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> so basically because the industry and environment forced programmers to write Javascript instead of writing something new that no one has ever thought of.

A lot of problems remain unsolved, there's no shortage of research to be done, but a lot of the stuff that would be impactful requires ten years, fifteen years, longer than a PhD takes and that's more money than most companies are willing to put into research.

> If this is true what about back then when people also do stuff for fun and not because of money?

Back then, you could found Apple Computer in your garage.  Seymour Cray designed what were, during his lifetime, the world's fastest supercomputers, and he raised money by selling stock on the street in Cambridge for a dollar a share, that'd get the SEC on your ass.  VC firms want a quick exit, you're not going to get to do chipfab.  If you produce the next shit from the ground up, people will complain that it doesn't have a web browser, so you're fucked if you're trying for consumers as a source.

> I'm sure before the 2000 people who made stuff like Plan9 did it for fun. 

It's very different to have small groups of people that want to do something in their spare time than it is to have a company or a university fund more than a decade of research.