Originally Posted by cyccommute

Companies certainly thought they were a mistake. They dropped them like hot potatoes and even went back to cantilevers. Most brake systems can still be found on various quality bikes even now. Center pull calipers (Mafac style) are very rare but Paul still makes a version of them. Cantilevers are still available on a wide range of bikes. Disc brakes have replaced linear brakes but you can still find new bikes with v-brakes. The only place you’ll find u-brakes are on some freestyle BMX bikes. Nobody else wants to touch them.

From what I can see, the Stumpjumper only had them for that model year.