Counterpoint: Some other “worse” would have probably taken over. We’ve seen this in the personal computing market, where MS-DOS (later Windows) and the x86 won out against competing operating systems and ISAs not because of technical superiority, but because of market forces and cost. Look at the evolution of the Web, especially JavaScript....
It’s likely that Unix might not had spread if AT&T didn’t give it relatively liberal licensing in the pre-divestiture era. But it’s also likely that something else that was cheap and readily adaptable would’ve taken over instead, even if it wasn’t technically superior to its competitors.
