I don't think the assumption of brilliance is warranted. Plan 9 was facing an uphill battle due to the lack of conformity, sure. But it wasn't a brilliant sys

I don't think the assumption of brilliance is warranted. Plan 9 was facing an uphill battle due to the lack of conformity, sure. But it wasn't a brilliant system, it was pretty bad. If it had been brilliant, maybe it would have won that battle. But I don't think it is far to say brilliance fails without conformity based on a single example whose brilliance is very debatable.