[awfabian2]

I think one of the problems with Windows is monoculture. One of the great UNIX ideals is 'reject all claims of the one true way.' Microsoft always advocates the one true way--Windows, Visual Studio. Everything Microsoft. But because no-one-true-way is built into UNIX's philosophy, it becomes whatever people want. You want minimal? You can use small command line tools. Reject minimalism? Use perl and emacs. UNIX is the Borg. Apple can spruce it up into a consumer operating system. Linux can go every direction at once and not collapse, and OpenBSD can go fanatical about security.

I think, ultimately, openness, and no One True Way make UNIX evolve and survive. Whatever ultimately supplants UNIX, it's a lesson worth remembering and applying everywhere. Even when the One True Way is grafted onto UNIX (i.e., Apple with OS X), the Way of UNIX makes it possible, and ensures that it will survive over whatever temporary One True Way appeared superimposed on it.