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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