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> we had rich data-structured storage systems and transparent resource sharing, both built into the VMS system. POSIX-style systems absolutely destroyed the mar

• mixmastamyk 4y ago
  More accurately, it was cheap commodity hardware (PCs), and cheap software (open Unix source code, leading to Linux) that rapidly became powerful and "good enough" over time that eventually destroyed both the expensive workstation market as well as most very expensive high-end computing architectures. For example VMS, there is an OpenVMS finally, but decades too late and still kept behind a gate, ensuring its demise. Only mainframes survived from the previous era, probably due to their vastly different requirements and customers. Banks/govts for example, have no patience for "move fast and break things" and plenty of money to spare. The "Worse is Better" piece describes the process from a design/implementation standpoint while the book the "Innovator's Dilemma" explains the process from an economics one.