[rmchugh]

I think one of the main reasons that something like Linux keeps on growing is that it needs to support more drivers as they come onto the market. So unless you want to remove support for older hardware, you're more or less going to grow endlessly.

[georgeecollins]

Right, but nothing can grow endlessly. Yet these projects do grow relentlessly, almost never getting any smaller, for as long as we have kept track. It can't go on forever, so how can it end?

[lepton]

The industry could converge on standards which allow certain classes of "repeated but different" code (drivers?) to collapse. By collapse, I mean they could share a generic version of code, thus reducing the overall line count.

Or a new implementation (or OS) could come along, with compelling advances and no baggage. The old code doesn't so much collapse as become obsolete.

[csallen]

Why can't it go on forever? ("Forever" meaning as long as computers and humans exist.) I don't see any particular reason why.