I think this is a more astute observation than people are giving you credit for. UNIX grew to the complexity it has because it was meant to be used. Plan 9 is

I think this is a more astute observation than people are giving you credit for. UNIX grew to the complexity it has because it was meant to be used. Plan 9 is not used because it was not allowed to acquire useful constructs. This parting ways with "the UNIX way" was necessary and complete in order for the system to become what it is today. Some things could be improved and made more proper and UNIXy, but for the most part it's an incredibly useful and functional system. The OP article is spot-on with this realization. In other words, the ideal UNIX (for example, Plan 9) can't compete in the real world, because the concepts behind it (the UNIX way) don't actually compete in the real world. It's based on a set of very interesting, very elegant, and mostly false precepts.