You can't blame Unix for getting popular, or for almost no research and progress in operating systems since Unix got popular. Rob Pike wrote a good paper about

You can't blame Unix for getting popular, or for almost no research and progress in operating systems since Unix got popular. Rob Pike wrote a good paper about that. http://doc.cat-v.org/bell_labs/utah2000/ http://doc.cat-v.org/bell_labs/utah2000/ At this point it's network effect, familiarity, and the free price tag, not a quasi-religious sacrament. Anyone can try to take that different approach, but that doesn't mean it will go anywhere. Some very smart people have worked on alternatives to Unix, or different directions for operating systems -- including the original Unix team with Plan 9, Wirth with Oberon, the Lisp machines. No Unix Inquisition shut those down, they just didn't offer a 10x improvement along enough axes.