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We will have more of them, but they would be of _lower_ quality. Because they could no longer build off one another. You would start to see different API's because they _had_ to be different, not because they were better.

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For an example of how this plays out, look at the proliferation of desktop GUIs in the late 80s and into the 90s. Everybody was throwing in gratuitous differences in the hopes of making their look and feel "different enough" to avoid a lawsuit. So we ended up with a mess: swapping the location of "OK" and "Cancel" buttons, every platform's scroll bars behaved differently, "Trash" vs "Recycle", and so on. There was some well-intentioned experimentation to see if the status quo could be improved, but those good ideas couldn't spread and become universal.

> look at the proliferation of desktop GUIs in the late 80s and into the 90s. Everybody was throwing in gratuitous differences in the hopes of making their look and feel "different enough" to avoid a lawsuit. So we ended up with a mess: swapping the location of "OK" and "Cancel" buttons, every platform's scroll bars behaved differently

I don't see this as a mess at all. I see this as very positive experimentation and eventual consolidation. Would it really be better if one company came up with a GUI and everyone latched on to it?

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