Power. The power of C++ is unprecedented. It allows a single engineer to create massive applications alone. It allows reachability to the entire system space of computer programming. There is no limit to what can be achieved. Worst-case scenario where C++ is so foreign to the task at hand is that a run-time interpreter can be hosted by a program written in C++. The opposite is not true. Ruby cannot be made to fiddle with DMA registers without help from C++-like code. In some ways,This frightens and/or irritates some people. Many people would rather we all be “more or less in the same boat” when it comes to what can be achieved with our toolboxes. They would rather we all face the same limitations, so as to level the playing field. You can always identify such people easily – they are the ones that want C++ to die, the use of it affects them or not. They would also prefer that, if there is a way to do something, like send a file over the Internet using HTTP, that it be done in a uniform, consistent manager, where everyone does it the same way, even if that way is sub-optimal. In other words, they prefer that the library of the language be part of the language proper. And finally, let’s face it: different brains are wired differently. If I had to play “Mary Had A Little Lamb” on a guitar, at the risk of death, I’d be dead. I have no artistic ability whatsoever, and I am OK with that. This is probably the biggest reason of all. There is a certain uneasiness that comes from knowing your neighbor has mental faculties that allows him to do something that you cannot, something that is currently highly regarded and highly rewarded.