The web took over, but as discussed on HN before, the University of Minnesota did their best to help kill Gopher when they tried to license it for commercial use.
> the University of Minnesota did their best to help kill Gopher when they tried to license it for commercial use.
They didn't just "help" kill gopher. They assassinated and buried it. As soon as they announced this, most people dropped gopher like it was radioactive waste. It was widely perceived as greedy overreach by almost everyone else.
With a readily available (and some would argue superior) protocol just sitting right there it was the most boneheaded of decisions. It was worse than when Unisys started getting all litigious with GIF and forced the creation of PNG, in this case the obvious alternative was already in widespread use which made the switch extremely easy.
They didn't just "help" kill gopher. They assassinated and buried it. As soon as they announced this, most people dropped gopher like it was radioactive waste. It was widely perceived as greedy overreach by almost everyone else.