I was helping my brother on deciding on his folding bike (that is the 4th Foldie in 2 months, someone stop me) and we went through the iterations of Dahon vs Brompton vs Bike Friday. Finally we decided on a custom Tikit for the specific set of needs. In the process of brain storming, we realized that these companies have strong similarities to computer operating systems. If you are aware of OS’s and folding bikes, you will appreciate the similarity.

• Brompton <-> Apple OSX. Fully proprietary and focussed heavily on industrial Design. Works extremely well out of the box but hardware upgrades are a pain in the ass if not extremely expensive  Accessories cost a bomb too.
• Dahon <-> Microsoft Windows. A product that works. Lots of proprietary components but is well supported due to large distributor base. They try to be pretty but stop short of exemplary. They probably have the best bang for buck setups. You can find extremely high end hardware too but at the heart the design is a compromise. he hee.
• Bike Friday <-> Linux. Customize everything. Very robust core design and allows for customizing to do literally anything one wants. You can get a pre-specified flavor of the bike or geek out totally on setting it up in your own unique way.

The lesson is that all three options are viable, it is a question of what you really want