You can't succeed with crappy software or programmers? Funny, I can think of a certain OS that wasn't at all very stellar compared to alternatives at the time y

You can't succeed with crappy software or programmers? Funny, I can think of a certain OS that wasn't at all very stellar compared to alternatives at the time yet nevertheless went on to dominate... Which OS are you talking about? Windows? MS-DOS and Windows had some of the best programmers of the time working on them. Bill Gates himself is renowned for his programming skills. Microsoft interviews practically set the standard for uber-difficult interviews that filter out all but the best programmers. Linux? What, because Linus Torvalds (who wrote the kernel) and Richard M Stallman (who wrote emacs) aren't good enough for you? Mac OS X? Ok, that one, I don't know the names of any stellar programmers on there, but somehow I doubt that's the one you were referring to (and the fact that they keep quiet doesn't mean there aren't some awesome hackers working on OS X).