History of Erlang

Joe Armstrong wrote nice article about Erlang History. It's worth reading whole article but I found most funny and nice part it's end.

6.4 Finally

It is perhaps interesting to note that the two most significant factors that led to the spread of Erlang were:

• The collapse of the AXE-N project.
• The Erlang ban.

Both of these factors were outside our control and were unplanned. These factors were far more significant than all the things we did plan for and were within our control. We were fortuitously able to take advantage of the collapse of the AXE-N project by rushing in when the project failed. That we were able to do so was more a matter of luck than planning. Had the collapse occurred at a different site then this would not have happened. We were able to step in only because the collapse of the project happened in the building where we worked so we knew all about it. Eventually Ericsson did the right thing (using the right technology for the job) for the wrong reasons (competing technologies failed). One day I hope they will do the right things for the right reasons.