The second key success factor for UNIX has been its portability. When Kernighan and Ritchie developed C, and then wrote UNIX using it, they moved operating system development to a new level. No longer was it necessary to write an operating system in assembly language. This shortened the cycle times for both systems as well as applications. It also opened a lot of new possibilities to third-party vendors, because they now had a much large market for their products than in the days of proprietary OS dominance.
Portability is also the key reason for the success of software libraries.
The Interex Contributed Software Library has been growing primarily by leveraging this large virtual development staff. Many of the contributions in the library were originally developed on non-HP platforms. But because of the nature of UNIX and C portability, we are able to enjoy the fruits of this labor, without significant modifications. And it doesn't have to be a large program to be useful. Copyright 2001 Interex.