This does not solve the main issue as explained by TFA, which is that now applications that use a different "compiled OS version" cannot link with each other an

This does not solve the main issue as explained by TFA, which is that now applications that use a different "compiled OS version" cannot link with each other anymore. Your application X which declares to run on OS v.B cannot link anymore with application Y which declared to run on OS v.A , even when both are running under OS v.B . In fact, what you describe is basically what every platform is doing.... as doing anything else would immediately break compatibility with all current binaries.