[smosher]

> But for some types of software there is not a good alternative.

This is exactly it. As much as many people dislike C++, not having it at all would be very bad for some areas. Users of the next major systems language should regard C++ in much the same way as (willing) users of C++ regard C.

The takeaway here should be about how much better the future can be, not how bad the present looks. The former is hopefully much less controversial than the latter.