[MoosePlissken]

The comment you're replying to wrote:

"Ignoring the obvious difference in reach and success, in what way are Go, Dart and Android not equivalent to C, C++ and Unix in terms of open software projects?"

You replied with:

"What all of these things lack in comparison to C, C++, Unix, and itself Java for that matter, is broad, industry wide repercussions."

Which is exactly the one thing the original comment wasn't asking for. Your criticisms may or may not be true. However, I think it's fair to ask what differences exist while IGNORING the magnitude of the success of each company's projects. The article asserted that Google would never release its work to the public in the way that Bell Labs did because it is a publicly traded company. To counter this assertion, the original comment listed present day examples of open source projects that Google has released. The success (or failure) of those projects doesn't negate the fact that Google releases a lot of code to the public.

[nly]

I reaffirmed the differences in scope because I lean toward the opinion that the achievements in Bell labs were substantial on technical merit alone, to such a degree than I don't think it would have necessarily been less historic if they had been private inventions. I don't think you can make a meaningful comparison avoiding this aspect.

Go, Dart and Android, to a great extent, have also been 'set free' yet they will never match some of the technologies out of Bell that we haven't even mentioned.