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Review: Project Xanadu – The Internet That Might Have Been(astralcodexten.com)
7 points by feross 3 hours ago | 1 comments
nabla9 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Good idea, but Ted Nelson ruined it all by himself. He wanted to build a closed-source system that he owned and controlled. He was a bad project leader and got nowhere. His patents prevented others from using zigzag structures. Decades later, when some people wanted to build an open-source GZigZag, he first said it was okay to use the name, then turned sour on it and prevented them from using it, eventually killing the project.

If someone wants to do it again, they shouldn't involve Ted Nelson in any way our use anything he has control over, whether a trademark or a patent.

The Curse of Xanadu https://www.wired.com/1995/06/xanadu/