If only it were possible to create a new OS. But sadly, any competitor to Linux would face an uphill battle from people asking the honest question "why not use Linux?"

I actually think it would be possible to use Linux as a core and build a reasonable userland on top of it, just like MacOS did with Darwin. But it would be a boatload of work.

Cough, Android and ChromeOS.

Yeah, like those. But my dream is an OS that is usable for non-hackers while preserving the Linux ethos of leaving the user with ownership of their machine. That does not currently exist AFAIK.

I don't see that ever happening, because too many just keep rebooting UNIX instead, as seen by all GNU/Linux based phone attempts.

And the companies that have the power to drive it into newer territories, like Google, don't care about providing yet another UNIX clone, just reducing the kernel development costs.

Had Inferno been a success, I bet we would also see blog posts on how to dump Limbo, replace ACME with vim, and have the GNU userland on it.

> I don't see that ever happening

I don't either. But a boy can dream.

Because cloning UNIX is more than done already.