Unix' popularity wasn't due to its engineering qualities, rather due to the niche it occupied in the larger ecosystem. Trying to make a slightly better Unix, b

Unix' popularity wasn't due to its engineering qualities, rather due to the niche it occupied in the larger ecosystem. Trying to make a slightly better Unix, but not replacing the older one in its niche wouldn't succeed. It would've been a typical "solution looking for a problem". There are plenty of places where Linux isn't the best solution (in engineering terms), nor is anything from the Unix extended family. But there's plenty of meta-engineering factors that make it "work".