I've only skimmed the Horizon OS news, but my first reaction was that it looks like an obvious attempt to emulate the success of Android. Own the operating system, ship it with a flagship product, and push it to other OEMs. There are more iPhones than Google Pixels but there are more Androids than any other phone.
If it opens up the Horizon OS in Android level, it'll cost them massively as pointed out in the tweet. Android could've been much-much-much simpler if it were only for Pixel.
I think people at Meta are aware of that and the Horizon-compatible devices will be less diverse than the ones from the Android ecosystem.
But if Android were only for Pixel it might not have succeeded. I guess one notable difference is that Android started as software-only, and Pixel came later. Maybe Google would have played it differently if they had a flagship phone from the beginning.
Still, I’m surprised to see Carmack taking a position against opening a platform. Although it sounds from his tweet that he thinks it’s more of a proprietary partnership than true open sourcing. If that’s the case, I see the argument for it being a distraction. But if the roadmap includes open sourcing the OS, then surely the “distraction” is worth it to capture the majority of the market.
My point is that Android is very complex because it has to support a diverse set of devices. The complexity paid off for Android for sure, but will it for Meta VR headsets? That's debatable. On one hand it lets the exploration outside Meta, on the other hand, it slows Meta's development down.
