The reason Plan 9 died a swift death was that, unlike Unix –
which hardware manufacturers could license for a song and adapt to their own hardware (and be guaranteed compatibility with lots of Unix software) – Bell Labs tried to sell Plan 9, as commercial software, for $350 a box.
The reason Plan 9 died a swift death was that, unlike Unix – which hardware manufacturers could license for a song and adapt to their own hardware (and be guaranteed compatibility with lots of Unix software) – Bell Labs tried to sell Plan 9, as commercial software, for $350 a box.
(As I have written many times in the past: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22412539>, <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33937087>, and <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43641480>)