I remember Oberon. My take is that it failed to become a mainstream language because we were using C to write system tools and browsers, Visual Basic and Visual

I remember Oberon. My take is that it failed to become a mainstream language because we were using C to write system tools and browsers, Visual Basic and Visual C++ to write Windows apps and PHP and Java to write web apps. Those filled most niches. Delphi and the Pascal languages were on a downward spiral of popularity. C was the incumbent. PHP was easy to install and solved a problem that most developers had: write a web app quickly. Java and the Visual languages were backed by big companies. Oberon was not. It was a curiosity at best. I remember other languages from back then: Eiffel and Modula 3. They resurface sometimes in HN posts.