NewsForge: Microsoft vs. Linux vs. Vendor Lock-In

"One of the big reasons enterprise IT users eye Linux hungrily is that it offers a chance to break the ties that bind them to Microsoft. It's bad business to rely on anything, whether it's a truck or an operating system, that can only be repaired by one supplier. Indeed, one of Microsoft's big sales advantages when PCs were just starting to become popular was that it freed companies from hardware vendor lock-in by offering an operating system that would work with PCs and peripherals made by many companies. Now we need to ask how we can keep from getting locked in by Linux vendors. There's simply no getting around the fact that, from the vendor's point of view, customer lock-in is wonderful no matter what product that vendor sells..."

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