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With 'Virgin' Developers, Microsoft Could Fork Android
colinneagle writes "Amid all the talk about Microsoft forking Android for a smartphone OS, one suggestion involves a look back to Microsoft's DOS days. Microsoft DOS was designed per IBM's specification to run exclusively on IBM's PC hardware platforms. Phoenix Technologies employed software developers it nicknamed 'virgins,' who hadn't been exposed to IBM's systems, to create a software layer between Microsoft's DOS system and PCs built by IBM's competitors. This helped Microsoft avoid infringing on IBM's patents or copyrights, and subsequently helped fuel the explosive growth of PC clones. Microsoft could use the same approach to 'clone' the proprietary Android components in its own Android fork. This would prevent copyright infringement while giving Microsoft access to Google Play apps, as well as Android's massive base of developers." Microsoft (or anyone) could generate a lot of goodwill by completely replacing the proprietary bits of Android; good thing that doing so is a work in progress (and open-source, too), thanks to Replicant. (Practically speaking, though, couldn't Google just make access to the Play Store harder, if Microsoft were to create an Android-alike OS? Even now, many devices running Android variants don't have access to it.)
So is Richard Branson involved in all this?
-- oh, to heck with it, WAY too easy.
Koans and fables for the software engineer
Wait, aren't all devlopers virgins?
/ducks
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
I'm sure that when Microsoft thinks about Android, it's first thought is usually: Fork Android!
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
If that rule is universal, Windows 8.2 will be the OS of choice for Slashdot by year's end.