[10 days pass...] I wonder if unix beat Plan 9 because it was established in the market (certainly a huge factor), or if its hacked together approach was somehow intrinsically better (as in the "worse is better" essay); or maybe that there were some specific decisions in Plan 9 that were bad in practice (though they seemed good to the designers).
I guess unix being established and being adaptable makes it very hard to displace - so the first factor swamps any effect of the other two.
I guess unix being established and being adaptable makes it very hard to displace - so the first factor swamps any effect of the other two.