[prepend]

If only he hadn’t copyrighted/patented it, we might be using it.

I find it interesting how frequently “just ok” software is picked up and reaches a critical mass just because it is open. There are many good software projects that won’t grow because of licensing because they are more useful with network effects.

I have lots of colleagues who use R for data analysis. It wasn’t that great in the beginning but was widely used because of openness. 5 years ago, SAS and IBM would describe how superior they were, but it kind of missed the point.

For most of my software uses, I just need good enough.

[pmoriarty]

"I find it interesting how frequently "just ok" software is picked up and reaches a critical mass just because it is open. There are many good software projects that won’t grow because of licensing because they are more useful with network effects."

UNIX itself is a great example of this. Look at the graveyard of excellent UNIX flavors that fell by the wayside when free, open Linux came around.

With more open licensing and a different business model, any of them (instead of Linux) might have been the dominant UNIX flavor today.

[bitwize]

And they would have been a bit player in the OS marketplace compared to Windows NT.

Assuming that in this alternate timeline, the Apple-NeXT merger still happens, the dominant Unix flavor would likely be macOS. As it is, it's still alive and kicking and enjoying a comfortable number two spot (number one if you're talking desktop installs).

[pmoriarty]

I'm talking about servers, where Linux dominates.

Sun used to dominate there, and they might have continued to do so had they switched to open licensing, made the OS free, and maybe adopted a business model like RedHat's.

[bitwize]

If it hadn't been for Linux, Windows NT would have dominated the server market too.