[linguae]

I agree, but I believe the fact there are no popular applications that fully embrace the Unix/Plan 9 philosophy is the point of the philosophy. Generic tools that can be composed versus end-to-end applications. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, though component-based software doesn’t preclude the development of end-to-end applications using these components. In my opinion I believe the reason end-to-end applications are dominant is because it’s easier for companies to sell and market products over tools. Part of the reason OpenDoc failed was because companies that made a living selling end-to-end applications (like Adobe) didn’t want to adopt component-based software where the product (application) isn’t the main focus. Imagine if users could construct their own Photoshop out of discrete elements.

[pjmlp]

There were plenty of ActiveX lego components to build Photoshop like applications on Windows during the 1990's, back when buying libraries was a thing professionals would care about.