Most people who use or used Octalink cranks/bb's were very pleased with them, because they were well made and durable. Shimano did a very good job with their Octalink products. This was also the first generation of Hollowtech cranks from Shimano, and they generally did a very good job with that element of the design as well.

ISIS cranks/bb's as already stated, generally did suffer from poor execution of the design, and durability was generally not good.

The buzz in the bike world when big companies like Shimano went to market with outboard bearing crank/bb systems was that Bullseye's patent for this type of design had expired. This was in the early 2000's. (I believe the patent was from the late '80's or early '90's, not sure).