Well that was far less controversial than the comments here suggested. I read a call for innovation, the general thrust of which is based on the (obvious?) arg

Well that was far less controversial than the comments here suggested. I read a call for innovation, the general thrust of which is based on the (obvious?) argument that if you build every new system to be compatible with the old one you limit the capabilities of the new. Of course, the customer requesting that compatibility gets what they want -- an easier time building/porting software. Alternate reading: ~POSIX (or just having a standard) is so useful that everyone wants it everywhere all of the time and I want something better.