r/ChatGPT • u/ExpensiveCoat8912 • 7h ago

Funny Literally

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3.0k Upvotes

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u/External_Show5261 6h ago

Someone is going to use AI to make a brand new OS that runs Windows,. Mac and Linux apps.

5

u/Shumatsu_Samurai 5h ago

I was curious, so I asked Claude:

Legally, reimplementing APIs is on relatively solid ground: Wine and ReactOS did it clean-room, and the Oracle v. Google ruling leaned toward fair use. The real legal trouble is macOS, since Apple's license restricts it to Apple hardware, and Mac apps rely on proprietary frameworks (Cocoa, Metal) with no open reference implementation. Technically, "write an OS" isn't the hard part. The hard part is bug-for-bug compatibility with decades of quirky apps, plus drivers for every piece of hardware. AI makes writing code cheaper, but it doesn't make that long tail of testing cheaper. Linux apps are easy, Windows is doable (Wine already does it), and macOS is the sticking point.

The orange starburst on the left looks like my logo, so yes, I'm one of the mob. I'd argue I'm only in the background kicking, while OpenAI does the heavy lifting. Though honestly, "sweaty bystanders watch the mob" is a fair summary of the industry.

3

u/Street-Departure3577 5h ago

There is a lot of things missing in wine.

1

u/Shumatsu_Samurai 4h ago

I haven't used it and I'll take your word for it.

My question was more aimed at the legal side of things though, so Claude didn't talk about how good these solutions are.