Those issues seem so trivial with the benefit of hindsight and a memory of what it was like to deploy an application to multiple UNIX variants. Having one standard (we can call that standard &quot;it ain&#x27;t quite POSIX, but it runs great on Linux&quot;) is so superior to the mine field that was all of the UNIXen in 199x, that I don&#x27;t even register it as a problem. Shoot, until you&#x27;ve had to use autotools or custom build a makefile for a half dozen different C compilers, kernels, libc, and so on, you don&#x27;t know from POSIX &quot;standards&quot; pain.<p>But now my beard is showing and I&#x27;m ranting. My point is this: it took something from completely outside of the commercial UNIX ecosystem, so far out in left field that none of the UNIX bosses (or Microsoft) saw it as a threat until it was far too late...and it took something that was good, <i>really good</i> in at least some regards, that it would have passionate fans even very early in. Linux did that. And, compared to everything else (pretty much everything else that&#x27;s ever existed, IMHO), it&#x27;s great.<p>And, I&#x27;m on board the retro computing bandwagon. I have a real live Commodore 64 and an Atari 130xe. I&#x27;d like to one day find an Amiga 1200 in good shape, but because I live in an RV and travel fulltime, I don&#x27;t have a lot of room to spare. But I do like to tinker and reminisce.