't easily build a new OS: decades of ecosystem lock-in
AryHHAry · x · 2026-10-31
A developer argues that the real barrier to an AI-generated custom OS isn't whether AI can write the code—it's that the entire value chain (dev tools, SDKs, middleware, driver abstraction, distribution, security updates, monetization, hardware vendor certification) has been optimized for Windows/Linux/macOS for decades.
Adobe, Microsoft, and major open-source projects rationally lack incentives to bear dual-maintenance costs and early low-adoption risk. New OSes face a brutal chicken-and-egg loop: no quality apps means no users, no user base means no developer investment, no investment means apps stay scarce and weak.
More from AGI Musings
- Gary Marcus reports from the Vatican: the Pope's five points on AI — GaryMarcus · 2026-10-31
- Economist survey: AI optimism far higher outside the rich West — soumitrashukla9 · 2026-10-31
- Gary Marcus meets Pope Leo XIV: five AI principles and a critique of LLMs — Gary Marcus · 2026-10-31
- Sabine Hossenfelder quips AI may eat quantum computing's last reason to exist — coherence · 2026-10-31
- If coding agents can build robot programs and simulators, what's left for world model companies? — bigdata · 2026-10-31
- Proton CTO's AI manifesto sparks employee revolt; DHH says there's nothing scandalous in it — inductionheads · 2026-10-31