John Carmack's arguments against building a custom XR OS at Meta (twitter.com)

Article summary

John Carmack, a renowned programmer, shared his thoughts on building a custom operating system, citing his experience at Meta where he opposed the development of a custom XR OS. He believes that building a new OS rarely justifies itself due to the high cost, short shelf life, and developer burden. Carmack thinks that a new general-purpose OS can only arrive by sacrificing a successful product's optimality. He shared his concerns and reservations about the feasibility of creating a new OS.

Main themes

• Custom Operating Systems
• Software Development Challenges
• Tech Industry Trends
• Innovation and Risk
• Open-Source Software

What commenters say

• Building a new operating system is rarely justified due to the high costs and burdens it imposes on developers and companies.
• The creation of a new OS requires a unique set of circumstances, such as a highly successful product being optimized for the new OS, or a dedicated team of engineers working in isolation.
• Some argue that instead of building a new OS from scratch, companies could refine existing 'hobby' OS projects, such as Serenity OS or RedoxOS, to suit their needs.
• Others believe that forking an existing OS, like Linux, might be a more practical approach than creating a new one, as it allows companies to make design decisions at a deep level without starting from scratch.
• The difficulty of creating a new OS lies not in writing the code, but in building a driver ecosystem and getting support for hardware and software.
• Some commenters think that big tech companies often underestimate the complexity of building a new OS and overestimate their ability to handle such a project.
• There is a debate about the role of safety culture in the tech industry, with some arguing that it has gone too far and is stifling constructive criticism, while others believe that criticism should be voiced in a way that respects team members' feelings.
• The adoption of a new OS is a significant challenge, and even if a company has the right people to create a better OS, getting it adopted is a difficult task.