Why can Windows run on any hardware easily but Android requires specific ROMs for each phone?
In: Technology
Most PC hardware is essentially the same, and therefore Windows (and Linux/MacOS) were developed to run on that hardware, while said hardware symbiotically grew to stay compatible with those operating systems (for the most part anyways).
Phone hardware is a lot more varied, and due to the phone market being much more competitive, each manufacturer is constantly trying to one-up each-other, and aren’t afraid to modify hardware to break compatibility with stock Android if it allows them to add more features/performance. The extra money they make from those features/performance justifies hiring some developers to make a slightly modified version of Android to run on that hardware.
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