What I mean when I use that analogy is that Napster started the music download revolution but in the end was killed and it was iTunes that came in and did it the right way.
The foundation of Bitcoin is solid but it's full of flaws the Bitcoin community refuses to address. Add to that, the continued refusal (As if it would even be possible to avoid) to submit to regulations. This will kill bitcoin on a mass adoption scale faster than anything.
Ripple, like iTunes is prepared to play nice and work within the confines of the law. Not to mention, doing all the things Bitcoin could have done, but didn't.
Regulation is a problem mkay? Bitcoin was made to solve this problem. You want regulation? Just use the banks, use paypal, use the now dead e-gold.
How you can talk about regulations as something necessary to bring bitcoin mainstream is beyond me. That invalidates the whole point of bitcoin in the first place and it makes me wonder what you are doing here.
Why use Paypal when I can have incredibly low transaction fees? Makes no sense. It might invalidate YOUR view of Bitcoin but that's not what it's going to be moving forward.