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bunderbunderyesterday at 9:13 PM1 replyview on HN

Yes. I have seen the better product lose out to network effects far too many times to believe that a real mass market competitor can happen nowadays.

Look at how even the Posix ecosystem - once a vibrant cluster of a dozen different commercial and open source operating systems built around a shared open standard - has more or less collapsed into an ironclad monopoly because LXC became a killer app in every sense of the term. It’s even starting to encroach on the last standing non-POSIX operating system, Windows, which now needs the ability to run Linux in a tightly integrated virtual machine to be viable for many commercial uses.


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icedchaiyesterday at 9:56 PM

Oracle Solaris and IBM AIX are still going. Outside of enterprises that are die hard Sun/Oracle or IBM shops, I haven't seen a job requiring either in decades. I used to work with both and don't miss them in the least.