It's worth pointing out that even 15 years after the Netscape IPO, it's not possible to write cross-platform networking code for Windows and Unix using C or C++

It's worth pointing out that even 15 years after the Netscape IPO, it's not possible to write cross-platform networking code for Windows and Unix using C or C++ without using a 3rd party library! On top of basic socket support, you then have to add support for the common protocols (HTTP, SMTP etc.). I think this alone explains the popularity of networking "batteries included" dynamic languages like Python, and Java's status as the de-facto enterprise standard for network programming. Standardized languages like C and C++ move too slowly for the internet world.