Why do I care about platform
independence and vendor-neutral strategies, about avoiding layers of lock-in?
Not because it’s easy.
Not because it’s faster.
But because we pay too high a price
any other way. The price is freedom. Freedom of
movement, freedom to share, the ability to maneuver, to adapt, to adjust to
unknown futures.
I tend to think that people who buy
vendor-locked-in products are buying trains on tracks while thinking they’re
buying cars. They don’t see the tracks. They don’t see the problems with
maneuvering. They don’t realize the track is there until they try to move off
it. By which time it’s too late.
The guy who owns the tracks decides where the train goes. You, as train driver and crew and
passenger, can only decide to stay in one place or go where the track takes
you. And sometimes you can’t even elect to stay, you’re in the way.
Use products clearly and demonstrably based on community standards.
Not vendor standards. Not industry standards (just vendors under a different
name). Not market standards (biggest wins). But community standards.
No point having the only phone in
town, or phones that only work between prime-pairs on Saturdays.
Software is all about ecosystems. And open adaptive evolutionary ecosystems at that, able to respond to external stimuli. Not integrated-platform offers.
