[ec429]

"MS-DOS—the original "weak OS." Every version of the software is retailored and rebranded by its manufacturer. Even some software has to be rewritten to conform to different machines and their varied specs."

Interesting definition of 'original'... unless my history is very wrong, *NIX was around first. Retailored and rebranded by vendors? Check. Rewritten for different hardware? Check.

Android is like Unix, which is no surprise really, since technologically that's what it is.

What freed Unix from the fragmentary mess of vendors? It was cheap commodity hardware, combined with GNU. As long as smartphone makers try to differentiate their products, incompatible versions of the OS will proliferate - and as long as Android remains schizophrenic about whether it's really open or not, and as long as Google tries to prevent forking, forks will happen. The best defence against forking is not to try to defend against forking. (Further reading: esr on bazaars)

[mahmud]

Unix was only rebranded in the early 80s at the exact time DOS was released. However, Unix's unintended "re-branding" was at its birth: due to its portability & availability in source, every installation was almost a "port".